Unocoin, an India-based bitcoin company, now allows users to convert blockchain assets into bitcoin. To make this happen, they partnered with ShapeShift, a blockchain asset exchange.
This partnership, which uses ShapeShift’s API, will enable Unocoin users to convert popular blockchain assets such as Ether, Monero, Zcash, and Dash directly into BTC and then if desired, into INR.
ShapeShift founder, Erik Voorhees stated:
“When I first got involved with Bitcoin in 2011, it was mostly a Western community. It’s been tremendously exciting to see Unocoin help bring this technology into India. ShapeShift is very proud to partner with them for digital asset exchange.”
There’s an emerging range of blockchain-based digital assets that serve different purposes; i.e. enabling smart contracts, enhancing financial privacy, etc. What is common among all of these blockchain assets is that they all run on open mining algorithms. In India, there has been very little interest in alternative blockchain assets due to it being difficult to convert digital assets into bitcoin and INR. Unocoin is taking the first step towards solving this problem.
Sunny Ray, Co-founder, and President of Unocoin said:
“Many view bitcoin as digital gold and we’re always looking for ways to make it easier for people to get into bitcoin. Many people learn about bitcoin through other crypto currencies and once they do, we’d like to give them an easy way to convert their blockchain assets into bitcoin. In the meantime, we’re keeping a close eye on the open blockchain ecosystem and may or may not introduce deeper integrations in the future.”
Overall, this partnership will drive more interest in the blockchain ecosystem and help drive user adoption for the emerging cryptocurrency space within India. More and more people are becoming interested in bitcoin via blockchain assets and integration like this will help drive greater bitcoin adoption in India.