Think.Nxt With Raghav: Is Exchanging Crypto for Trade Same As the Barter System?

Watch the first episode of the 'Think.Nxt With Raghav' series, where experts discuss the very nature of cryptocurrency and if it can replace currency or money as a medium of exchange.

(Image: The Quint/Aroop Mishra)

Think.Nxt With Raghav is a brand new series available only on The Quint, where our Editor-in-Chief Raghav Bahl explores the extraordinary intersection of India's destiny with disruptive technologies which are rapidly changing the world order.

In the first episode of Think.Nxt With Raghav, The Quint’s Editor-in-Chief Raghav Bahl talks about whether cryptocurrency is even a currency or is it a store of value, like an asset.

“Are we going to medieval times where we are trying to use an asset as a currency, like the good old barter system, where you trade a tonne of onion for, say, a tonne of wheat?,” Raghav Bahl asked.

Weighing in on the nature of cryptocurrency, KoinX Founder Punit Agarwal said that he looks at crypto as being similar to stocks. “Just as companies get listed on the stock exchange and people buy their shares keeping in mind the future prospects of the companies, in cryptocurrency, there are projects which are trying to solve a problem that exists in the real world in a decentralised way, which brings value to cryptocurrency,” Agarwal explained.

'Even India Thinking Of Digital Currency': WazirX Founder

Adding to this, WazirX Founder Siddharth Menon said that the evolution of cryptocurrency is not new and that many monetary systems have witnessed a similar journey in how they got adapted en masse.

Although he admitted that crypto coins are often used for the “wrong reasons,” he asserted that they are also being used for the right reasons by embracing technology.

“Now even India is thinking of getting a digital token in the country,” Menon said. He added that cryptocurrency, by-and-large, is a technology-based medium which makes it easy to do transactions.

Watch the first episode of the Think.Nxt With Raghav series, where experts discuss the very nature of cryptocurrency and if it can replace fiat currency as a medium of exchange.

Stay tuned for the entire episode, coming soon only on The Quint.