on the crypto
With increasing demand for buy bitcoin in India, especially in urban tech hubs, smart contract platforms like Ethereum are also gaining momentum.
Cosmos, promoted by the Swiss-based Interchain Foundation, is finding fertile ground especially with students such as Aditya Nalini of the Vellore Institute of Technology in South India. The institute is one of the four “ambassadors” formed by the Cosmos India community organization, founded in November 2019.
Cosmos India makes its way into the Indian crypto market
The Cosmos India community has grown from a few people in 2019 to more than 1.000 attendees in less than nine months, local organizers say, despite the pandemic. Although bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency, Nalini claims he has never owned bitcoin but has always invested in altcoins, and says there are many students who do like him.
Meanwhile, there is a bull market raging among Indian crypto exchanges. For sure Cosmos won't be the biggest cryptocurrency project of 2020. However, being a much younger project than Ethereum or Bitcoin, it's quickly gaining fame in the industry.
Unlike Bitcoin and Ethereum, which both already have strong brand identities, Cosmos is still relatively new to Indian cryptocurrency fans. This gives the project the feeling of being the "next big thing". The Cosmos interoperability project allows all the different altcoin projects to “talk and help each other instead of fighting for dominance,” Nalini said.
Academic training
In addition to meetups and ambassadorial training, Cosmos India also runs outreach programs at the Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology (NMIT) in Bangalore and the International Institute of Information Technology in Hyderabad.
For example, after working with Cosmos India, NMIT's Professor Sanjay HA said he will add a Cosmos case study to his blockchain engineering course next semester.
“What I liked about Cosmos is interoperability,” he said. "Students play a significant role in driving the narrative for any new technology in India," Singh added, speaking of academic collaborations already underway.
A strategy aimed at students
Bitcoin is still undeniably the king in the Indian crypto market. But targeted student programs can determine which rupee-altcoin pairs will soon become mainstays on locally accessible exchanges.
Ethereum's biggest strength has probably been its community building strategy, including the educational initiatives of Ethereum supporter Natalia Ameline. As for the Cosmos community, Nalini said more than 300 people signed up in less than a week for Cosmos' next hackathon, HackAtom India.
"The Ethereum and Bitcoin communities are still very large, compared to Cosmos," he said. “But it is also thanks to the advantage of being the first. […] In Cosmos India, something truly unique is the inclusion of colleges and universities in the awareness program. No other blockchain community has done this so far, ”concluded Nalini.
