Rupaya in its most basic definition is a blockchain company with a noble vision towards South Asia and its people predominantly. I say predominantly as anyone is welcome to benefit from the offerings of Rupaya, and not just South Asians. However their sole concentration on South Asia is not without merit considering how it can be counterproductive to take a one-size-fits-all approach to issues, which the blockchain space is fraught by. For Instance, fiat exchanges claiming to serve the global audience assume everyone has direct access to the US Dollar. So this makes Rupaya sort of an indigenous blockchain entity, set up to cater to the problems directly affecting South Asians. And such laser focus on the part of a company is essential to keeping such business entity dead on its tracks to success.
The major part of South Asia comprises Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. These are all developing countries in need of working economic solutions. And while the world bank recently invented another form of classification to differentiate the different kinds of developing countries, this has done little to actually solve the problem. For instance in this new classification instead of directly referring to India, Bangladesh and Pakistan as developing, they are classified as low-middle income countries, while China and Mexico also developing countries are termed high-middle income countries.
The population of South Asia is around 1.8 billion, about 25% of the population of the entire world. This population size requires solutions that work on a large scale with minimal input from organizations. With India's population of 1.4 billion, considering the issues in India for instance mirrors to a large extent the general problems in South Asia. According to a 2016 study by the world bank some of these economic issues in India include:
- The time taken to start a business being 29 days as opposed to the global average of 20 days
- A 54% labor force participation rate as opposed to the world's average of 60%
- Other problems include access to good sanitation, Low electricity production coupled with high energy usage
It behooves a lot of people to imagine how a blockchain company might even try to tackle some of these problems, let alone actually contributing solutions. But Rupaya being focused on a particular location stands a better chance at delivering the required solutions with their product offerings. Rupaya is people-centric and their plans clearly show this. While big businesses will be able to take advantage of their offerings, it can be argued that their focus is on the common individual. This approach is what would eventually change the general economic landscape in South Asia considering the whole is the sum of the parts.
RUPX is the cryptocurrency powering the Rupaya blockchain which is currently using a Proof-of-work(POW) algorithm but will eventually switch to a Proof-of-stake(POS) algorithm. RUPX is also a masternode coin meaning users who stake their coins in masternodes get profit based on what is being paid out currently. The masternode setup is fairly straightforward with a clear documentation. ROI of the RUPX masternode is currently significant and while it can be posited that the ROI would steadily decline as more masternodes join the network, it should also be noted that the RUPX price would likely increase as well, thereby at least positively balancing out the earnings.
Some of the Issues Rupaya would solve include but not limited to the following:
- Eliminating the Middleman. Gustave Flanbert said "There are some men whose only mission among others is to act as intermediaries; one crosses them like bridges and keeps going". One of the major applications of blockchain tech is peer-to-peer transactions, which eliminates that greedy middleman we all hate. Think banks. Rupaya would use computerization to eliminate the middleman just like Isaac Asimov predicted.
- Their mobile wallets and Point of Sale will drastically reduce the time to start a business across South Asia by making it very easy for people to sell goods and offer services. Such low barrier to entry would facilitate an entrepreneurial spirit hence also increasing the active labor force. Passive investors can also take advantage of their masternode offerings and also Proof-of-stake implementation when it goes live
- Blockchain has always been about privacy and speed. Rupaya is achieving this using Swiftx for speed and Zerocoin for privacy. The implementation of the Zerocoin protocol converts publicly view-able RUPX transactions into anonymous zRUPX.
- South Asians would be able to obtain RUPX with local fiat currencies. This is very convenient considering people always have their local currencies as opposed to looking for a way to exchange local currencies to USD, EUR or GBP which can be frustrating in some territories, before buying the cryptocurrecy. This also in turn extends this ease to other cryptocurrencies as the problem with crypto exchanges is usually the fiat aspect. So for instance if someone in Pakistan needs Bitcoin, all they would do is easily buy RUPX with Rupees and then exchange to Bitcoin. Easy right?
- A combination of POW/POS allows for easier entry into the Rupaya ecosystem, and then settles into the more efficient POS system. At first POW is used which always requires cheaper hardware and lesser energy at the start of a coins life. But before the whole mining process becomes very expensive as the network grows, there is a shift to the POS system. This method makes sure Rupaya doesn't become one of the problems they are trying to solve by requiring costly equipment and an insane amount of energy. The POS system just requires that miners stake some RUPX.
- Most problems of a country that are not economic in nature are surprisingly linked to the economy generally. Think corruption, security, health, sanitation etc. Once Rupaya begins to empower the average South Asian, the general economy improves and any problem with even the slightest link to a poor economy automatically reduces or goes away completely.
The Rupaya ecosystem is growing daily as more miners and users are jumping on board. There are plans for a fiat exchange, Atomic swapping which is simply an inter-blockchain exchange baked into the Rupaya blockchain, and prominent exchange listings. A lot of coins have come and gone or simple faded into oblivion, which is quite unfortunate for the blockchain image. This is impossible in terms of Rupaya. An active community usually means growth. On Coinmarketcap Rupaya is roughly around position 700, however to see the true value it is worth visiting Coincodecap where Rupaya sits at an impressive position around 200. This simply means there is active development going on and not just empty promises. Whether you're in it for the long haul or just to make some quick bucks, one thing is certain: Rupaya has come to stay and change the way we interact with the blockchain forever.