“Hodling” the line: how blockchain can go beyond bitcoin

While countries across the globe mull over whether to legalise Bitcoin or not, they should start examining how to use blockchain in the cryptocurrency market

- Ashwin Malik Meshram

Many were pleasantly surprised when, recently, El Salvador, a third-world country in Central America, passed a law to make Bitcoin a legal tender. El Salvador doesn’t have its own currency and uses the US dollar for all its work, so this would be an additional currency for it. When Bitcoin is finally implemented there, it could be used for making unlimited payments or transactions and for paying taxes. Furthermore, any exchanges made through Bitcoin would not be subject to a capital gains tax. Contemporary economies such as Panama, Mexico and Paraguay are expected to follow suit soon. But what about the major economies? Why hasn’t India adopted this? They have the largest remittance market; surely, this would ease the process, wouldn’t it? While India does have its own currency, Bitcoin is being considered as an asset class, though it will definitely be taxed very high.

THROUGH BLOCKCHAIN, ASSETS – TANGIBLE OR INTANGIBLE, COULD BE TRACKED IN A BUSINESS NETWORK TO RECORD LITERALLY EVERYTHING THAT ONE WOULD WANT TO KNOW.

Even if SEBI, the Ministry of Finance and the cryptocurrency industry in India work together to set some regulations, there’s still some worry as to Bitcoin’s volatility and fluctuations. Or else, how will Bitcoin have its credibility established when there’s a growing trend of naysayers and how would…? Oh, wait. Why is this being spoken about? Is that it? Why is it that this whole battle of Bitcoin’s trustworthiness and its applications dominate the tech news, so much so that it completely shrouds the wonderful potential of what blockchain can do for the world?

A NEW PHENOMENON WITHIN BLOCKCHAIN IS THE SMART CONTRACT, WHICH SELF-ExECUTES AND WHERE ALL TERMS AND CONDITIONS ExIST ON A DECENTRALISED BLOCKCHAIN NETWORK.