Over the past decade, blockchain has emerged as a transformative technology and has set into motion the wheels for the next wave of evolution of the internet. Countries across the world are fast realizing the potential to fundamentally reshape businesses through the web3 revolution. As a result, a massive uptick of 880% in the global adoption of Blockchain and related assets was recorded last year.
Despite a population of over 1.3 billion, if India is known for anything in web3 it is usually for having an oscillating opinion on crypto.
This is evidently discouraging projects to include developing countries like India, Philippines and Nigeria in their target demographics.
In this research-driven article, we explore why any web3 startups must consider developing countries like India to future-proof their business models.
Where is the Attention in Web3 Right Now?
A report by PwC predicts that Blockchain will boost global GDP by $1.76 trillion by 2030. Many firms are leveraging this technology to cater to the niche needs of the target demographic and have seen massive success.
However, most of these projects tend to focus only on the demographic in select countries with a “tech-savvy crowd” like the US, Canada or the EU. But doing that involves a huge compromise on a largely missed out market — developing countries.
Interestingly, the report places Asia to benefit the most from blockchains among other continents and for good reason.
With its robust web3 developer workforce, and strong push for digital transformation in the administration, India has become a hotbed for venture capital investments, especially in the blockchain space.
India’s Blockchain Trajectory & Market Size
The global web3 market size reached an astounding $3.2 billion in 2021 and is expected to register a CAGR of 43.7% to reach $81.5 billion in 2030. India’s crypto market is currently one of the world’s fastest-growing cryptocurrency markets, which surged by 641% from 2020 to 2021.
But what is this phenomenon?
Studies place a positive correlation between national developmental factors and the adoption of blockchain. Some of these factors are:
- Education levels
- Human Development Index
- Extent of network readiness
- Degree of regulatory effectiveness
- Net effect on Gross Domestic Product
Growth Trajectory & VC movements
Global investors are bullish on India’s ecosystem of 4 million developers and its extensive web3 community. Over $600 million was raised by Indian web3 startups from international institutional and retail investors last year, recording an increase of 15% from last year.
There has been a significant bet placed on web3 technologies aiding in the acceleration of India’s ambitions for economic and financial inclusion. This investment is coupled with India’s world-class software expertise and evokes positive investor sentiment.
UAE-based VC firm Cypher Capital recently announced the launch of a global $100 million blockchain-focused fund of which 40% of the amount would be focused on emerging blockchain and web3 startups in India.
Education Levels and Labor Availability
India has a pool of highly-skilled workers, especially in the software and ITeS sector and is the world’s largest exporter of IT & ITeS services. Experts estimate that India will have the highest number of Web3 developers and the most Web3 consumers in the world in the next year. This makes India a favourable playground for launching web3 startups as well.
Indian GDP and Governmental Support
With these innovations powered by blockchain, countries like India will see estimated returns exceeding $50 billion to their GDP.
Due to this, various states have been coming up with Blockchain accelerator funds to help nurture and support early-stage growth-focused web3 startups with funding, government accreditation and market readiness support.
Major use cases
Blockchain Gaming
India is home to 420 Million online gamers, the second highest in the world. The Indian gaming market was estimated to be valued at $1.02 billion in 2020, and it is expected to reach USD 4.88 billion by 2026 with a CAGR of 20.83%.
One of the trends in the gaming sector is said to be blockchain gaming, comprising of Play-to-Earn and NFT-based games.
Decentralized Finance & dApps
Experts predict that Web3 will transform regular financial processes into entirely transparent, automated procedures built on secure and efficient transactions.
With the overall fintech business opportunity in India anticipated to reach $1.3 trillion by 2025, expanding at a CAGR of 31% between 2021 and 2025, DeFi solutions and dApps will surely be the need of the hour.
Metaverse
Metaverse, AI and VR are some of the top trends in digitization across the world and India is no exception to it. India’s top IT firms are working on initiatives to explore the Metaverse, and are using blockchain to enhance the customer experience, retail, employee engagement, virtual banks, NFT marketplaces, virtual automobile dealerships, and more.
Powering The Creator Economy
India’s digital economy is expected to be an $800 billion market in 2030. Web3 empowers creators with tools and better monetization opportunities.
The potential of web3 to shake the power balances in typical creator economy dynamics is promising and is expected to further accelerate the growth of the digital economy.
How Onmeta Can Help Crypto Projects Worldwide Capture a Market Share in the Indian Web3 Ecosystem
Onmeta provides the world’s quickest on and off-ramp solutions (API/widget integration) to web3 dapps to help them improve their user experience and accelerate their adoption by mainstream users.
We aim to become a fully interoperable solution that supports all major fiat currencies as well as all tokens across all major blockchains. Currently, it is the only service provider supporting INR fiat on and off ramp and supports 4000+ tokens across Polygon, Ethereum, Arbitrum and BNB blockchains with work underway for supporting 20+ blockchains and 5+ emerging markets fiat currencies by end of this year. It has 15+ dApps currently using its solution including Pillow.fund, Ticketh.io, NFTically, Unifarm, Alive.house, Polysports, Growspace and Komet Wallet.
With Onmeta, web3 projects can quickly and easily tap into the fast-growing Indian and other emerging markets in SEA and unlock the next wave of growth.
Sankrit K, Author
