How India is emerging as a hub of blockchain and DeFi innovation

The fintech community has often viewed innovation and regulation as opposing forces, and cryptocurrency is no different. In 2019, as US exchanges started delisting tokens amid regulatory uncertainty, crypto firm Circle published a blog post in which it accused US regulators of “chilling” innovation.

However, the US government isn’t the only one to leave blockchain entrepreneurs hanging. In India, the cryptocurrency scene was effectively put on hold indefinitely in 2018 when the Reserve Bank of India issued a ban on digital assets. Cryptocurrency trading was confined to peer-to-peer sites, and many Indian crypto entrepreneurs ended up taking their ideas abroad. 

 However, in March 2020, the Supreme Court of India overturned the ban, opening the floodgates for the cryptocurrency markets to a population of 1.3 billion people. As the crypto markets soared to new all-time highs earlier this year, daily trading volumes on India’s biggest crypto exchange surpassed $2 billion, up from $500 million two months prior.  

Now, India is becoming a veritable hub for blockchain and DeFi, with entrepreneurs stepping forward to put their ideas into practice. 

Laying the Groundwork

Even before the ban was lifted, there were signs that development had been happening on the infrastructural level. In early 2019, Matic Network emerged as one of the select few projects to have its token sale hosted on the Binance Launchpad IEO platform and also gained early backing from Coinbase Ventures. The platform, a layer two scaling solution for Ethereum, had been founded by three developers in Mumbai. Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal, and Anurag Arjun convened around the idea of using the Plasma scaling technology to create a more user-friendly blockchain platform. Now, Matic, rebranded to Polygon, has one of the fastest-growing application ecosystems and platform tokens in the space. 

In particular, Polygon is now hosting its own suite of DeFi applications, attracting users looking to escape Ethereum’s transaction fees, which have become prohibitively high at an average above $20. However, as the platform is Ethereum-compatible, building on Polygon means users can continue to interact with the Ethereum ecosystem of apps. 

Furthermore, while the platform is proving attractive to migratory Ethereum apps, such as Aave and 1inch, it’s also pulling in Indian DeFi innovators. 

Layer 2 DEXs

QuickSwap

Uniswap demonstrated that the DEX is among the most vital organs of any DeFi ecosystem. There needs to be an engine for liquidity and the incentives to provide it as the foundational layer for DeFi to exist. 

As such, QuickSwap is the Uniswap of Polygon. It’s founded by Indian engineer Sameep Singhania, who has worked on DeFi projects including Bonded Finance and ParaSwap.

QuickSwap is a fork of Ethereum’s Uniswap decentralized exchange; therefore, it offers many comparable benefits to users, including the opportunity to earn yields. The project is currently incentivizing…