My first attempt at non-static publishing. Hopefully will get better over the coming weeks.
TOR
Laws about Bitcoin are in a gray area today across the world. I studied documents from the Reserve Bank of India’s public repository surrounding Virtual currencies and prepaid solutions. I happened to study two documents about Prepaid Payment and Foreign Exchange Management Rules, 2000.
Why research Prepaid Payment rules?
A person may come across the need to purchase them through Fiat Currencies (INR, USD, GBP, etc). Purchasing any e-currency and loading to an eWallet is regulated by the RBI. Although Bitcoin is in no way related to this, I wanted to see how close I could get to any laws that could present a roadblock.
Is Bitcoin Regulated in India?
The RBI regulation on Prepaid Payment Instruments in India defines a lot of areas. After understanding the documents of RBI’s guidelines and Rules, this is where I could find the only roadblock based on regulation.
“3. Eligibility
3.2 Only banks which have been permitted to provide Mobile Banking Transactions by the Reserve Bank of India shall be permitted to launch mobile based prepaid payment instruments (mobile wallets & mobile accounts).”
In order to enter into the market; fiat is needed to purchase Bitcoin. Fiat will fade away as more people adopt Bitcoin. Until that frictionless free flow between consumers and merchants is made possible, this is a problem area for Bitcoins entry into India.
It can be overcome through:
- Donations and sponsorships. There are enough Smartphones to cause this market to explode in any sponsor’s favor.
- Sell Services and goods for Bitcoin. Programming Skills, etc.
- Mining is too expensive at this stage, unless you have the latest and best equipment. Electricity is not expensive in India.
If we keep fiat out of the system, then Bitcoin is unregulated in India.
I spent some time on the Foreign Exchange Management Act, but it is entirely out of the scope of Bitcoin. As it is a decentralized currency, it can be considered to be a domestic currency since it is being mined in India. This leaves it out of the scope of Foreign Exchange.
Even if, IP’s can be tracked when Bitcoin is used for Foreign Exchange, they can be easily anonymized through the Tor Wallet. Since it is a true P2P (Peer to Peer/ Person to Person) currency, it is impossible to regulate in a population using Bitcoin as a token of value to trade. The logistics to monitor a mass population is not feasable.
Please do read the Draft Guidelines for issuance and operation of Prepaid Payment Instruments in India and Foreign Exchange Management (Current Account Transactions) Rules, 2000. They will help to understand more about the Banking Regulations in India and help solve some problems. India’s closed currency banking system is rival to none. The banks have maintained a lot of public faith in urban areas and have reached a lot of people in this 1.5B population landscape.
India has an unbanked population of 41% according to RBI statistics
(Source: URL Below).
I would like to reach out to the world of regulators and lawmakers to release a statement on Bitcoin. Can the Reserve Bank of India issue a statement on Bitcoin?
Please forward this till someone takes notice and moves Bitcoin along in a positive path.
Sources:
Draft Guidelines for issuance and operation of Prepaid Payment Instruments in India
Foreign Exchange Management (Current Account Transactions) Rules, 2000.
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A case study on Indo-German Free Trade
I was approached by the director of Bitfilm.com, Aaron Koenig to pen my thoughts on Indo-German trade relations. Having worked with a Bangalore based animator and having paid him in Bitcoin, Aaron sees this as a strong step forward in building on this terrific platform of P2P payments. I would like to introduce him and Vijay from Credestudio, A Bangalore based animation studio. I managed to take some time from both gentlemen, to get their views on Bitcoin in India.
Aaron and Vijay worked on a 2 minute animated video for Bitcoin Deutschland GmbH. The video simplifies and animatedly explains the basics of Bitcoin. Watch this video if explaining Bitcoin to friends is a complex event.
Bitfilm specializes in producing moving image content for the Web and mobile devices, using their worldwide network of film and animation talents.
Here, are a few thoughts from Aaron Koenig (AK), director of Bitfilm.com
Aaron Koenig, Director of Bitfilm.com
Ben: How is Bitfilm funded?
AK: We are an independent, self-funded company. Our festival gets some public funding from the State of Hamburg, and we have worked with sponsors such as Apple, Nokia, Adobe, Microsoft and many others.
Ben: What is your span of viewership?
AK: We have a community of about 16,000 people; our festival receives entries from the whole world and film fans in the whole world participate in our online voting.
Ben: What is your roadmap for your organisation over the next 3 years?
AK: We do not plan so far ahead. In the next year our goal is to organise a kind of world tour of our festival. We will continue to work on animation production for the web and mobile devices, and we are happy to cooperate with animators from India.
Ben: What made you seek out a Bangalorean to work with on your video?
AK: We organised the closing event of our festival in Bangalore last year (at the Max Mueller Bhavan) and I also gave a course at the Sristhi College for two weeks. The head of animation of Srishti recommended Vijayaraj and his team, as we were looking for Indian animators to work with us on the Bitcoin film, as we know that in Indian you get high quality for relatively low budgets. I really enjoy working with them; they are very talented and efficient.
Ben: What are the most significant contributions that India can bring about to the Bitcoin community?
AK: Significant contributions can only be made by individuals, not by countries. I think that in India there are many talented, computer savvy people with a good business sense, so I am positive that many Indians will contribute to the development of Bitcoin in the future.
Ben: Who are the most influential people in the Bitcoin community today according to you and why?
AK: At the moment it is the core development team around Gavin Andresen, Mike Hearn, Jeff Garzik, as Bitcoin is still mostly driven by the technology and a lot has still to be done to improve the technology.
But in the next phase it’s the creative entrepreneurs who will bring Bitcoin forward. Nobody knows yet who will be the ones to develop business models that bring a commercial breakthrough for Bitcoin, but I am looking forward to meet them.
Ben: What kind of technology and marketing partnerships are you willing to undertake to promote Bitcoins growth?
AK: Any kind. For the next festival we try to use Bitcoin both for the voting mechanism and as prize money. So we are looking for media partners and sponsors from the Bitcoin world. For international coproductions we are looking for animators who accept Bitcoins. I also run a political magazine (independent from Bitfilm); its next issue will focus on Bitcoin. We are still looking for writers and interesting topics for the next issue.
A man of few words, are a few thoughts from Vijay, the owner of Credestudio who accepts Bitcoin for his professional services for design and animation.
Vijayraj D, Owner of Credestudio
Ben: A short introduction to yourself and your work.
Vijay: Basically I am an Artist, I do art and animation related service.
Ben: Who are your key clients?
Vijay: Studio ERP in Bangalore, Hybridstudio in Chennai, KAB in USA, Bitfilm Germany.
Ben: What is your roadmap for your organisation over the next 3 years?
Vijay: Developing our IP content creation and film making
Ben: A thought or two on your introduction to Bitcoin.
Vijay: Bitcoin is the best and cheapest electronic currency so far.
Ben: How did Bitfilm come about to approaching you?
Vijay: They approached us from the Shristi school of design.
Ben: What are a few ways from your perspective that Bitcoin can be popularized in India?
Vijay: It is already getting popular, need more advertisement in India
Vijay signed off mentioning that he is open to working on more art and animation projects. He is open and comfortable with Bitcoin as a method of remuneration.
India is an emerging vision for Bitcoin. As the largest democratic community on the planet, diversity and tough banking regulations are sure to make Bitcoin a hit. With Jack Dorsey’s Square card readers going viral across the United States and several other mobile readers across the world, not only do we see the disruptive change in enabling the unbanked and under-banked, but more importantly, small merchants and individuals now come under the advertising platform of the phone. A short walk on any city street in Bangalore will tell tales about the invasion of the Smartphone.
Another strong case for Bitcoin in India is the talent and wealth of engineers. As the outsource hub of the world, we have no shortage of engineers and infrastructure. Imagine the cross-border software & service businesses that can ensure seamlessly though Bitcoin’s fee free network. When Bitinstants vision of a Bitcoin debit card comes to life, we could even see mom and pop stores in India take up cryptocurrency as an acceptable token of trade.
Do not hesitate to reach out to me to help connecting you to these visionaries of Bitcoin.
Links
Bitfilms Website: http://www.bitfilm.com
Credestudio Website: To be updated
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Website: http://www.dragons.tl/
Having played a few MMO’s in the past and successfully broken my addiction to them, I was apprehensive about jumping into another. Dragon’s tale was associated with Bitcoin. Bitcoins scarcity made it a tough challenge for me to get my hands on. I was running to every faucet and giveaway site in order to collect up to my first Bitcoin. During this campaign to collect my first Bitcoin, I ran into Dragon’s Tale – Bannered as the first Bitcoin based Casino on the internet. This article will add a few links and a Q&A with the Architect who built it.
I downloaded the tiny client and fired up the game for the first time. I expected slots, roulettes, card tables and bouncers. Instead, I was presented with a world of blue skies, trees, plains, water, bars, castles and a lot of avatars running around. Clicking on virtually anything in this game allows interaction and play. All the games have been mathematically calibrated and the odds are placed under the instructions of each game to enable calculated risks. There are mixes of both skill and luck based games with high payouts.
Figure 1: One of the Fire slots games
What inspired me to jump in was the basic fact that I was getting Bitcoin for free. Searching the statues scattered all across the islands gives out generous amounts of Bitcoin to help avoid an empty wallet. Finding rare herbs and informing herbers about them also gets a few free Bitcoins.
Figure 2: Skill based Fishing – WOW 5 BTC
Depositing money through Bitcoin into the casino is easy as ever and the icing on the cake is that Dragon’s Tale gamers can also buy-in using Credit Card. Andrew Tepper, The wizard who architected this arena enabled players to cash out directly & instantly to Credit Card. Several layers of fraud detection have been built into the system. There are certain rules of buying Bitcoin with a Credit Card. Do go through these.
Dragon’s Tale combines the best of Gambling on the internet with a warm group of people playing on the Alpha release. With the game set to jump into beta, this has attracted several early adopters. These early adopters have moved into expertise roles within the game and are considered mentors. These mentors are extremely active and share a wealth of information with their students.
Figure 3: Mentors, Friends & Social Networking
I do not wish to get into details about the game play as there is a wealth of information on the Dragons Tale wiki and YouTube. Links have been posted at the end of the article.
The best way to get a jumpstart would be to
- Observe who the best helper is and request him to be your mentor.
- Read the wiki and watch the videos, they help a lot.
- Don’t forget to check all the statues. There are 3 Islands and Bitcoin scattered all over.
- If you make a few friends they may buy you a drink. Free drinks reward Bitcoin as well.
Andrew Tepper has an in game avatar named Di and his mission has created a beautiful world for people to enter for free and leave their troubles behind. He is a graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University. Before starting work at eGenesis in 1998, he ran a successful business developing software for universities. He is currently the president of the company.
Interview with Andrew Tepper, President of eGenesis aka Teppy
Ben: What drove you towards building an online Casino?
Teppy: In retrospect, it seems like such an obvious thing, right? Previously I designed an MMORPG that was quite different than the standard monster-bash. A Tale in the Desert has no combat at all – you advance by solving social puzzles and crafting. So you can think of Dragon’s Tale as MMORPG that’s a radical departure in a completely different direction.
Ben: How many people currently play Dragon’s Tale?
Teppy: Typically we peak at about 25 concurrent users in a given day. The best-ever was 33 concurrent, but that was only a week or two ago. User counts are advancing fast. In a given week, a couple hundred log in.
Ben: How long has it taken for you to build the game?
Teppy: It’s been in development for just over two years. I’m building it on an enhanced version of the engine used to develop A Tale in the Desert. (Link provided below)
Ben: What is your roadmap over the next 3 years?
Teppy: The basic systems are now in place: Many different basic betting systems, mentorship, levels/quests, and tournaments. I’ve just added support for credit cards, along with the necessary safeguards. You can buy Bitcoins in-game, on a credit card, instantly. Cash outs to Visa are instant as well, and for Mastercard require a wire transfer. Of course, US players must come with Bitcoins of their own, due to our ridiculous laws. From here we’ll build on all of these basics: We’re creating new islands to explore, each with a unique look; new games, some specific to certain islands; new variants of existing games, again with some specific to one or two islands.
Ben: Can people connect to Dragon’s Tale through TOR’s anonymous network?
Teppy: Yes. We don’t do anything to prevent this anyway; Tor tends to be a bit laggy because your connection is routed through many computers on the way to the server and back. We don’t require any demographic information at all, unless you use a traditional credit card.
Ben: Does Dragon’s Tale serve as a Bitcoin wallet?
Teppy: We don’t advertise it that way, and we keep the bulk of the game’s Bitcoin balance in cold storage. So if someone tried to store a lot of Bitcoins in Dragon’s Tale, they might experience delays while I moved Bitcoins from cold->warm->hot storage when they went to withdraw. IOW, I can’t prevent people from using it as a wallet, but I’d prefer they do not. Anyway, the beauty of Bitcoin is that you are your own bank – there’s no need to trust anyone!
Ben: What precautions have been taken to ensure that they are secure?
Teppy: Our hot wallet contains a fairly small balance – enough to instantly pay the largest jackpots we’ve had, but not enough to instantly pay the largest theoretical jackpots. It runs on a machine with no ports open except those needed for Bitcoind. It’s in a secure data centre in Pittsburgh – biometric access, cameras, etc. The warm wallet is on a physically different machine, not directly accessibly online. The cold wallet is not online at all.
The ability to obtain Bitcoin in the remotest regions has been enabled through this fantastic masterpiece of game and social design. I do hope that my passion to bring Bitcoin to India can be enabled through this channel as well.
Jump in and run around a bit. It’s the Disneyland of gambling and free Bitcoin. Just wish I had more time & Bitcoins to spend on Dragon’s Tale.
Links:
Dragon’s Tale Website: http://www.dragons.tl/
Dragon’s Tale Wiki: http://www.dragons.tl/mediawiki-1.16.5/index.php/Main_Page
Youtube Search: http://bit.ly/UtJmDt
Anonymous Play through TOR: http://www.ehow.com/how_6026520_create-proxy-tor.html
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