With Every New Technology Comes The Need for Strong Regulations To Enable Full Potential: Kavin Bharti Mittal

Kavin Bharti Mittal is the Founder and CEO of Hike. Fuelled by its vision to unlock new economic opportunities for the masses, the Hike team is building Rush Gaming Universe (RGU) - a new mobile-only virtual gaming world. RGU is building for a new era of gaming, one where players will participate in a new kind of game economy where they are also owners of the networks and economies they help create. 

The RGU community has over 3.9M gamers battling out over 10 incredibly rich and immersive casual games and is distributing over $251M in winnings annually (in just 22 months since launch). Hike’s investors include JumpCrypto, Tribe Capital, Republic, Polygon, Tiger Global, Tencent, and individuals such as Rajeev Misra, Lee Fixel, Elad Gil, and Mark Pincus.

What are the Web3 players’ expectations from India’s G20 presidency?
Imagine India's Internet Economy reaches $1T in value & 15-20 per cent of that is owned by consumers. It would move India forward decades in a span of a few years. For the first time in human history, the blockchain finally enables consumers to own the value associated with their time spent digitally, thus unlocking brand-new economic opportunities for them. Ownership is a tool to accrue value. With the blockchain, we also have this tool available in the digital world.

With every new technology comes the need for strong regulations and guidelines to enable the technology’s full potential. During its G20 presidency, India should take a proactive approach to shape the future of the Web3 space by proposing a clear set of guidelines that can be adapted globally. This would include the classification of private tokens as assets, taxation policies in-line with the existing tax system, ensuring that NFT & token transactions fall within any foreign exchange limits (such as LRS for India), and strict KYC in line with guidelines laid out by the country’s central bank.

India should also invest in public-private partnerships to invest in education and training programs to develop local talent and use its position as a G20 leader to advocate for the Web 3 industry on the global stage. Through these efforts, India has the potential to give the world a much-needed nudge over the next few years and put us on a path to create brand new economic opportunities for citizens globally.

Is India’s position as President of the G20 likely to impact the outcome?
As the President of the G20, India has the ability to drive a conversation on enabling Web 3 globally. India is home to one of the biggest internet markets in the world. The success of initiatives such as UPI is being watched and replicated globally. India’s technological capabilities and colossal talent pool come under an ever bigger spotlight and what better way to advocate for creativity and produce new economic opportunities than by showing the way itself.

Why is there a pressing need for global consensus?
There is a pressing need for global consensus on Web 3 regulation due to the globalized nature of the world. The G20 nations account for 85 percent of the global economy. They are home to half of the world’s internet users, with India boasting over a quarter of the G20 nation's combined population, half of which are on the Internet.

These countries can set a global standard for governing and utilizing decentralized technologies. If we can reach a global consensus on these issues, we can ensure that these technologies are used fairly, transparently, and beneficial for all stakeholders.

Will Web3 players participate in consultations on the issue?
As web3 technologies continue to gain more and more attention and adoption, the Web3 community needs to have a say in the discussions and decisions being made to shape this technology’s future. We are keen to collaborate with the government and other relevant stakeholders to facilitate the regulation of the Web3 ecosystem in India and worldwide.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that the next wave of value creation will come from a financial world that is programmable end to end. India could be at the center of this next wave and boost its economy to strengthen its position on the world stage. On similar lines, we feel utmost pride that the RBI had the foresight to adopt and launch a CBDC quickly. This has put the blocks in place for a programmable INR (CBDC-R) that might generate INR appeal outside of India and help to strengthen our currency further.

Today, India has a robust financial system and cyber security infrastructure, and web3 can offer a state-of-the-art addition. We firmly believe India can become an international technology superpower within the next few decades by taking advantage of its demographic dividend. To make this happen, we must embrace the technology of web3 and decentralized technologies and devise a concrete plan and roadmap to ensure its long-term success.