The Mukesh-Ambani led Reliance Jio is planning to enter the cryptocurrency business by introducing JioCoin. The shortcomings of the project will be led by Ambani’s elder son Akash Ambani and the company is planning to build a team of around 50 professionals to work on a number of blockchain-centric products including JioCoin.
As we all know, blockchain technology is the driving force behind all the popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple, and Ethereum amongst the rest. Apart from JioCoin, Reliance Jio is planning to use the blockchain technology for various other sectors like supply chain and logistics. It will also help them in solving security issues that they might face in the field of Internet of Things(IoT). The technology is instrumental in preventing data tampering by labeling each block of data.
With blockchain, customers can do all the financial transactions by directly connecting with the suppliers without the need of any third party organization such as a bank. Each and every transaction is logged to the ledger after verification by the network participants.
Recently, the Government of India had asked the consumers to be careful while investing in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as they were not backed by assets and posed risks such as money laundering. They compared it with the fraudulent investment operation Ponzi scheme.
In the first quarter of commercial operations of Jio in December last year, it recorded an operating profit. Since its inception in September 2016, the company has invested around $31 billion in its venture. It is planning for an IPO by the end of this year.
Cryptocurrencies have hit headlines on a number of occasions in the past few months. In 2017, the most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin hit a record high of $19,783 which is over a 1000% percent increase from its original value. Last month, it saw an increase in the exchange rate of around 25%. However, today, it slipped to $12,801, its lowest since the Christmas. Around 5 lakh individuals who have a high net-worth and deal in bitcoins received notices from the Income Tax (IT) department of India.