Paul R. Brody, an EY executive recently visited India amid
Paul R. Brody, an EY executive recently visited India amid the regulation finalization news and met a number of government agencies during his visit. After analyzing various aspects, the executive is of the belief that there is no future for the use or adoption of Bitcoin in the country.
Paul says that there is no practical use of Bitcoin in the country and the addition of crypto to the existing financial system could actually disrupt the economy.
EY is one of the big four audit firms in the world and a global leader in professional service providers. Paul an executive of the EY describes himself as “responsible for driving EY’s initiatives and investments in blockchain technology across consulting, audit, and tax business lines.”
During his recent interview with the Forbes India, he was asked about his visit and whether he sees any future for Bitcoin in India. The response might not please many Bitcoin enthusiasts in India as Paul believes that Bitcoin would just be another foreign currency in the country and won’t have any widespread use as many believe. Here is an excerpt from the interview,
“I don’t see any reason why people should be prohibited from owning them. I see bitcoin as just another ‘foreign’ currency — only one without a country. That being said, I see no practical use for bitcoin or nearly any other cryptocurrency.”
Stable Coin is the Real Future for Business Transactions
While negating the impact of Bitcoin on business transactions, Paul believes many business operations in any country are hugely dependent on the local currency and the best they can do is to digitalize the fiat or which is more commonly known as stable coins.
Countering the argument that bitcoin is Inflation-resistant, Paul remarked that Bitcoin is actually highly deflationary currency model because of its limited supply. He further claimed that deflationary currency models are actually quite damaging to the economy, while high inflation has never been a cause of worry for mature economies. He went onto claim that,
“Widespread adoption of bitcoin could be very damaging to the global economy.”
Blockchain Technology Is the Key, Not Bitcoin
The EY executive has quite a positive outlook towards the Blockchain technology and believes the real world use cases based on Distributed ledger Technology would have an enormous impact on the Indian economy rather than the adoption of Bitcoin.
He explained,
“While there are some regulatory issues, our discussions with government agencies in India suggest that they are ready and interested in the use of this technology for business applications.”
Final Thoughts
The observations made by the EY executive regarding the crypto use in India might be disappointing to many, as India is one of the growing hubs for globalization. Crypto enthusiasts in the country might disagree, but looking at the current trends where most of the traditional firms venturing into the crypto space opting for a stable coin, proves Paul’s assumptions to be correct to a certain extent.
However, the real outcome of the crypto adoptions can only be predicted once the final regulations are put into effect.