According to a recent Google and Boston Consulting Group BCG study, India's digital payments industry will grow to $500 bln by 2020.

The key trends mentioned in the study present a viable opportunity for Bitcoin adoption to grow in the world’s second most populous country.

Non-cash overtaking cash by 2023

The study includes the prediction of a ten times growth in merchant acceptance network by 2020, payment-driven consumption and not the other way round, and non-cash payment transactions overtaking cash payments by 2023.

India’s payment landscape has mirrored four major global shifts that demonstrate the country’s huge potential for exponential growth in the next four years.

The shifts are the ongoing digital and technology revolution which has led to increased penetration of smartphones and internet on mobile; entry of several non-banking institutions that offer payment solutions; customers becoming more demanding and expectant for instantaneous one-touch payment solutions; and progressive changes in regulatory framework.

As a result, the authors of the study say they expect the digital payments space to witness disruption very soon based on certain key trends.

Viable opportunity for Bitcoin

For Kumar Gaurav, head of Cashaa peer-to-peer marketplace that connects cash senders with cryptocurrency traders, making Bitcoin - or any cryptocurrency - popular in India is the most needed by the industry right now.

He says in a chat with Cointelegraph:

“At this stage, any initiative to make Bitcoin or any cryptocurrency popular in India is very good news for Cashaa or for any marketplace which runs on cryptocurrency. Bitcoin exchanges are a very important member of our economy and they help to maintain liquidity in the market.”

Gaurav’s statement comes in the wake of Coinsecure’s launch of its real time mobile trading application for Android. Coinsecure, an Indian Bitcoin exchange, introduces the app that is ideally for active traders on-the-go to target India's ever growing mobile user base.

He adds:

“I see it as an addition of a brick to the Indian Bitcoin ecosystem towards building a huge market which we all are hoping for in India. I am very happy with the OKcoin and Coinsecure initiative which is helping to move slowly in positive direction, especially for Cashaa which holds a potential for having high volume due to P2P nature and needs a much more bigger ecosystem which India does not have and we all need to build it.”

Next Step for Bitcoin

From its desktop web platform, the Indian exchange sees the move to a mobile app for multiple devices as the next step in bringing Bitcoin to India and meeting Indians’ demands.

This is the first real time an android trading app that allows for BTC to INR and INR to BTC in India. Coinsecure CEO Mohit Kalra, sees the new trading app as an opportunity to put a disruptive technology like Bitcoin in the hands over 190 million smartphone users in the country.

Coinsecure’s efforts will complement Indian Bitcoin wallet service provider Zebpay’s which is set to secure a $5 mln funding round by October 2016 from prominent US-based venture capital firms.

Startups like Zebpay have been tapping into the dominant remittance market based on the limitations of traditional banking services, an increasing number of workers and millennials seeking cheaper alternatives for remittances and payment settlement services.

Zebpay reached a 100,000 active user milestone in 10 months with a rapid user growth at 20,000 users per month.