Even as the Indian government has cautioned against Bitcoin, a report suggests that Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd might create its own cyptocurrency ‘ JioCoin’.
According to Mint, Mukesh Ambani’s elder son Akash Ambani is leading the JioCoin project and the company is to build a 50-member team of young professionals to work on blockchain technology, which can also be used to develop applications such as smart contracts and supply chain management logistics.
“The company plans to hire 50 young professionals with average age of 25 years for Akash Ambani to lead. There are multiple applications of blockchain (for the company). The team would work on various blockchain products,” a person familiar with the development told the newspaper. The person, however, said all of this was “in proposal stage”.
Reliance Jio is yet to confirm the report.
A blockchain is a digitised, decentralised, public ledger of all cryptocurrency transactions. Constantly growing as ‘completed’ blocks (the most recent transactions) are recorded and added to it in chronological order, it allows market participants to keep track of digital currency transactions without central recordkeeping. Each node (a computer connected to the network) gets a copy of the blockchain, which is downloaded automatically. The information is held on blockchain through a shared database which can be accessed on a real-time basis. This database is not stored on physical servers but on the cloud, which makes it easy to store unlimited data.
“One (application) is cryptocurrency. We can deploy smart contracts. It can be used in supply chain management logistics. Loyalty points could altogether be based on JioCoin,” the person added.
Significantly, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley recently stated in Rajya Sabha that Bitcoins or such crypto-currencies are not legal tender and those indulging in such transactions are doing it at their own risk.
Bitcoin's value jumped 15 times in less than 12 months. Though Bitcoin has slipped to $14000 levels within 24 hours after hitting a high of $17900, its enthusiasts are convinced this is just a blip in the story.
