Indian Finance Minister supports digital currency, Bitcoin has been launched in India

Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said this week that banks should enter the digital age and go into "mission mode". India has made headlines around the world for its demonetization policy recently. The Indian Finance Minister believes that the government should continue its efforts to gradually abolish the use of physical currency.

Indian Finance Minister encourages use of digital currency

In early November, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shocked the country with his policy of abolishing high-denomination rupee notes. Now, after meeting with representatives of the banking industry, Jaitley said they plan to form a committee to promote the digitization of currency. First, 100,000 POS machines will be put into use and gradually expanded to all parts of the country.

Many politicians think that India is not ready for digitalization, but some banks have made great progress in this regard. I think Indian politicians should accept this right in front of them, and people will change with their habits.

India moves towards a cashless society

Jaitley said that today, bank customers are already using cashless technology, "they are ready to accept this architecture." He said that there are currently 1 million bank cards in circulation in the country and the application model of currency is also undergoing reform.

The sole agenda of the meeting was to expand the use of digital banking and call on the banking system to go into mission mode to carry out this practice.

In response to the Prime Minister's call for a cashless society, the Indian state of Goa hopes to become the first city to achieve this goal. Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar said: "Goa will be the first state to realize the Prime Minister's dream of a cashless society."

The dream of cashless development drives the development of Bitcoin

Since Modi announced the demonetization policy, the popularity of Bitcoin in India has continued to increase. Bitcoin.com recently reported that the usage of Bitcoin wallet Purse.io by Indian users has increased significantly. In addition, the fees for Indians to buy Bitcoin on exchanges are至少100美元higher than those in other countries.

This week, a cryptocurrency trader revealed his method of arbitrage using the premium of Bitcoin in India, detailing how U.S. traders can earn the difference by sending their Bitcoin overseas.

On November 24, 2016, at 2:00 PM Eastern Time, the average buying price of Bitcoin on the three major exchanges in India was 67,735.33 rupees or $984.92. At the same time, the average price on the three major exchanges in the United States was $735.92.溢价高达249美元or 33.8%.

(Translator's note: As of press time, the buying price of Bitcoin in India is still as high as 61,485 rupees, or about $895.)

All in all, the price of Bitcoin in India is rising, and the demonetization policy seems to be the reason for this phenomenon. If the enthusiasm of Indian people for Bitcoin does not diminish, then the future of this virtual currency is bound to be bright.