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India's Demonetization Is Causing Bitcoin To Surge Inside The Country

A bitcoin is essentially a digital token or code mimicking a virtual currency. With India's recent  demonetization , the volume of bitcoins being traded there has substantially increased to nearly two times its prior levels, pushing its value to new highs. Since the early days of demonetization, bitcoin prices in India have been hovering in an upper range of $866 to $896 a piece; in a mere 18 days after the demonetization speech of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the price of bitcoins on Zebpay, which claims to have over 130,000 users, had surged from $757 to $1,020 (per bitcoin), whereas in the U.S. (the benchmark market for most cryptocurrencies), bitcoins are trending at $770 apiece, marking a clear premium on the Indian bitcoin exchanges. Some part of this price buoyancy in bitcoins can be attributed to market-making initiatives of Indian exchanges. In order to maintain a tight order book, exchanges increased the bitcoin price when there was high demand. Post-demonetiza

The Most Forward-Looking Gadgets I Tried In 2016

As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gadget reviewer. As a kid, my favorite reading material, in addition to American comic books and manga, were video game review magazines like GamePro and EGM. When I got to high school and started making my own money, I began spending most of my paychecks on gadgets. I still remember dropping $800 (my entire month's earnings as a teen) on an Archos PMA (portable media player), which was basically a very ancient version of the iPad, way back in 2001. Then in 2003, I got the T-Mobile Sidekick (aka  the Danger Hiptop , rebranded for no particular reason because U.S. phone carriers like to interfere with every product), which was sort of a spiritual ancestor to the Android operating system. Anyway, long story short: I am a gadget geek, and I've been very fortunate to be able to write about gadgets for a living right now. Because I live just an hour away from Shenzhen --  hardware capital of the world  -- I have gotten my

India's Economy Surpasses That Of Great Britain

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May stands amidst Hindu priests after offering prayers to the Hindu deity Lord Shiva during a visit to Someshwara Temple in Bangalore on November 8, 2016. (MANJUNATH KIRAN/AFP/Getty Images) As Theresa May returned home from her unsuccessful visit to India, she would bear witness to another relegation for the UK: India’s economy will be larger than the UK’s, for the first time in more than 100 years. This dramatic shift has been driven by India’s rapid economic growth over the past 25 years as well as Britain's recent woes, particularly with the Brexit. Once expected to overtake the UK GDP in 2020, the  surpasso  has been accelerated by the nearly 20% decline in the value of the pound over the last 12 months, consequently UK’s 2016 GDP of GBP 1.87 trillion converts to $2.29 trillion at exchange rate of ~GBP 0.81 per $1, whereas India’s GDP of INR 153 trillion converts to $2.30 trillion at exchange rate of ~INR 66.6 per $1. Furthermore, t

How To Break Into A New Market

Most entrepreneurs are creatures of habit, whether they realize it or not.  The  experiences they gain  while battling to understand their market, connect with their customers, and make the sale tend to stick with them over time. When an entrepreneur finds a formula that works, however, these habits become both a blessing and a curse. Successful entrepreneurs can easily fall victim to the “illusory superiority complex,” which leads them to believe that their past success in their core business translates seamlessly to other ventures that are not directly connected to their area of expertise. Of course, it is called the “illusory” superiority complex for a reason. Very rarely does expertise translate as easily as we hope. When entrepreneurs fall into this trap, the results are often embarrassing. Perhaps the most common scenario in which this holds true is when a company tries to break into a new market. When teams try to apply their existing model to a new market, more