Binance Taps Into The Indian Blockchain Ecosystem; Partners With Google To Launch “Build for Bharat”

Binance partnered up with Google Cloud along with leading blockchain companies such as Matic Network, Marlin Protocol, Band Protocol, and  Ankr to run the hackathon while the acceleration is funded by 50M Blockchain for India Fund set up by Binance and WazirX in March 2020. 

As interesting as this could be, it’s the first time a leading exchange has partnered up with a conglomerate like Google to roll out a DeFi focused hackathon. 

The hackathon is based on decentralized financing products, indicating that applications around mini-tokens, blockchain datasets, blockchain-AI solutions, and more are eligible for the program.

As per reports, the three-month long hackathon cum accelerator program will reward its winners from a pool of 30 lakhs INR ($40,000 approx.) along with funding opportunities via Polaris which offers two types of seed investments i.e. Kickstart ($5000 – $20,000) and Blitzscale ($20,000 – $100k). 

“India has been one of the most interesting countries Binance has tapped into! We’ve seen entrepreneurs create robust blockchain-based solutions from scratch and scale it. With the second largest blockchain developer base in the world – India has already kickstarted the revolution of decentralization and we’re here to fuel it!” – Changpeng Zhao (CZ), CEO at Binance 

In reference to CZ’s quote, India stands second to the US in blockchain development boasting new forecasts of taking over the US by 2024 in software development. 

With Binance expanding its market share in the crypto-verse, the DeFi space has more room to grow in India. The official blogpost by Binance stated that the program is in line with their vision of “spreading financial sovereignty”. 

India accounts for 18% of the global population with 1.3 billion people it stands as the second-largest populous in the world. Amongst these, over 190 million people are unbanked!

There’s no doubt that freedom of money is important and how it will make vital changes for economies in the near future. Several luminaries have predicted major changes in the banking sector, especially amid a global pandemic that has altered the course of businesses worldwide. 

Although, prior to the pandemic, the general public didn’t recognize the gaps and challenges in the financial ecosystem. The pandemic has given a sense of depth, as economies have faced unprecedented shifts, with recessions being seen already in many countries’ economic forecasts.

The current financial systems are sustained on centralized decision making which history has proved is crumbling right now. The entire financial system – public, private, co-operative banks along with Non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), and more have lack of money-market coordination, no uniformity in interests, absence of accountability, expensive transaction cost and inconvenient banking facilities. In addition to high rates of corruption, and fraudulence. Something that the DeFi products and solutions are made to eradicate.

As we know, the economic repercussions of the pandemic cannot be solved via temporary solutions, the change is real and mandatory. Although, India with its love-hate relationship with digital assets has yet not taken a stance on the regulatory side of the things.

Coingape spoke to Nischal Shetty, the CEO at WazirX and initiator of the #IndiaWantsCrypto trend on Twitter. When asked about his take on the hackathon, he said:

“India is a land of technologists. Slowly, we’re seeing a massive shift in the interest of Indian tech talent. More and more youth are looking at Blockchain and crypto as a career option, or as a space to build in”. 

Additionally, stats provided by WazirX say that from the time it has been acquired by Binance to date it has seen a growth of 1416% in its monthly trading volume.