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Bitcoin is still absolutely useless as a currency and a technology. It's still cryptobros waiting on a foolish bag holder to take the L. But its price is skyrocketing since Nov 5th, because everyone thinks that Trump and Vance will dump this loser of a technology on the American tax-payer.
At this point there's nothing to stop them from doing that.
On the other hand, India's UPI system does around 15 billion transactions a month, most with zero transaction fees.
1/N
~500 million people a day buy something real using UPI. Almost no one buys anything real with Bitcoin. UPI is backed by a real currency. Bitcoin is make believe, made up, monkey money. UPI is a real thing. Bitcoin is not.
I'm not going to rehash all of my criticisms of Bitcoin. Just read @molly0xfff .
As users, you didn't choose Bitcoin. Collectively, you rejected it. It failed in the marketplace. So now, dudes are trying to force it being chosen for you, by a government end around. 
2/2
Out of curiosity, how does this relate to something like M-PESA? Are they interoperable? Can one be seen as a superset of the other?
They're slightly different, although M-Pesa is great too.
This paper is a good overview.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167624524000350
@mekkaokereke @tarheel my favorite fact about M-Pesa:
"access to M-PESA increased per capita consumption levels and lifted 194,000 households, or 2 % of Kenyan households, out of poverty."
That *is* interesting.
There's at least one article somewhere about cell phone use among those in poverty (because I've seen it). If one were to visit young people in extreme poverty (I have), one would see that almost all of them have a cell phone, which, in the US, is taken as a sign of not-really-in-poverty.
But they do have actual economic benefits (in the article, knowing what/where the best prices for goods are, since small business is key).
@tarheel @jessepeterson @mekkaokereke I don’t think anybody but far-right dipshits considers having a mobile phone to be a sign of economic stability. Mobile phones are now a necessity, and there are a number of programs and nonprofits that help folks with those needs.