The frowned upon policy includes a minimum of IDR 1 trillion (US$71.17 million) as a paid-up capital for a new trader offering future contracts for crypto assets

Cryptocurrency has been traded in Indonesia for a while now, but just recently got regulated by Indonesia’s Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency, known locally as Bappebti. It just authorised digital currencies as a trading commodity, setting an IDR 1 trillion (US$71.17 million) as the minimum paid-up capital for a new trader offering future contracts for crypto assets.

The authorisation is under regulation No.5/2019, as told by KrAsia. Since October last year, the capital of Indonesia Jakarta has gone ahead and allowed the trading to protect customers from crypto fluctuations.

Also Read: 5 Indonesian state-owned enterprises merge mobile payment services

The regulation focusses on technical provisions for the implementation of cryptocurrency exchanges, which effectively treats currencies like bitcoin as commodities to be traded legally.

“We want to give protection to people who want to invest in crypto assets so that they aren’t cheated by fraudulent sellers,” said Head of Bappepti, Indrasari Wisnu Wardhana.

Cryptocurrency exchanges have been around since 2014 amid the legality uncertainty, inflamed further by Indonesia’s Central Bank banning it as a payment option.

One of the requirements for trading cryptocurrency in the country is that the trader must pass a risk assessment that rules out that they’re being misused in money laundering schemes or the funding of terrorism. Other requirements include the client support division that the traders must possess, the employment of at least one certified security practitioner, five-years-old of transaction data, and have a server inside the country.

Despite addressing the issues in the country, this regulation has been frowned upon, especially in the country’s crypto community. Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF), for example, has an opinion that this regulation came “a bit too late”, as told by INDEF economist Bhima Yudhistira Adhinegara.

“Bitcoin prices in the last two years have fallen by 81% from US$ 18,269 at the end of 2017 to US$ 3,464 per coin in February 2019. The legal uncertainty surrounding bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in Indonesia has caused many to miss out on opportunities during the trading heydays,” said Adhinegara regarding the late policy.

More complaints from the traders also highlight the new rules that requires a high minimum capital for traders. Trading is indeed allowed, but the payment option ban from the central bank is yet to be lifted.

“Regulation is needed to support a sector, help the economy and protect people “but it should not kill an industry,” Oscar Darmawan, Chief Executive of digital asset trader Indodax, or used to be known as bitcoin.co.id, said to Channel Asia Singapore.

Darmawan felt that the amount of minimum capital level is much higher than the IDR 2.5 billion minimum paid-up capital for a futures broker of other commodities.

Also Read: Walking the walk: Three Asian crypto companies gaining real-world traction

Currently, it’s believed that there is no recorded data on the size of Indonesia’s crypto-currency market. However, people in the industry are positive that the number of investors has nearly matched that of the country’s main stock market.
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Industry experts are doubtful the new cartel can compete with Go-Jek or Ovo

In a sign of just how important Go-Jek and Ovo have become in Indonesia, five of the largest Indonesian state owned enterprises are merging their mobile payment services to compete with the two tech companies, according to Nikkei Asian Review.

The companies are in the banking and communications sector and the new mobile payments service will be called LinkAja. It is expected to launch in March.

The SOEs involved are as follows:

• Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telekom)
• Bank Mandiri
• Bank Rakyat Indonesia
• Bank Negara Indonesia
• Bank Tabungan Negara

The state-owned oil company Pertamina is expected to join the group. The future of LinkAja will probably include a move beyond just payments and into other financial services.

LinkAja will be run by Fintek Karya Nusantara, a subsidiary company of Telekom. Telekom has a 25 per cent stake in the new venture while three banks (Bank Mandir, Bank Rakyat Indonesia, Bank Negara Indonesia) will hold 20 per cent. Bank Tabungan Negara will have 7 per cent of LinkAja.

There is also talks to onboard Alipay and WeChat Pay onto the service.

As e27 reported in our ecosystem report, 2018 was the year Indonesians began to adopt digital payments (driven by Go-Jek/Ovo and the government’s move to integrate digital options into highway toll payment infrastructure).

These state-owned enterprises seem to recognise the importance of having a digital solution while recognising they have a long way to go to catch up with Go-Jek and Ovo. They seem to have decided that the only way to compete was to work together.

Because Go-Jek is so widely used as a do-everything app, its payment infrastructure was able to leverage the network affect and grow into one of the most popular mobile payment options in the country.

Ovo started as a mobile payments company and partnerships with the likes of Tokopedia have helped it grow into the next potential Indonesian unicorn. It received major investment from the Indonesian conglomerate Lippo Group and is the main payment service for Grab.

Industry experts cited by Nikkei Asian Review were skeptical that LinkAja could compete with GoJek or Ovo.

Digital wallets are seen as important by the Indonesian government, with Nikkei Asian Review citing a statistic that 50 per cent of people over the age of 15 do not have a bank account.

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Photo by Bernard Hermant on Unsplash

 

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You can also get predictions related to marriage, love life, career, or health over phone calls and chats via AstroTalk.in

He never believed in astrology, and made fun of people who followed what he termed a “pseudo science”. To him, astrology was not something a learnt and educated person would follow.

However, his destiny was already written when he was born. And this destiny brought this entrepreneur to the very pseudo science that he once rejected with derision.

Puneet Gupta’s story is a perfect example of how destiny plays a big role in one’s life, and how human beings, at times, end up doing things they never wanted or expected to do.

“I was working for investment bank BNP Paribas in India back in 2015. I was not satisfied with the corporate life and always wanted to start a company on my own. But my earlier experiences as a founder deterred me from launching another one,” he tells me.

Willy-nilly, Gupta once again decided to take the plunge.

The colleague’s prediction

“When I was typing my resignation letter, a colleague of mine came over to my desk. She told me ‘You look lost. Are you okay. Do you need any help’. I showed the resignation letter and also shared with her my past struggles as a startup founder. After listening to my story, she asked me to share my birth details and that she would tell me what I should do next. She had a fair knowledge of astrology,” Gupta says.

“But I categorically told her I did not believe in astrology. But when she started sharing some of the experiences that I had had in the past, I had no option but to believe her. It was as if she knew my past life well enough. I was still unconvinced. But she persuaded me to go ahead with the decision to quit BNP Paribas and pursue my entrepreneurial dreams,” he reveals.

She predicted then that the coming two years looked very promising for Gupta’s startup. But the business would  still face some challenges in the initial months. She also prophesied that his co-founder might leave him after two years and then the business would be pivoted. Once pivoted, it would flourish. The colleague also asked him to stay in the IT domain and explained to him how ‘Saturn’ and ‘Rahu’ in his birth chart would support IT.

As she advised, Gupta started an IT services startup, called CodeYeti, in April 2015. The business grew fast and bagged around 15-20 clients, including big ones like Yamaha. The startup also clocked a revenue of US$500,000 in the first year.

Also Read: Will US President Donald Trump get impeached anytime soon? This startup could help you predict it

“After one and half years, my co-founder (who was my school mate) came to me and said he was not happy with the services business and that he wanted to launch products. I agreed with him, and we together started investing a lot of our time researching, and then launched a few new products. But none of these products saw the light of the day. The products were shut down, and I decided to focus on the the services business again,” Gupta reveals.

“True to the prediction of my former colleague, my co-founder resigned exactly after two years of starting our business. This is when I realised that there is something about astrology that is addictive. It doesn’t matter whether you have faith in it or not, but once someone starts telling you about your future, it is very fascinating and you want to know a lot more,” he goes on.

After his co-founder’s departure, Gupta dialled his the former astrologer colleague to apprise her of the events occurred in his life, and told her that all her predictions came true. She smiled at him and asked if he wanted to check his birth chart once again to know what future holds for him.

“I paused for a moment. And then I proposed an idea: how about I start a product in the field of astrology and I become your first customer?’,” Gupta adds as he narrates the story. “This was the beginning of AstroTalk.in.”

The beginning

Launched in October 2017, Noida (near Delhi)-based AstroTalk is an online astrology predictions destination. One can talk to an astrologer over phone, or over chats, and get answers to all his/her worries by seeing the future life through ‘Astrology Kundli Predictions’ from the best astrologers in India. One can get predictions related to marriage, love life, career or health over phone calls, chats, queries or reports.

AtroTalk targets people in the age bracket of 23 to 25 as of now. According to Gupta, the company receives enquiries not just from different parts of India, but the US, Canada, the UK, Singapore and Dubai as well.

“We offer an e-wallet for customers. They can recharge it and then speak to an astrologer. We have more than 125 astrologers on our panel,” Gupta adds. “We charge on the basis of the duration of the session. Customers have an option to end the session at any time or else it ends automatically when they run out of balance.”

The company banks on multiple monetisation models. In addition to charging a customer for every session, AstroTalk also allows users to get a detailed report from the astrologer for a charge. Additionally, users can get online puja (offering) performed, or buy gemstone, Rudraksha, Yantra etc.

Gupta reveals that since inception, AstroTalk has had many interesting customer stories. “We had a customer in India, who asked us when can he change his job. Our astrologer told him that he will be working on a foreign land after three months and will be earning quite well. But he was unconvinced, since he had no contacts outside India and has not applied in a foreign company,” Gupta reveals.

Also Read: This Bangalore-based startup has built an on-demand marketplace for spiritual gurus

“So, he left a very bad review of the astrologer and even complained to our support team. We then gave him a complimentary second opinion from another astrologer, who also predicted on the same lines. He got frustrated and left a ‘one star’ review on the app and said we are fake. We were disappointed to lose a customer. But after four months, he updated his review and told us that he was messaging from the UAE. He also sent a personal gift to the astrologer. Since then he is our regular customer,” Gupta smiles.

Well, Can AstroTalk also predict whether an entrepreneur/startup would be successful or not? And what do astrologers say about the success chances of AstroTalk?

“That’s an interesting question. When we started AstroTalk, we were told that the period till October 2018 would be tough. As he predicted, we went through a lot of ups and downs till July 2018 and our numbers were stagnant. However, in August 2018 (instead of Oct 2018), we achieved the product market fit and started scaling up. We have been growing 25 per cent month-on-month since then. As per Astrologer, AstroTalk would see an exponential growth when Ketu Antardasha starts in Rahu Dasha after April 2019. Rahu supports online business and Ketu supports spirituality,” he concluded.

(Disclaimer: Neither e27 nor this writer doesn’t believe in/promote astrology).

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As a member of the society, tech companies have the right — and obligation— to fight for justice

There are many reasons to be disappointed at the world these days. The latest was when, on Wednesday February 13, Instagram deleted a comic strip about daily struggle of being an Indonesian gay Muslim man.

The ban was confirmed by Indonesian minister of communications and informatics Rudiantara, following pressure from society to ban the comic strip’s account. The account, which boasts 6,000 followers, had been condemned by internet users as blasphemous and immoral for its depiction on the internal conflicts that a Muslim gay man faces on daily basis.

If you recall, this is not exactly the first time a tech giant succumbing to the pressure of homophobic groups in Indonesia. As recently as 2018, Google succumbed to the ministry’s request to remove several LGBT apps — mostly social networking or dating apps — from Play Store.

Also, do not forget that time when Go-Jek had to sanction its executive for posting a compliment on the company’s inclusive policies on his personal Facebook. While the executive was sanctioned for “violating the company’s employee social media guideline”, it is hard to separate the sanction from the public pressure that had called upon Go-Jek users to uninstall the app for supporting LGBT rights.

These incidents happened at least three times in the Indonesian market and I have reasons to believe that more is going to come as the country becomes more religiously conservative.

It is about time for us to beg the question: How long can tech companies succumb to the homophobic, human rights-violating demand of its public?

Also Read: Riding the irony: Can Indonesian GO-JEK afford supporting LGBTQ rights in a country that condemns it?

The first response to this question would be: Well, when running their operations in a country, businesses are obliged to abide to the positive law of said country. If Indonesia said you should pay tax, then you pay tax. If Indonesia said you should not have pornographic content on your platform, then you should not, unless you are willing to risk being banned.

But guess what? Despite some group’s effort to have them banned, being a homosexual is not illegal in Indonesia.

So if a tech company decided to follow through demands from groups or a ministry to ban LGBT content on its platform, they are not abiding the law, they are succumbing to pressure from hardline groups.

Also Read: World’s largest dating app for gays sets up shop in Taiwan

Here is the thing: On the other hand, we also have to understand that businesses can not afford to lose their customers. They need to maintain a certain a public image and a good reputation equals money.

However, innovation is meant to be for the betterment of society.

And we believe that in the case of tech companies, their innovation should not be limited to to their scope of work, or the services and products that they provide. It also lies in the value that they are propagating.

This is why, when tech giants such as Google make a mistake in the way they are handling sexual harassment cases, its employees did not just sit down and accept. They walked out; they called for changes.

As long as you are a member of the society, you are entitled — no, obliged — to fight for justice.

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Image Credit: Mercedes Mehling on Unsplash

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SendFriend attracted Ripple, Barclays, and some other investors with its US-Philippines remittance service

Blockchain-based remittance startup that helps people in US to send money to the Philippines SendFriend has announced funding from Ripple, Barclays, MIT Media Lab, the Mastercard Foundation, Techstars, Mahindra Finance, 2020 Ventures, and 8 Decimal Capital. All investors banded together in raising a total capital of US$1.7 million for the company, as reported by The News Asia.

Also Read: Cambodia catches up with launching of startup professional service alliance

The company will use the fund to finance its mission, which is to enable Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) to securely transfer USD to PHP at the lowest rate available. SendFriend also seeks to become the only option to do so, from US to the Philippines and vice versa with 65 per cent lower fees.

The news came just after the integration with Ripple’s xRapid solution for SendFriend’s users to have a more efficient cross-border payment in November 2018.

“With the integration, XRP is used as a liquidity vehicle for cross-border payments, enabling SendFriend’s users to circumvent the corresponding banking system and convert USD to XRP to PHP in a matter of seconds,” said representative from SendFriend to David Lighton, SendFriend co-founder and Chief Executive Officer further added the plan with the funding.

Also Read: GOJEK names Lien Choong Luen as GM for Singapore operations

“This investment will allow us to build out our team, focus on community engagement, and marketing efforts. Next, we’re planning to launch in New Jersey and becoming available in other states in US,” said Lighton.
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Image Credit: SendFriend

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