In 2014, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi outlined a vision for a “Digital India,” a place in which all citizens in all parts of the country are connected, informed and part of a global economy. Other hallmarks of this new India would be a transparent government with strong ties to its citizens where government services could be accessed from mobile devices. EPaisa , a free point-of-sale app, has become India’s first mobile point-of-sale provider to integrate bitcoin as a payment option, becoming a part of this new, Digital India. “To digitize India, you need to digitize the point of sale,” says ePaisa’s CEO and co-founder Siddharth Arora. EPaisa was founded in 2012. “Bitcoin is currently becoming more and more popular in India because there is no need to provide any payment information,” says Arora. “However, the issue of accepting it has become a timely question for Indian merchants.” The ePaisa app comes with a credit-card sized card reader to securely accept chip-and-PIN card payments and has now integrated Bitcoin, prepaid wallet and invoice payments for businesses. Merchants can request a bitcoin payment by letting their customers scan a QR code and receive the funds in their bank account the next day, free of charge. EPaisa works on any smartphone or tablet in India. In 2013, ePaisa was awarded TechCrunch’s “Most Disruptive Company” and made it to the 2014 Global Red Herring Top 100 as well as Asia’s Top 100 awards. The app works in 32 languages, it is free and works on all smartphones and tablets running on Android and iOS. They plan on introducing Apple Pay, Android Pay and other forms of payments for the Indian business owner. With options like contactless payments, Apple Pay and bitcoin,” says Arora, “customers expect to pay however they want. Given this […]
