More than a million dollars, getting the green signal for Laxmicoin will be exciting: Mitts Daki, founder

Bitcoin, the virtual digital currency valued at billions of dollars, has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. In the light of recent reports of a foiled heist to steal from a Bitcoin Bank and government demands for regulation, the future of Bitcoin is uncertain. Laxmicoin made its appearance during the time when Bitcoin value was fluctuating.

YourStory spoke to Mitts Daki, founder of Laxmicoin, who shares with us the details about Laxmicoin and how he is still awaiting a green signal from the Reserve Bank of India for clarification on regulations and seeking permission to launch.

YS : How is Laxmicoin different from Bitcoin?

MD: Though Laxmicoin is primarily based on the Bitcoin algorithm, there are numerous differences like the number of coins will be more, the difficulty level of mining will be different, and the mining algorithm will be CPU based etc. We shall be releasing these details once we get the approval from the regulators.

YS: Tell us about your background?

MD: I have global experience in software development. Once I understood the concept of digital currency, I and my team saw a whole lot of business sense surrounding digital currency which seeded Laxmicoin. Since the past three years, I have been moderating opencoin.in digital currency discussion forum.

YS: Tell us in one line the tech behind Laxmicoin and various factors associated with it?

MD: Laxmicoin is a hybrid digital currency platform where few coins are pre-mined while others would be mined over a period of time. We shall make factors public, like numbers, timeline etc. at launch time.

YS: What are your views on physical currency Vs virtual currency?

MD: Without a doubt physical currency has its role to play now and in the future. However, it has fundamental issues like being non-centralized, inconvenient to carry and make payments with, easy target for thefts and so on. These shortcomings and internet penetration around the globe fueled the exploration of alternatives. Numerous surveys and research have published the wide acceptance of e-commerce. This trust in internet money transactions has made it easy for researchers to explore alternatives of fiat currencies and Laxmicoin firmly believes that 21st century belongs to open currency.

YS: Have you conducted any market research/survey in India on the virtual currency?

MD: We have conducted a market survey in Bangalore & Jaipur to understand the problems faced by small businesses and found that these could be solved up to large extent using Laxmicoin. Customers also showed huge interest in this new mode of payment as it brings a whole lot of convenience and efficiency in the system.

YS: What were some opportunities you see with Laxmicoin?

MD: In India, small and medium businesses are being charged outrageously for facilitating swipe card payments with endless restrictions. At the same time, customers have limited payment options for in-store payments which are quite inconvenient. There are numerous problems like this which could be solved using Laxmicoin. 70% of the Indian population doesn’t have access to credit/debit cards and our mission is to enable micro payments using Laxmicoin.

YS: Have Indian VC's and other investors shown interest in the virtual currency?

MD: Having got excellent response from Indian VCs, we are in the advanced stage of discussion with some well-known VCs, but it is just being delayed due to RBI raids on Bitcoin related businesses and ambiguity over regulations. Our biggest challenge today is RBI clearance otherwise we are in a good shape to launch.

Initially, we were afraid how people in India will react but now that we have got several thousand users registered on our website and 500+ email queries from businesses and individuals in India who want to use Laxmicoin, we are very optimistic.

YS: If you received a million dollars today what would you do?

MD: A million dollars is not as exciting as Finance Minister P Chidambaram discussing digital currency in the Parliament. It brings a ray of hope that sooner there would be a clear guideline from Indian regulators and we can start our operations.

YS: Do you have any advice for our readers?

MD: Feel your inner voice and don't give up. As long as there is value in your idea, there are adopters and if there is business in the idea, there are investors.

What do you think of Laxmicoin? Will it work?