New Delhi, March 15 : Even as clarity on legal status of cryptos is awaited, another digital asset is set to hit the markets. New-age firm AquaKraft Group Ventures has launched the country’s first digital water bank Aqverium, a digital blockchain platform which would convert water conserved by corporates and other institutions into water coins. The coins will be traded like crypto currencies and have economic value like other digital assets offering new opport ty to investors. “Price of the water coins will be determined by an automatic price discovery mechanism based on demand and supply in the market,” Subramanya Kusnur, Founder Chairman and CEO of AquaKraft Group Ventures told . Explaining the concept, Kusnur said that it’s important for us to map (water) resources and with the technology that is available. “Suppose you are an individual and you are in house and consuming x litres of water but are saving more than that then you have excess water. That excess water will be showed in your account and will be converted into a coin on a blockchain. And this coin then will have its own economic value,” he explained the concept. “Similarly, for corporates we have a concept called water balance sheet like a cash balance sheet. Now this entire thing talks about the total amount of water that we are using vis-a-vis the total amount of water that you are recycling and reusing and the total amount of water that you are harvesting. So if you have excess water then this entire water gets converted into a digital asset as a coin and then goes onto the blockchain,” Kusnur further said. The company would put tech-powered water meters in place of individuals and corporates joining the digital bank to map the resources but till that time it will allow self-reporting. It has decided to focus more on companies, resident welfare associations (RWAs) and townships for now than individuals to get larger impact. “It will take 30 months to get fully operational but we have started the game right now,” AquaKraft’s Kusnur said. Aqverium is an initiative of Bengaluru headquartered digital startup AquaKraft Digital Ventures Pvt Ltd, a newly formed subsidiary of AquaKraft Projects Pvt Ltd, the flagship company of AquaKraft Group Ventures. The digital water bank has been launched by Ashwath Narayan C N, Minister for IT, BT, Skill development & Entrepreneurship, Science & Technology, Electronics, Government of Karnataka. NK