After Burger King, Kodak, Telegram, and Bank of England, India’s fourth-largest telecom giant Reliance Jio, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Group, is now set to launch its own cryptocurrency dubbed as JioCoin.
Akash Ambani, the elder son of Mukesh Ambani is leading a 50-member team, working on blockchain technology for the JioCoin project, reports Livemint.
Within 15 months of its launch, Reliance Jio claims to have reached 160 Mn subscribers. Driven by Jio ‘s expansive network, the company has launched a number of products since then and has forayed into media and entertainment. This includes Jio Phones, Jionet WiFi, JioTV, Jio Cinema, Jio Music, Jio Money and Jio Switch.
The company has also given other major telcos of the country such as Airtel, Idea, and Vodafone a run for their money, pushing them to either consolidate their offerings or change their customer acquisition strategy.
Launching its own cryptocurrency JioCoin is being seen as another attempt to bolster the JioMoney business of the Jio ecosystem, while also enhancing users’ consumability on Jio offerings.
“The company plans to hire 50 young professionals with an average age of 25 years for Akash Ambani to lead. There are multiple applications of blockchain (for the company). The team would work on various blockchain products. One (application) is cryptocurrency. We can deploy smart contracts. It can be used in supply chain management logistics. Loyalty points could altogether be based on JioCoin,” said one of the Jio employees to LiveMint.
In India, Reliance Jio is the first Indian large-scale company to launch its own cryptocurrency JioCoin, which could potentially encourage other players, particularly in India’s banking and oil/energy sectors to follow the same route.
