India’s 1st Cryptocurrency ATM Unveiled in Bangalore; 30 More ATMs to be Installed

Indian crypto assets & blockchain company Unocoin has unveiled India's first cryptocurrency ATM by installing one at Kemp Fort Mall in Bangalore. These ATM machines can be used by Unocoin's KYC verified customers for deposit INR to, and withdraw INR from their Unocoin or Unodax account. Check out Brighter Guide to stay updated with current and useful knowledge about today’s technology.

After installing its first ATM in Bangalore, the company will install two more at Mumbai and Delhi in a couple of weeks. The company plans to install total of 30 ATMs in these three cities.

According to Unocoin CEO, Sathvik Vishwanath, the ATMs deployed by Unocoin do not need any banking partnerships and are stand-alone machines that can accept and dispense cash.

 Unocoin ATM at Bangalore

This development came within a week after an another cryptoexchange Zebpay had announced its shut down after the long fight the exchange has given to India's central bank,RBI, which has banned the banks from doing any transaction involving cryptocurrencies.

CEO Vishwanath had told news.Bitcoin.com that, initially, the company plans to deploy 30 machines in three Indian cities. “These ATMs help people to cash in and cash out which was not possible before” due to the crypto banking ban imposed by the country’s central bank.

By using these ATM machines, users however are subjected to limits on deposits and withdrawals per transaction and per day subject to cash handling restrictions in India. The minimum amount for deposits and withdrawals is 1,000 rupees (~$13.57) and must be in multiples of 500 rupees.

How does the ATM work?

Unocoin believes that these ATMs will able to able to play the role that was earlier being taken care of by banks before the RBI ban.

To deposit INR into his Unocoin/Unodax account, a user would reach to an ATM and enter his User ID and the OTP that he just received as SMS on his registered mobile number. The user would then confirm his account details and deposit the funds into the ATM machine. Instantly his Unocoin account will be updated with the deposited funds that he can use on Unocoin to buy BTC or ETH, or he can use it on Unodax to place BID orders on 30 various crypto assets.

Amounts between Rs1,000 ($13.55), and Rs10,000 can be deposited or withdrawn.

Source - Unocoin.com

New York Based Blockchain Plans To Enter Indian Market; Join Hands With Unocoin In India

It was in 2008 when the world was introduced to a new crypto currency called Bitcoin which changed the cryptocurrency game forever. In the last couple of years, the technology has grown to become one of the most talked about trends in the financial world.

If talk about India, Bitcoin trend is slowly and steadily gearing its pace. In the recent development, amidst discussions within the government of India on the regulatory mandate for bitcoins, Sir Richard Branson backed Blockchain has decided to enter the Indian market with a strategic partnership with Bengaluru-based cryptocurrency exchange Unocoin.

New York based Bitcoin wallet provider and software developer, Blockchain has its offices in London and is soon planning to bring their software platform for digital currency to India through Unocoin, reports ETtech.

According to Nicolas Cary, Co-founder, Blockchain, their platform will give users greater hold on their bitcoins purchase without any compromise on security.

Commenting on the development, Cary said, "For the last eight years, using bitcoins has been difficult with not many knowing about it. There have been issues on many processes, settlement delays, verification procedure issues and two faced service providers."

With this partnership, Cary aims to reduce the issues between the end user and exchanges and provide a seamless experience.

Founded in 2011 by Peter Smith, Nic Cary and Ben Reeves, Blockchain has raised around $70 million from Google Ventures, Lakestar, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sir Richard Branson, Digital Currency Group and others. Among the key stakeholders are Antony Jenkins, former, CEO, Barclays, Michael Jackson, former COO, Skype, Arthur Levitt, former chairman, SEC and Salil Pitroda - investor & entrepreneur.

Cary believes that the market cap for cryptocurrency is around $164 billion and economies like India have a great potential to add to that. He highlighted a report which says that around 2500 Indians are investing in bitcoins daily and they would try and increase that number through their platform.

"I hope that legal hassles related to bitcoins would soon be solved in India and it will become a legal tender," he informed.

For those who are unaware about the currency, it is invented by a cryptographer with the help of pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. It is a digital currency that allows people to perform peer-to-peer transactions without taking the help of any third party such as the banks.

If we talk about India, the country has emerged as one of the important nation for Bitcoin’s growth and future. And do you know what is the main reason behind its surge? It is none other than the demonetization drive. With ATMs and banks running dry, people were left with no other choice than to turn towards digital currencies and mobile wallets to quench their cash which in turn helped boost Bitcoin usage like never before.

But it is important to note that Bitcoin players in India have urged the government to provide clarity on the exact legal status of virtual currencies in India so as to enlighten the consumers who are still confused on using these digital currencies in the country.

Though not yet recognized by the country’s government, the Bitcoin industry in India is still seeing an increasing growth in the number of Bitcoin players as well as users.

With the fast-paced world of fintech, technology is transforming the conventional financial industry. Today, the application of blockchain can be used to secure land record maintenance. The technology offers great potential to India’s property right governance, especially with the country’s current focus on digital India. With such development we can surely say that Blockchain is soon going to become the "it" thing of the technological world.

Unocoin Reveals Robust API To Power New Business

Unocoin, Indian bitcoin company, has implemented its Application Programming Interface (API) allowing companies from around the world to access the world’s largest potential market for Bitcoin and to take advantage of Unocoin’s extraordinary set of features. Unocoin’s API allows individuals and companies in India to generate bitcoin wallets; buy, sell, send and receive bitcoin; securely store bitcoin; retrieve real-time or historical price information; receive notifications when payments arrive; accept and request bitcoin payments for merchants; as well as allow companies around the world to remit bitcoin to India and to submit KYC details of beneficiaries.

Unocoin recently set a national record with a $1.5 million USD raise to support its unprecedented growth. The company now has more than 30 employees on staff servicing over 100,000 users. The Unocoin API has concluded rigorous testing and is already in active use by its largest customer: Unocoin itself. The company’s full-featured iOS app and soon-to-be-released Android app are both built entirely off of the Unocoin API. Moreover, the Unocoin API has become instrumental in the day-to-day functionality of businesses like Paycase, a Canadian remittance innovator making overseas transactions much faster and more cost efficient.

Unocoin co-founder and CEO, Sathvik Vishwanath said, “We’ve been excited to develop a robust API for use by companies around the world. Our API is best described as an on-ramp for firms looking for a simple way to gain entry into one of the world’s fastest growing and largest potential markets. Our team has been working non-stop prior to and during our Pre-Series A round to provide the most reliable, full-featured API, but one that, most importantly, is incredibly easy to adopt.”

Added Vishwanath, “Our API is the engine powering our mobile apps, through which customers will be able to store and spend bitcoin on the go, and also be able to buy bitcoin with just a click of a button.”

India is the remittance capital of the world, as well as the largest gold and IT market. While blockchain and bitcoin adoption climbs exponentially, businesses and individuals need the appropriate financial infrastructure to process secure transactions. The Unocoin API can plug right into any company, anywhere in the world, to assist them gaining access to the Indian bitcoin market and remittance industry, potentially worth an estimated $100 billion USD.

Blockstream, pioneers in cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin who developed sidechains to help users move digital assets from one blockchain to another, partnered with Unocoin to enable fast and low cost cross border transactions. Paycase, a mobile-first remittance application, is now using the Unocoin API and Blockstream’s Liquid network to carry out frictionless money transfers from Canada to India.

“India represents a massive growth opportunity for Bitcoin and Unocoin is on the cutting edge of Bitcoin and blockchain technology,” said Dr. Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream. “We’re excited to be working with Unocoin on Liquid and believe the company has the potential to bring Bitcoin to millions of new users based on their technology vision and business execution.”

Paycase’s protocol-agnostic transfer routing system has already been tested in nearly 20 countries around the world, using a sophisticated trading algorithm to route payments over a variety of cryptocurrency rails with far greater efficiency as compared to the traditional SWIFT network. During a 6-month beta, Paycase successfully completed $50,000 worth of micro-transactions from Canada to the Philippines, with costs averaging 60-80% lower than traditional remittance players.

Paycase Co-founder and CEO Joseph Weinberg said, “Our work with Unocoin shows both company’s long-term dedication to one another, in strategically partnering to take bitcoin and Blockchain powered remittances and cross border transfer to the mass market. We have worked together from Canada and India to establish the technical, regulatory, and business logic needed to enable Canadian dollar to Indian rupee money transfer with bitcoin efficiencies in place. With the API, experience, and infrastructure in place, we can now scale this model beyond our current corridors and into the promising Indian market.”

Unocoin’s Pre Series A round was led by Blume Ventures with participation from Digital Currency Group, Boost VC, Bank to the Future, Bitcoin Capital, FundersClub, and Indian investors Mumbai Angels and ah! Ventures. Unocoin’s recently released features include a merchant point-of-sale (POS) app, a mobile trading app, an auto-selling feature for remittance users, systematic investment planning (SIP) to mitigate against volatility risk, integration with NETKI to simplify Bitcoin addresses, an over the counter (OTC) desk for large traders, and integration with Purse.io for discounts on Amazon.

Bengaluru-based Unocoin Raises Largest Funding For An Indian Bitcoin Startup

Unocoin, a Bengaluru-based bitcoin startup, has raised $1.5 million in funding from a mix of Indian and U.S. investors, the company announced on Thursday. This is Unocoin's second after a previous seed round, and the investors who participated in this round are -- ah! Ventures, Blume Ventures (which led the round) and Mumbai Angels, as well as BoostVC, BnkToTheFuture, Digital Currency Group and FundersClub.

The startup, which runs a trading platform to securely buy, sell, store, use and accept bitcoin for Indian customers, said the money raised was the largest for an Indian bitcoin startup.

The funds raised will be used by the company for a variety of purposes, including providing liquidity to its marketplace as well as scaling the exchange's operations both in India and abroad. One possible avenue would be to use some of the funds to market the exchange more effectively within India's major cities.

Unocoin, which was founded in 2013 by Harish B V and Abhinand Kaseti, raised about $250,000 in its first financing round in August 2014. The startup started from a small hometown called Tumkur, near Bengaluru. The startup currently has 100,000 users and more than 30 employees.

Bitcoin in India

In late 2013, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a warning to local consumers about the risks of using digital currencies. At the time, the central bank said that bitcoin were not backed by any central authority and that it had not granted approval to companies working in the space. Following this RBI warning bitcoin operators in the country began suspending operations.

In 2014, Indian government along with RBI was exploring digital currencies.

In a most recent statement of the RBI told that the central bank’s stance on these currencies has not changed. So, IndianWeb2 does not recommend buying bitcoins for investment purposes or otherwise.