With a population that is more than 1 billion strong, India is accounted as one of the fast evolving nations across the world. The recorded growth of the country is such that IMF has acknowledged India for its fast rolling economy. A country recognized for its mystery, history and culture, India is not one to fall behind when it comes to technological adoptions. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been operating within the country for a number of years now. According to a report, in April 2017, the total market cap for all cryptocurrencies, combined, was slightly higher than $25 billion; however, the same market cap shot up by 300 percent and touched $100 billion within 60 days. There is a growing consensus that crypto-assets, as an asset class, is set to outpace all other asset classes in relative growth.

As early as 2012-2013, when crypto hobbyists were interested in Bitcoin, and had stash of cash to buy crypto-assets; they lacked the right platform required to carry out such transactions. This is when the think tanks - Sathvik Vishwanath and his team Sunny Ray, Harish B V and Abhinand Kaseti, joined hands to establish UNOCOIN – India’s largest BTC-INR trading platform enabling Indians to buy, sell, store, use and accept bitcoin at just few clicks. “It all started in 2013, during a meet-up where we were spreading the awareness of bitcoin. However, despite our expertise, we did not have any answers when the attendees asked about where to buy bitcoins from. We have seen the attendees walking in with the money hoping that they will find someone in the meet up who is willing to sell them some bitcoins. This is when we conceived the idea of Unocoin. We felt that, this is not the way it should be done and decided to put together a platform for trading bitcoin and that is how Unocoin was coined and hence Unocoin Technologies Pvt Ltd was established,” shares Sathvik Vishwanath, Co-Founder and CEO, Unocoin.

Letting Customers Buy, Sell, Store, Use & Accept Cryptoassets
Over the years, the acceptance of Bitcoin in India has evolved by leaps and bounds. Today, business owners and consumers alike have been adopting Bitcoin as a convenient method of payment for their sales and purchases. Following it, many more crypto-assets naturally emerged, serving different needs. Unocoin observed the intrinsic popularity of significant trades of popular cryptoassets on wallet platforms. Keeping this in mind, the firm has added Ether(ETH) on its wallet where a user can Buy ETH, Sell ETH, Deposit ETH and Receive ETH along with Bitcoin. Unocoin, in May 2018, recognized the heightened adoption of crypto-assets within the country, and hence launched UNODAX - a dedicated platform for live order-book trading of various altcoins, supporting the growing ambitions of active crypto traders with an extensive range of tools and functionalities. While Unocoin offers trading in BTC and ETH for INR, Unodax supports multiple crypto-assets and provides crypto trading enthusiasts with unlimited order validity and transparent order depth in Ripple (XRP), Bitcoin Cash(BCH), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Gold (BTG) and Basic Attention Coin (BAT) packed in pairs with INR, BTC, ETH and XRP. Going a step further on customer delight, UNODAX has introduced ‘Crypto Basket’, which saves the customers from the trouble of having to do large amounts of research before picking a coin. Based upon the ratio of the market cap of the asset and the volume traded on the platform, UNODAX allows investing in all the choices with just one click.

“Unocoin is India’s most trusted place to buy and sell digital currency. Users from various spectrums can access this space via mobile and desktop. In addition to our website, users can also download the Unocoin app on their mobile devices – both iOS and Android. With the launch of UNODAX, we have taken the crucial step of distinguishing two of its core products, in order to achieve better scalability and performance. Unocoin would now solely be a bitcoin and ETH wallet, while UNODAX shall be a peer-to-peer crypto assets trading platform. The two businesses shall effectively create a larger and more flourishing ecosystem,” utters Sathvik. A dedicated platform for active crypto traders, UNODAX is accessible via both - mobile and desktop that is powered by Unocoin, and it is leaving no stone unturned to provide an easy access to the burgeoning world of multiple digital assets.

With the Indian banks having been prohibited from extending any form of service to crypto-assets exchanges, rupee-to-crypto conversion has almost become a Kryptonian affair for Indian cryptoassets exchanges. In order to mitigate the impact of this on investors and traders, Unocoin has made TrueUSD – the first coin built on the

Trust Token platform, available on its UNODAX platform. This TUSD coin is listed for trading on trading-exchanges globally like UNODAX and is paired with a few major crypto-assets like BTC, ETH and INR. True USD is the first stable coin built on the Trust Token platform which bridges real-world assets and blockchains, enabling trustworthy asset tokenization. UNODAX also offers 17 crypto-to-crypto trading pairs to facilitate crypto-trading in India.

"Going a step further on customer delight, UNODAX has introduced 'Crypto Basket', which saves the customers from the trouble of having to do large amounts of research before picking a coin"

A pioneer in its field, Unocoin is a Bangalore -based technology startup and is India’s first entrant into the bitcoin industry. As the country’s largest Bitcoin and blockchain exchange, Unocoin is recognized for processing bitcoin transactions worth more than $2 billion each month. In order to offer the best security and assurance to its customers, the firm offers storing most of the bitcoin offline in Unocoin Wallet. Once the set of multiple addresses for offline storage are generated on a computer that has never been (and never will be) connected to the internet; the firm encrypts the address-private key pairs via AES-256, sealing the same in envelopes and storing it in multiple safe deposit lockers. Unocoin also utilizes 2-factor authentication with Google Authenticator and has recommended a set of steps and procedures for users to additionally safeguard their digital assets.

“Venturing into the world of crypto-assets could be a challenging decision for the clients, especially given the general sentiment and a lack of complete understanding of this new and disruptive world. To the same end, at Unocoin, it is our endeavour to be patient with our clients. Whenever a client approaches us with a query, we personally call them or meet them face-to-face. Throughout the conversation, we attempt to objectively help them understand the vast world of crypto-assets, investments and transactions. Together with Unocoin and Unodax, we have created a broad spectrum of services, meant to resonate with different kind of users. To help beginners join the crypto bandwagon, we aim to address all their concerns or queries, either over a call or meeting in person. The conversations are harboured around the fundamental understanding of crypto-assets and how Unocoin helps them through their journey as an investor. As best practice, we urge novice users to start investing small sums and re-invest the profits or increase the investments over a period of time,” delineates Sathvik. The firm’s skilled teams of experts make it super easy for the users to buy, sell, store, use and accept Bitcoins in India. As the leading innovators in the Bitcoin space, Unocoin has provided numerous services for its users, some of which includes Merchant Gateway, Auto-sell, Mobile App, Systematic Buy Plan, over the counter trading and many more.

Unocoin and UNODAX believe in being self-regulated and pursuing certain customer identification procedures while opening of accounts and monitoring transactions. The intent behind monitoring is to stop transactions of suspicious nature from happening, while reporting the same to the appropriate authority. “We are committed to ensure that our website or services are not used to facilitate money laundering or the funding of terrorism or any other criminal activities. To the same end, we have designed our own know-your-customer/KYC and anti-money laundering/AML information acquiring system to safeguard our customers and ensure continuous, clean barter. As part of this KYC or AML procedure, we need to obtain certain customer identification documents, including a copy of PAN and Aadhaar Card from every customer. This lets us know who are paying us money and whom we are sending money, without which our website and services can be used for money laundering and other illicit purposes,” mentions Sathvik.

From an Idea to a Business & Beyond
In just four years since inception, Unocoin has drawn more than 30 top investors from across the globe. As India’s leading Bitcoin - Blockchain organization, the firm is responsible for industry leading innovations such as the Bitcoin Systematic Buying Plan(SBP),Bitcoin Point of Sale (POS) App and Bitcoin Over-The- Counter trading (OTC). The efficiency of the firm is very well reflected through the clientele list of the firm which includes Indian entities such as Blume Ventures, Mumbai Angels and Ah! Ventures along with prominent international investors such as Digital Currency Group, Boost VC, Bank to the Future, Bitcoin Capital, Huiyin Ventures, Dream Incubators and FundersClub. Unocoin has a customer support team which is active, round the clock; this is done with the intention of giving its customers the best support, regardless of what time of day it is. Additionally, joining them in their endeavor is the social media team, which also actively looks to handle escalations or offer support, all throughout the day.

Sharing his insights on the growth story and the future roadmap of the firm, Sathvik concludes, “The revenue growth depends upon the part of the hype cycle we are in when it comes to crypto-assets. The best part of the revenue growth for the entire industry is in the last quarter of 2017 and first quarter of 2018. Since then, it has been quite stable revenue growth and in the years to come, we are hoping to see a drastic movement when the hype cycle is back. We at UNOCOIN continue to innovate with new technologies and the options and opportunities we would like to provide to our users. Our every solution is either aimed at bringing a common man closer to the crypto-asset or providing an infrastructure backbone to the industry as a whole. We believe that continuously supporting good and best quality service is the best way to develop this industry. We will continue to improve our services, as we are committed to render the best. However, for Unocoin, this is far from enough.”

UNOVERSITY - The Blockchain University that India needs Today
Today, Blockchain technology is counted as one of the most popular skills of the decade. With an attempt to offer education to all, Unocoin has recently introduced – ‘UNOVERSITY’ - one stop solution for procuring Blockchain skills and to be updated with latest trends in the industry. Backed by Unocoin, UNOVERSITY is an online education portal, bringing aspirants closer to all blockchain and crypto-assets courses that cover the fundamentals and in-depth knowledge of blockchain, crypto-assets, development, finance, security, technology, and more. Promising to be India’s largest and go-to portal for education in blockchain and crypto-assets, UNOVERSITY also supports the aspirants by aggregating different job openings in the world of blockchain development and more.

“Blockchain is the next massive revolution which is transforming the world at a rapid rate. With the rise of globalisation, businesses today operate over the internet, leaving room for cyberthreats. The rise of the blockchain tech promises to solve some of the key challenges gnawing at us in this age of digitization. It is no wonder then that countries and corporate organizations alike spend billions of dollars in Blockchain R&D.

With the coming of age of the fintech and the digital infrastructure, blockchain is going to offer jobs to many. We, as a forerunner in this industry, have taken the responsibility to educate people on Blockchain technology, development and its impact in the future,” says Naveen C T, Global Business Head, Unoversity.