Web3 devs, gamers, investors thrive despite India’s crypto policy hurdles
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">India’s contribution to the global Web3 ecosystem — primarily in software development, gaming, investments and startup funding — increased year-on-year despite an absence of locally tailored crypto regulations.India’s share of global Web3 developers grew from 5% to 12% in the last 10 years, second only to the United States as of 2024, according to the India Web3 Landscape Report 2024 by Hashed Emergent, shared with Cointelegraph.
Developer growth in India since 2015. Source: Hashed EmergentSpeaking to Cointelegraph, Tak Lee, CEO and Managing Partner at Hashed Emergent, pointed out four key factors driving India to the top of global crypto adoption: retail crypto transactions on centralized services, highest trading volumes, institutional adoption and retail DeFi transactions.Gen Z dominates the Web3 developer landscape in IndiaThe growth is driven by the younger generation, as roughly 80% of all blockchain developers in India are between 18 and 27 years of age. The Indian developers in DeFi, Payments, AI and SocialFi prefer Solana as the go-to blockchain.Ton, Aptos and Base are steadily gaining momentum across other key sectors, driven by the expanding presence of layer-1 and layer-2 ecosystems, the report noted.
Web3 sector and ecosystem trends in India. Source: Hashed EmergentWhile funding opportunities and builder initiatives like hackathons support initial growth, Indian developers have pointed out employers’ lack of willingness to pay salaries that match global industry standards. The challenges faced by Web3 gaming projects are the extremely high cost of customer acquisition (CAC) to onboard Web3 users and the lack of quality gameplay beyond financial incentives to retain Web2 gamers. “Therefore, several of these games are now focusing on having great quality games before integrating blockchain mechanics or tapping into Indian gamers’ craze for RMG,” Lee explained.Related: https://cointelegraph.com/news/india-dantewada-land-records-avalanche-blockchain
