Image credit (Technical Champion Guruji)
Customers of Unocoin and its unit Unodax can deposit or withdraw cash between Rs 1,000 and Rs 10,000 per transaction per day, in denominations of Rs 500. The balance that a customer holds in his/her account can be used to buy other cryptocurrencies through the ATM.
Unocoin deals with the ethereum cryptocurrency, while Unodax deals with 30 other cryptocurrencies including ripple and litecoin. “We have a customer base of 13 lakh users and we are hoping that this will ease the pain points of customers after the ban,” says Sathvik Viswanath, CEO and founder, Unocoin. Before the ban, Indians could use bitcoins for multiple purposes, including to buy gift cards on Nafa.in, buy books, music CDs, games at Padma Book House, and buy bus tickets.
Today, however, Indians use it mainly when they are overseas, in countries like Japan that allows bitcoins to be used to pay for meals, flight tickets, and movie shows. They also use it to buy goods on foreign websites such as Ali Express. In India, some tech websites use it to pay freelancers for gadget reviews.
All such transactions are mediated through the crypto exchanges. Many, of course, view their bitcoins simply as an investment, hoping to encash them if and when their value rises. Despite the bank-ban in February, Unocoin founder Viswanath says his platform has seen 18% user growth since then, to 13 lakh users.
