Since the last few years, we are seeing more and more people becoming interested in cryptocurrencies. Back in even 2013, the demographics were entirely different. The cryptocurrency space was for tech-savvy people only. But now most non-technical people have also joined the game.
The situation in India has changed too. From a country where hardly anyone knew about cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology, it has become a country with many promising cryptocurrency based startups, for example, Zebpay, Coindelta, btcxIndia etc.
One of these startups is Laxmicoin, a cryptocurrency for India by Indians. Let’s learn more about it!
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What Is Laxmicoin?
I first saw this project’s announcement thread in late 2013. But according to the official Laxmicoin website, the project started way back in 2012. It is an India focused cryptocurrency that is looking forward to completely revolutionize the payment systems in India.
Like bitcoin, Laxmicoin will have its own distributed public ledger or blockchain and a native cryptocurrency of the same name. As far as we know, it will be a mineable cryptocurrency with Proof of Work technology.
What Are The Goals Of Laxmicoin?
Unfortunately, right now, we do not know the roadmap of Laxmicoin. The project hasn’t released a whitepaper yet, so nobody knows much about it. But the official website states that the project whitepaper will be released soon.
According to an article published in 2014 on Coindesk, the development team will premine half of the entire supply of coins. At first, this may sound a little shocking to some but they have proper reasons.
The Laxmicoin team believes that there are only a handful of people in India who are tech-savvy enough or wealthy enough to mine cryptocurrencies.
Because mining cryptocurrencies call for specialized hardware, stable internet connection, and adequate power so that the rigs can run 24*7. So, out of all the premined Laxmicoin, 30% will be distributed among people who cannot mine the currency themselves. They want to donate these coins to NGOs, colleges and other social causes.
“India is a developing country. If you will leave all the mining for the people, it won’t be practically possible. You need special machines for that, you need good power, and you need good Internet connections to mine them. That’s why we have decided some percentage will be pre-mined and some will be mined after a certain period of time.”
– Deepak Mantwal, Laxmicoin
The core development team will also keep 20% of the premined currency to shape the economy and operate the foundation. The rest or 50% of the premined coins will be available for purchase.
Who Are Behind Laxmicoin?
Neither the website nor the Bitcointalk announcement page has listed the whole development team. But as far as we know Laxmicoin is the brainchild of Silicon Valley-based software engineer Mitts Daki and Raj Dangi. I guess more information will come forward as soon as the whitepaper is released.
Launch Delay And The Other Issues The Laxmicoin Project Is Facing
Fiat or traditional currencies like Rupee is controlled by the government. Fiat currencies don’t have any intrinsic value and a centralized body has all the power to print it, distribute and do whatever it wants with it. But cryptocurrencies are different – they are not dependent upon a centralized body. Instead, cryptocurrencies are decentralized and depend upon its users.
That is why it’s very hard for a government to control the use of a cryptocurrency without completely banning it or completely allowing the use of it. Anything in between will create a lot of ambiguities which in the end will make the confused users quit using it. And that is what happened in India.
The country’s top financial bodies like RBI and SEBI are still finding it very difficult to come to a conclusion.
The Laxmicoin project started in 2012 and still hasn’t been able to launch. The project had to be delayed when in 2014 RBI raided cryptocurrency exchanges in the country.
But right now cryptocurrency exchanges are legally recognized by the government and are functioning smoothly. So this may be a great time for Laxmicoin to make come back. Sounds easy? It’s not!
Although a committee formed by the officials of RBI, CBEC, SEBI, FIU and IT has recognized the blockchain technology as the future of financial settlements and prepared use cases for it, it hasn’t yet given a verdict on cryptocurrencies.
Usually, most people think the terms blockchain and cryptocurrency are synonymous. When they are not. The blockchain is a technique to reach consensus regarding the state of a ledger that is distributed among several trustless parties.
Just a couple of days back SBI and 27 partner banks launched their own blockchain called “Bankchain” to facilitate transactions and KYC process with the help of smart contracts.
A cryptocurrency is a form of digital asset that can be used with the blockchain technology. But this doesn’t mean that you need a cryptocurrency to operate a blockchain. You can operate a blockchain with anything – it can be physical entities, it can be data; you get my point.
So while India doesn’t have anything against the blockchain technology, the authorities don’t seem to be ecstatic with the idea of a cryptocurrency, especially a non-fiat one. And this also contributed to the delay in the release of the Laxmicoin.
The foundation has been enquiring the relevant authorities since 2013 but hasn’t received any information at all. But back in last month, RBI hinted that they were considering the possibility of developing a cryptocurrency for India. So can it Laxmicoin’s big breakthrough after 5 long years? Well, I hope so!
Future Of Laxmicoin And ICO
According to the Laxmicoin website, the team is currently in talks with the relevant Indian authorities regarding the future of Laxmicoin. And they sound very confident about it. They have even gone forward and announced 1st March 2018 to be their Initial Coin Offering date.
So right now we can only hope that everything goes right and Laxmicoin gets the green signal from the Indian government to carry out their project. In my opinion, they truly deserve this after this long fight.
And if they get the permission to roll out this project I for one believe that this will revolutionize the Indian economic system.
Also be very careful as there are quite a few fraud projects operating in the name of Laxmicoin. The list includes Laxmicoin.tech, virtuallakshmi.com, coinlaxmi.net, bitlaxmi.info, laxmibitcoin.co, Laxmicoin.trade and Laxmicoin.ltd.