New York-based Consensys, an epicentre for ethereum blockchain technology, has entered India and is looking to grow the ethereum blockchain ecosystem in the country, a top official said.

Over the next 12 months, Consensys wants to build a “very strong” ethereum blockchain-developer community numbering 20,000-50,000, Kavita Gupta, Head of Consensys India, told BusinessLine.

“It is for this that we are launching our first education programme in India in June. We have not done this anywhere else. We are going to offer a number of courses and train people,” she said.

India has a lot of talented engineers and the base is already there, she said, adding that three-to-four weeks of training could make some of them the best engineers in Solidity (a programming language for writing smart contracts and whose syntax is on the lines of Javascript).

Kavita said that Consensys, which has opened an office in Delhi, has already hired six people in India, and plans to hire another 40-50 in the coming months.

Ethereum is basically a global computer network with its own virtual currency called ‘ether’. One would need ‘ether’ to pay other computers on the network to complete tasks. It is not free to use the network. ‘Ether’ is sometimes referred to as a virtual cousin of ‘bitcoin’, a popular cryptocurrency.

Consensys was founded three years ago by Joseph Lubin, who is the co-founder of the ethereum blockchain network. It has offices in more than 23 countries, with about 700 employees on its rolls.

Initial projects

Kavita said that Consensys is now looking to do projects for Andhra Pradesh government in the areas of supply chain and land titling. Talks are also on with Niti Aayog for a project on land titling, she said.

Products for financial sector

Stating that Consensys has some of the best solutions for the financial sector with respect to settlements or custodial solutions, she said that talks are on with three private sector banks to offer ethereum blockchain technology-based solutions to them.

“We have 48 solutions which cover almost every industry. All these solutions will be slowly available in India over time,” she said.

Top 10 solutions

Consensys India is now in the process of identifying the top 10 solutions that could be brought to India.

“We are definitely bringing supply chain, banking solutions, citizen journalism, and music industry. We are identifying the top 10 solutions for the Indian market,” she said.