• What is the current state of the Indian economy?

India is currently the seventh largest economy in the world.

Currently, India has an estimated population of around 1.34 billion people, or about 18 percent of the world's population, according to the World Economic Forum. Although its GDP fell by approximately 5.7 percent in the quarter ending in June this year, India remains the fastest growing economy in the world, with the exception of China.

If things go as they are estimated , India will have overtaken China as the most populous country in the world by the year 2024, which would help consolidate its position as the nation with the largest youth population in the world. The World Economic Forum also projects that India's economy will be the second largest economy in the world by 2050, with China occupying first place.

In 2016, the Indian government, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Singh Modi , announced that the nation's two largest denomination bank notes would cease to be legal offers. At that time, the two denominations represented approximately 86 percent of the cash in circulation in India. The people who owned the tickets had to deposit them in the bank. With the move, the Indian government aimed to punish tax evaders in retrospect. The logic was that people with reservations of "black money" would have to answer questions if they tried to deposit the demonetized bills.

While the rich tax evaders were the target of the demonetization policy, it was the average Indian on the street who suffered the most. At first, the policy led to an intense cash crisis, with Indians queuing for hours at banks and ATMs. If you have a thorough understanding of the economy, you would quickly realize that the declining growth of GDP in recent quarters found its root in the cash crisis that arose from the policy of demonetization.

The policy could have been poor for the average Indians, however, there were bright spots for the defenders of a penniless economy. The World Economic Forum reported that the number of digital transactions in India increased following the demonetization policy, a benefit for the government, which would now have a greater capacity to track the flow of money within the economy. The growth of digital transactions in India is, in turn, a great advantage for Blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

• And what about Blockchain in India?

Blockchain is currently not a very popular topic in India.

Almost 0.5 percent of people in India are in the Bitcoin world, the cryptography that popularized Blockchain technology. By inference, if so few people in India know about Bitcoin, it is safe to say that only 0.5 percent of India's population is familiar with Blockchain technology.

However, at the national level, much work is being done to integrate Blockchain technology in various sectors of the economy, including in the financial and health sectors. In 2016, the Indian bank, ICIC Bank , announced that it had completed a cross-border transaction executed through Blockchain. In September of this year, the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology, or IDRBT, founded by the Reserve Bank of India, announced plans to launch a new Blockchain platform. The Reserve Bank of India is the central bank of India. The announcement followed a report published by the IDRBT in January of this year, where it is mentioned that India could use the Blockchain to digitize its national currency, the rupee. Seeing the positive aspects, for example, the increase in tax payments, which the policy of demonetization in India has produced through the increase of digital transactions, it is plausible that the government of India will double its campaign to develop an economy penniless.

• How does Blockchain and an economy without cash intersect in India?

There are some challenges, but it looks promising.

If, as in any other place in the world, the Indian government wants to boost an economy without money, it needs to find lasting solutions to the challenges facing the spread of an economy without cash. Some of those challenges include financial inclusion, high configuration and transaction costs and transaction times.

Because a considerable segment of the Indian economy remains informal, there is still a large part of the population that does not trust traditional financial institutions to use financial services. Based on the cashless technologies employed today, most people would need a bank account to live in an economy without cash, an uphill battle. In essence, for an economy without cash to work, an alternative to traditional financial services will be needed. This is a good entry point for the Blockchain. The Blockchain technology almost completely eliminates the need to belong to the traditional financial system, to be included financially. You can read how the Blockchain technology helps with financial inclusion.

• And what about the fees and transaction costs?

Currently, they are quite high in India.

It costs a merchant between Rs 4,000 ($ 61.5) and Rs 8,000 ($ 123) to establish a terminal that accepts cards in India. That's definitely not a problem for big merchants, but the smaller merchants that collectively make up a large part of the economy may not be happy to pay that much, in addition to the subsequent transaction fees. For example, The Hindu reported in May that Indian consumers are returning to cash-based transactions due to remonetization and high digital transaction costs. This is a reason to look for a cheaper way to perform digital transactions. Once again, Blockchain fits the bill.

• Can Blockchain improve transaction times?

Surely yes.

If an economy without cash is always going to be the order of the day, it needs to have a function in real time. Today's technologies have done a great job in reducing waiting times between when a transaction is completed and when the funds are accessible. But, it is not yet at the level where the entire population would be motivated to go digital. And this is another problem that the Blockchain technology solves brilliantly.

Based on the recent increase in digital payments in India, a number of Blockchain projects, such as BitIndia , are emerging to help the proliferation of digital payments in India. BitIndia offers digital portfolios that may contain cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple. The vision of the project is to create an "exchange of cryptocurrencies for the streets of India." For the translation, the project is trying to help the average Indian to adopt digital payments, solving the problems of financial inclusion, costs and transaction times on a platform.