The introduction of Bitcoin, a digital currency had taken the business and market world by a storm, although it did fail and fall in between. Will this latest digital currency survive?
With the growing trend of virtual currency worldwide, telecom giant Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd is expected to create its own cryptocurrency, JioCoin.
With Mukesh Ambani’s elder son Akash Ambani spearheading the JioCoin project, Reliance Jio is likely to build a 50-member team of young professionals to work on blockchain technology, which can also be used to develop applications such as smart contracts and supply chain management logistics.
“The company plans to hire 50 young professionals with an average age of 25 years for Akash Ambani to lead. There are multiple applications of blockchain (for the company). The team would work on various blockchain products,” reports a national business paper citing a person familiar with the development.
Blockchain can act as a decentralized shared public ledger, keeping a record of all transactions taking place across a peer-to-peer network. Although a key element of cryptocurrency, its application potential is being increasingly explored in sectors such as smart contracts and financial services. The information is held on blockchain through a shared database which can be accessed on a real-time basis. This database is not stored on physical servers but on the cloud, which makes it easy to store unlimited data.
Mint quoted the person cited above as saying, “one (application) is cryptocurrency. We can deploy smart contracts. It can be used in supply chain management logistics. Loyalty points could altogether be based on JioCoin, adding that all of this was “in proposal stage”.
“Reliance Jio also aspires to get into an Internet of Things (IoT). Blockchain technology would come in handy there,” the person told the national business paper.
The newspaper claimed an email sent to Reliance Jio did not elicit a response.
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Meanwhile, the government has warned the public against investing in cryptocurrencies, terming them as “Ponzi schemes”. The finance ministry pointed out that virtual currencies are not legal tender and have no protection. It said cryptocurrencies or virtual currencies including Bitcoin don’t have any intrinsic value and are not backed by any kind of assets. “The price of Bitcoin and other VCs (virtual currencies) therefore is entirely a matter of mere speculation resulting in spurt and volatility in their prices.”
On January 2, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told the Rajya Sabha that Bitcoins or any such cryptocurrency are not legal tenders and those indulging in such transactions are doing it at their own risk.
“The government is examining the matter. A committee under the chairmanship of secretary, department of economic affairs, is deliberating over all issues related to cryptocurrencies to propose specific actions to be taken,” he added.
On Thursday, Bitcoin dropped as much as 12% to $12,801, its lowest since Christmas day, as South Korea’s justice minister reiterated his proposal to ban local cryptocurrency exchanges, an international agency reported.
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