After arresting seven individuals for operating a bitcoin exchange scheme, Nepal's main bank (Nepal's Rastra Bank) on August 13, 2017, issued a notice informing general audience that any trading of Bitcoin is against the law. And when such news hits the mainstream media, it is only fair that more people get to learn about this technology of Blockchain and Bitcoin. In this blog, I want to talk about how in fact using cryptocurrencies open doors to the entire world.

I have had few friends of mine tell me that they were having trouble shopping online just because they do not own a Visa or Mastercard or credit card in general. Debit cards are very common in Nepal but it is not the same when it comes to Credit cards. And these cards also have restrictions. Most of them usually work in Nepal and India only. It is not easy to obtain a card that works world wide for an average citizen who makes a decent living. In fact, opening a bank account in itself is a tough task as they require information going all the way back to grandparents and will require citizenship details and this itself is a burning issue in Nepal at the moment. There are people who are denied citizenship certificates for multitude of reasons. And so these people are marginalized from the stand point of benefits that they would otherwise receive if they had a bank account.

Now suppose cryptocurrency trading were to be legal. By this point we know that anyone with just a smartphone could very easily get access to cryptocurrencies. For example, go to nearby Bitcoin ATM, exchange cash into Bitcoins and store it to wallet of your choice. It is as easy as it sounds. There are Bitcoin ATMs popping out everywhere in countries where trading is legal. With just these few steps, an average citizen who earlier had no access to the markets outside of Nepal can now have access. So my friends who earlier had trouble shopping online because they were denied credit cards by banks, do not have to rely on credit cards anymore. You can buy gift cards using Bitcoins which you can use to get access to all the big tech platforms. This is just one example. The opportunities are endless. Furthermore, students who have great ideas but are unable to work on them because of lack of availability of scientific instruments can also benefit from this as they will have all the market place on the planet to search what they want and order from. These are just few advantages. And there is a whole blog that could be written about blockchain and its use in Nepal.

But the first step to get to the end goal is to legalize the use of cryptocurrencies and hopefully it will happen very soon. Also, jumping on the bandwagon is sometimes beneficial.