India

Indian blockchain firm 5ire secures $100M to fund sustainability-focused project

An Indian development firm looks to create a bridge between sustainability and blockchain technology with a proprietary layer-1 protocol incentivizing the use of UN sustainable development goals.

An ambitious sustainability-based blockchain project has secured $100 million in a Series A funding round to drive its development.

Indian entrepreneurs Pratik Gauri and Prateek Dwivedi have spearheaded the foundation of a fifth-generation blockchain network known as 5ire, which looks to incentivize the implementation of United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs) for users of its system.

The project has now attracted a total of $121 million in investment. A seed round secured $21 million from notable tech investors including Alphabit, Marshland Capital, Launchpool Labs and Moonrock Capital.

A subsequent Series A fundraising round secured a $100 million investment from United Kingdom-based conglomerate SRAM & MRAM. 5ire intends to expand its business into Asia, North America and Europe in addition to its operations center in India.

5ire presents a novel use case for blockchain technology that looks to promote practices that are aligned with United Nations SDGs. Its 5ireChain network is described as a first-layer, sustainability-driven and fifth-generation blockchain.

5ireChain is operated by a unique “sustainable proof of stake consensus protocol,” which will rank node validators based on the number of sustainable and ESG practices they follow. As its white paper explains, nodes are assigned weights based on  metrics which include their stake, reliability, randomized voting, sustainability score and previous nomination.

The firm told Cointelegraph that it will use its sizable capital investment to bankroll an aggressive growth strategy in order to implement its set of use cases and develop services for businesses looking to use 5ireChain-based solutions.

Related: ‘People should invest in all of the major layer-1s,’ says a veteran trader

The company claims to employ more than 100 staff and expects to continue to grow rapidly as it scales up its offering in the tech development and venture capital space.

5ire hopes to weather the current slump in the cryptocurrency markets courtesy of its business model being a bridge between blockchain and sustainability. It intends to build use cases with stakeholders from governments, Fortune 500 companies and family offices

Bollywood A-lister-backed GARI token plunge sparks rug pull rumors

GARI token was launched by Salman Khan, an A-list celebrity from Bollywood, with an aim to help Indian creators monetize their content over a short video application Chingari.

The domino effect of the 2022 bear market, which saw the downfall of numerous crypto ecosystems and tokens over several months, caught up to GARI token as it tanked over 83% in value in a matter of hours on Monday. While GARI Network brushed off the development as a “market event,” investors suspect a rug pull event. 

GARI token was launched by Salman Khan, an A-list celebrity from Bollywood, with an aim to help Indian creators monetize their content over a short video application Chingari and its nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and Trading View show that GARI maintained a fairly steady value, averaging out to roughly $0.60 over the past six months amid a shaky market.

GARI’s bearish movement began on June 20, however, its long-standing support gave away on June 4 when the token crashed 83.29% to its all-time lowest trading value of $0.13. Soon after, investors started comparing the situation to the Terra (LUNA), now rebranded Terra Classic (LUNC), and TerraUSD (UST) collapse, with one of the members calling the actor “Salman Kwon.”

Taking control of the situation, GARI Network conducted an internal evaluation and found no evident hacks that could topple the token’s prices, stating:

“So far this looks like a market event. We assure our community that ALL tokens are safe in the respective reserves.”

The team also revealed being in talks with Indian crypto exchanges to further assess the situation. Additionally, GARI network also planned to host an AMA session to clarify doubts and improve investor sentiment. However, the spectators were welcomed by a 404 error when they tried to join the session.

While previously speaking to Cointelegraph, Chingari’s spokesperson said that the GARI tokens are used to “connect and transact with their counterparties, place governance votes, and catalyze platform engagement and user base growth.” Considering that not even the backing of an A-list celebrity from Bollywood could save GARI token from the wrath of the bear market, investors are advised to make informed investments upon due diligence. In other words, do your own research (DYOR).

GARI Network has not yet responded to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

Related: Indian crypto trading volumes slump following hefty taxes

Soon after India enforced its new crypto tax law, which requires investors to pay a 1% tax deduction at source (TDS) on every transaction, crypto exchanges reported a massive slump in trading volumes.

CoinDCX, India’s first crypto unicorn reported a 90.9% decline in daily trading volumes while crypto exchange BitBNS witnessed a 37.4% drop.

CBDCs can “kill” private crypto: India’s RBI deputy governor to IMF

“One of the reasons it is so successful is because it’s simple,” he added while comparing the Unified Payments Interface’s (UPI) growth with blockchain technology.

In discussion with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), T Rabi Sankar, the deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), reflected an anti-crypto stance as he spoke about India’s potential to disrupt the crypto and blockchain ecosystem. 

Rabi Sankar started the conversation by highlighting the success of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India’s in-house fiat-based peer-to-peer payments system — which has seen an average adoption and transaction growth of 160% per anum over the last five years.

“One of the reasons it is so successful is because it’s simple,” he added while comparing UPI’s growth with blockchain technology. According to Rabi Sankar:

“Blockchain, which was introduced six-eight years before UPI started, even today is being referred to as a potentially revolutionary technology. [Blockchain] use cases haven’t really been established that much at the speed it initially was hoped for.”

However, the RBI official confirmed that a large population in India still lacks access to UPI-based banking due to the unavailability of smartphones. To counter this, the Indian government is working on offline payment platforms, some of which have started rolling out to the masses.

Rabi Sankar also stated that banks will remain crucial for providing liquidity services to the general public in India, warning that technology is merely a tool and cannot be used to create currencies:

“A currency needs an issuer or it needs intrinsic value. Many cryptocurrencies which are neither are still being accepted at face value. Not just by gullible investors but also the experts, policymakers or academicians.”

He further stated that RBI does not believe that stablecoins, like Tether (USDT), should be accepted blindly as 1-to-1 fiat pegged currencies. Speaking about the advantages of a digital rupee, Rabi Sankar said:

“We believe that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) could actually be able to kill whatever little case that could be for private cryptocurrencies.”

Related: India to roll out CBDC using a graded approach: RBI Annual Report

On May 28, India’s central bank, RBI, proposed a three-step graded approach for rolling out CBDC “with little or no disruption” to the traditional financial system.

As Cointelegraph reported, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman first revealed the plan to launch a CBDC in 2022-23 with an aim to provide a “big boost” to the digital economy. RBI’s report revealed that the central bank is currently experimenting to develop a CBDC that addresses a wide range of issues within the traditional system.

CBDCs can “kill” private crypto: India’s RBI deputy governor to IMF

“One of the reasons it is so successful is because it’s simple,” he added while comparing the Unified Payments Interface’s (UPI) growth with blockchain technology.

In discussion with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), T Rabi Sankar, the deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), reflected an anti-crypto stance as he spoke about India’s potential to disrupt the crypto and blockchain ecosystem. 

Rabi Sankar started the conversation by highlighting the success of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India’s in-house fiat-based peer-to-peer payments system, which has seen an average adoption and transaction growth of 160% per anum over the last five years.

“One of the reasons it is so successful is because it’s simple,” he added while comparing UPI’s growth with blockchain technology. According to Rabi Sankar:

“Blockchain, which was introduced six-eight years before UPI started, even today is being referred to as a potentially revolutionary technology. [Blockchain] use cases haven’t really been established that much at the speed it initially was hoped for.”

However, the RBI official confirmed that a large population in India still lacks access to UPI-based banking due to the unavailability of smartphones. To counter this, the Indian government is working on offline payment platforms, some of which have started rolling out to the masses.

Rabi Sankar also stated that banks will remain crucial for providing liquidity services to the general public in India, warning that technology is merely a tool and cannot be used to create currencies:

“A currency needs an issuer or it needs intrinsic value. Many cryptocurrencies which are neither are still being accepted at face value. Not just by gullible investors but also the experts, policymakers or academicians.”

He further stated that RBI does not believe that stablecoins, like Tether (USDT), should be accepted blindly as 1-to-1 fiat pegged currencies. Speaking about the advantages of a digital rupee, Rabi Sankar said:

“We believe that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) could actually be able to kill whatever little case that could be for private cryptocurrencies.”

Related: India to roll out CBDC using a graded approach: RBI Annual Report

On May 28, India’s central bank, RBI, proposed a three-step graded approach for rolling out CBDC “with little or no disruption” to the traditional financial system.

As Cointelegraph reported, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman first revealed the plan to launch a CBDC in 2022-23 with an aim to provide a “big boost” to the digital economy. RBI’s report revealed that the central bank is currently experimenting to develop a CBDC that addresses a wide range of issues within the traditional system.