Bitcoin Forum

Hello There,

India bans top currency notes such as Rs.500/- and Rs.1,000/- to prevent black money. Now there are only three notes in circulation Rs.10, Rs.20 and Rs.50

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/live-narendra-modis-address-to-nation/article9320548.ece

Google for more news links.

Yes, There are some preventive measures taken to deal with the situation but still it is one of the masterstrokes by India prime minister Narendra Modi against black money.

How do you see this action and what kind of impact this will create on the bitcoin in India?


P-S : Adding some news headline since this move, worth reading :)

1) No cash, no plastic: India's demonetised economy rushes towards cryptocurrency (http://www.catchnews.com/india-news/no-cash-no-plastic-india-s-demonetised-economy-rushes-towards-cryptocurrency-1479569915.html).

2) India’s rupee restrictions are boosting demand for bitcoin (http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/15/india-rupee-restriction-boost-bitcoin-digital-currency.html).

3) Digital Currency the ‘New Normal’, says Indian Finance Minister After Cash Curb (https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/digital-currency-new-normal-says-indian-finance-minister-cash-curb/).

4)  Why Bitcoin Will Succeed in India in Just Two Years (https://cointelegraph.com/news/why-bitcoin-will-succeed-in-india-in-just-two-years).

5)  India Encourages ‘Mission Mode’ Digital Currency Adoption (http://www.nigeriatoday.ng/2016/11/india-encourages-mission-mode-digital-currency-adoption/).


Best
Dudeperfect

There seems to be a lot of interesting things happening all at once in India and the cracking down on the black market seems to be a important drive for them. Was not long back we where reading about getting people to use banks and limit the gold exposure.

I do not know enough to think it will attract more Indians to bitcoin or not but I think it will create another off shoot business. India is great at creating jobs and its almost something they pride themselves on,as opposed to the West where its all about the bottom line.

Something I saw about India recently that got me thinking about bitcoin,was the black outs that roll through out the day(4-6 per day) and I thought this would be quite disruptive to bitcoin use.

The EU has already banned the EUR 500 note. Now India is following the stance.

The war on physical cash is in full effect. Fighting black market activities is only a pretext for the true motive: Exerting full control over people's finances to make them fully transparent in order to enforce negative interest rates and higher taxation. It's a sinister plan of central bankers who are desperate to keep the fiat money scam running. They try to prevent capital flight to safer alternatives.

For countries with high inflation like India it's an easy way to slow down price appreciation a bit as well.

Full governmental control over private finances is a horrific scenario, as it exposes the individual to arbitrary coercion by the metastasizing officialdom. Hopefully people will use the exit door soon enough and buy Bitcoin and precious metals.

ya.ya.yo!

Sometimes make me think that with bitcoin we are playing right into the hands of the movement to restrict our funds.
Crypto is perfect for governments if they control it and can take it away in one click or divvy up the funds between the elite.
Its funny how those attracted to bitcoin initially wanted less government and now it is starting to look like government is going at it the same for total polar opposite reasons.
There is also a trend of eliminating the lower coins and bills in some Countries to eliminate costs and weighing people down with change.
This always looked to me as a reason to over charge the customer due to not having the smaller change and rounding up.

surely it made the black marketting a lot harder now becaise they have to create many 50rs note to reach 1000rs so we can say their work is now 20x increased with that previous speed and efficiancy but on the other hand all it will increase is lots of notes and digitialization because i myself is not going to carry 500 50rs notes to buy a piece of cake.so i will be forced to open a bank ac

I hope it will not happen here in our country,those top currencies are very important because money is undervalued you will have to carry a lot of small paper currency when going to grocery,your wallet  will be full of small paper currency..

I feel blockchain kind of transparent system must be the right solution for getting rid against money laundry/black economy. I believe financial experts may find many new things from this kind of moves from a government. Lets hope for any possible support for bitcoin ecosystem from this.

The above is not correct. It has not been already banned but

This is a sudden and surprising move by the Indian government to ban large fiat currency notes,if this thing happened in china the price of bitcoin would have reached a new level ,i really doubt with a population of over a billion people many does not have any clue about bitcoin and its investment features

It will not have that huge impact as the news there is emphasizing. People will be more careful and will have more RS 50 rather than few RS 500. It will not be any problem for the black markets as they will find a way on how to deal with each other, they can do transaction in a car for example, they simply cannot be stopped. The true motive behind such move is to exert more power over the people.

I even checked how big is a RS 500 compared to RS 50 and I think it will be no problem for people to keep more RS 50 with them rather than a RS 500. So this move will not affect anything in terms of economics as far as I know from this field.

corruption and illegal currency is the biggest problem in india,the ban of rs 500 and rs 1000 all of a sudden is a big surprise and from tomorrow onwards those who are having the said currencies will not have any value and cannot exchange through stores ,the only way to exchange is through banks,since this news is announced in such a short notice it will be difficult for people having large amount of currencies stached inside their home to exchange it .

Scammers will miss this days on the future, it's so easy to make a note nowadays, you just need the right equipaments and products...
I doubt anyone can copy money in blockchain and that's why the bitcoin is the future.

The problem I see with that ban is low purchasing power of rupee. 1 rupee is currently worth $0.02 cents so 1000 rupees is roughly 15 USD.
I can't figure it out if government in India is being serious - how banning equivalent of banknotes in denominations of $7 and $15 will help them?

BTW - It is more Economy discussion than Bitcoin discussion, this thread should me moved to Economics section.

I have thoughts very similar to yours and i created my topic here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1632435.msg16803952#msg16803952

I can't help but think, what if we are signing our own death sertificate by trusting bitcoin so much.

See this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJNRVptyb9Y&index=7&list=PLZlI71Yh54Tv7xONyTvcstNsP09OUkww8

Bitcoin uses this to promote itself, but i see something different. Your money can go "puff!" with bitcoin too. And its way more easier!

Technically it is impossible to make new Bitcoin and actually input it into the blockchain; the only way that you'd be able to do something like that would be to fork the network or something similar. There is no way to just try and force some additional Bitcoin into the blockchain.

Maybe if you had 51% of the network something like that could work, but I'd doubt it.

This isn't a war against cash, it's a war against the people. The Indian government will introduce a new larger Rs 2,000 banknote. What that fascist government wants is to know who has cash, lots of it. But it's not a choice for millions Indians who do not have a bank account, nor an official address to open one. This is what governments do: they make life miserable for millions.

BTC is a great tool to fight governments, I hope many Indians will have the opportunity to exchange some of their old notes with BTC.

Well, I guess there's nothing to worry because there's always the crypto world to help on that matter. Wanting to transact in black market? I think monero can take care of that.

For me, it's not surprising as a government can do whatever they feel would be a threat, they want transparency to prevent or see illegal activities.

That's a unique method of trying to curb counterfeiting, and I wonder if they're actually going to be able to do that and have it work in the way they intend for it to work. I don't know much about India and their economy, but it seems like something like that is a huge blow to at least a decent portion of the citizens of India.

This might help India to grow in economy when most of the black money gets revealed as well government gets benefited from taxation. Unexpected implementation has made people get panic of what to do further to safe guard their black money.

I live in India, there are 4 notes in circulation now, Rs. 10, Rs. 20, Rs.50, and the Rs. 100.

The new notes will come in circulation from the Jan of 2017.
We just have to wait till then.

Glad to hear from a local perspective. ^smile^ How would this influence your decision to buy more or less bitcoins now? I cannot see how this will have any influence on people's decision to buy other currencies. Yes, they might have to settle for smaller denominations, but this will suit the poor people better, because they seldom use the larger notes.

Would like to hear your take on this. ^smile^

So are these notes impossible to deposit into banks now? I feel sorry for the Indians hoarding cash.

Now all of these are small notes.so if you are going to buy 5,000 worth of goods,you will need to carry loads of 50's in your wallet and if you are going to buy something worth 50,000 now you need to carry a basket or a check to do that I hope it will not happen here in our place.

This was going to happen, the Indian PM was bound to do it. This will create a bit instability for a while, though it's good that he's doing it, this won't be the last, soon digital locker systems will come and Indian can open the it under supervision. Now coming to Bitcoin, this is perfect opportunity for it. The people should buy as much as they can and keep it away. This is not regulated and can't be banned. Go. For Bitcoins and be happy.

This is WRONG. New INR 500 & INR 2000 notes will hit ATM in November only. I have information that they have already been sent to bank chests. Government of India is trying its best to heal the pain of common people.

You missed the Rs.100 note :D, the most important note currently for these few days. I am an Indian myself, and overall i like the step taken by PM, some people are angry because it would cause a major inconvenience for few weeks but this is huge step in reduing black and I believe that this would actually make some difference.

You have wrong information my friend, the new Rs. 500 and Rs. 2000 notes will be available in ATMs and Banks from 10th November itself.

Sacrifice privacy for the sake of preventing money laundering? You might just open up a lot of people to harassment from tax authorities.
Too much power in the hands of the government can lead to misuse.

Well, i heard about stop printing little notes such as 2 or 5, in our country you already will not find this notes anymore. But now banks print higher price notes as 2000 and 5000. It's all happening cause money get cheaper. But that was the first time I heard about oposite process. I even don't know what to say on this point.

The way I am explaining this decision to myself is that the government think that banning the top priced banknotes will reduce the likelihood of bribes and corruption going around in the country because it would be more difficult to carry around suitcases full of cash. Now that these banknotes are out of circulation it would take people a lot of effort to pay the same amount of money with a lot of smaller bills thus making their actions very conspicuous and the offenders will be much more easily identified and apprehended.

There's a very wrong perception circulating around because of improper communication among people. India hasn't banned the Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes. It's infact just made the old Rs.500 note an illegal tender and the Rs 1000 note is replaced now by a Rs. 2000 note (twice the value) all of this done for the purpose of handling corruption and black money holders and to force them to deposit their old notes in their bank accounts by providing their Tax identification card and/or other forms of identification.

The banks are making users fill a form indicating the deposit of their old currency note money to their bank accounts. This is done to force those people who've not paid income taxes for their income earned in India while receiving them in cash and storing them in their homes. A large percentage of these aren't accounted by the Income Tax department and is illegal as per law. Today and tomorrow the new Rs 500 and Rs 2000 notes are in circulation in smaller amounts in few ATM's and few open banks. By next month a larger percentage of those notes can be withdrawn from ATM's and banks. In a way it's restricting the poorer and those without plastic cards from spending more cause less funds would be available from ATM's or banks for them. Those who have debit cards or credit cards can easily spend. So it's the poor who would truly require Bitcoins, but ofcourse majority aren't literate and fortunate enough to be technologically competent to be involved in Bitcoin and to understand the risk of investing in it.

this action has really ut a little brakes on the black marketters or i should say only to the fake money makers because black marketers do not care about physical koney they are & even we are more developed then any country we keep our money vertually

Oh I see now. So the government officials are trying to bait all of the tax evasion offenders to come out of the shadows and deposit their soon to be paper money bills and catch them red-handed. It's a very effective plan of action to be honest and this idea hasn't even crossed my mind lol. Get rid of the big bills and force people to show up at the banks, get them checked out and then release new, bigger bills. Smooth play, India  ;D

Not really imo. While every transaction can be traced through the blockchain, it is next to impossible to prove certain addresses belong to a certain person.

Even if you need to "register" an address with the government, you can easily create more for whatever reasons.

The technology behind bitcoin may help governments and banks though.

From tomorrow onwards you can get new currency of Rs 2000 from banks and ATM s will be offline even tomorrow as they will be updating the software regarding the change and more over people can change the old currency through banks as banks will be open even on sunday but there is a limit on how much you can exchange per day and it is limited to just Rs 4000 a day

It's really scary when you think of it. I've got quite a few banknotes in my pocket, it's money but the government, with a snap of its fingers, has the power to make them worthless. So Indians will have to the bank, and explain where the money's coming from. And the more you have, the more questions there will be to answer. Is this a free world? I'm glad not to be in India!

i am curious that why India would ban the 1000 notes, that's not even value $20 per. in that case when your spend your stuff in India, you pay bunch of rupee banknote. ???

The havent ban anything they are improving the notes and raising their value, as stated above, this happened with Brazilian coin as well they changed the layout to prevent the dark impressions notes, the same way euro has raised their impression security with several things to prevent the dark printed money to circulate.

the government has given ample chance to declare your assets basically asking the black holders to covert it into white money by paying a tax of 45 percent and the government claims that 1.45 lakh crore rupees has being claimed till now and if someone still keeps the currency they are worthless by now ,it is a strategic move to counter corrupted money which is held by corrupted

it is happening all over the world, they just call it different names. Government filth stealing peoples property.  :(

so now it is happening in India. Sort of like a demurrage isnt it? 45% to 100% demurrage....fiat currency has an internal value of zero, so it is the worst means of storing value. Like the M. Jackson song, it doesn't matter if its black or white.  ;)

Cyprus demurrage was 47%

German Mark - EURO currency reform was a 49% """demurrage""" LOL

At it gets worse. It will be much more painful here in Europe, where people do not traditionally hold lots of gold, like Indians do. My, oh my, when fiat money is "removed from circulation due to black money/terrorism/evil aliens" or whatever, there is bound to be much crying.

I still cannot comprehend why BTC is 700, instead of 7000, when I read things like this ;D ;D

Please explain me how it is related with bitcoin discussion? I don't see any relation with bitcoin here. Please move thread to a suitable section.

This more likely belongs to Local(India) section.


India was facing a problem of fake currency notes being supplied from neighbour countries which was a worrying issue. This step was not only taken to overcome this but also that somehow it was supsected that was used to finance terrorist organizations and to make the black money worthless that were being holded by corrupt officials also.

Most of these notes were of denomination 500 & 1000 Rs notes. So within midnight on 8th October, Modi announced it and made it totally worthless.

This will just place a temporary effect IMO.

Also in India, products /stuff can be easily purchased as they are cheap but not much and also people don't like to carry too much of cash in hand as there is a fear of theft. There are some people who carry cash in hand as they fear it paying it via electronic mode.

Found that they were planning this for last six month and only few people know about this will be coming however this have made many people mad about their government as they haven't given enough time to exchange all 500 and 1000 Rs notes they have in their hands. Standing in long queue to just deposit their hard earned money can't be good solution for lower class people, all the black money are out of India and are stored in big foreign country banks.

It's all a preparation for a cashless world! transactions - to track everyone and everything!

What exactly is the definition of a legal note? I'd like to know how they'd enforce this.

Legal Note or Legal Tender
coins or banknotes that must be accepted if offered in payment of a debt.

After Dec 30th, the Banks & Government organizations will no longer accept those bills for any payment.
As an individual if you still have those bills on Jan 1st, 2017 , they become worthless because no one will take them if they know they can not be used anywhere else.
All money is only worth what you can exchange it for, these bills will no longer be exchangeable so they will be worthless.

Worst part, there will probably be many people that don't know the bills are worthless and accept them for payment after the deadline.
So anyone in India should inform their friends and family so as few people as possible are ripped off by anyone trying to pay with those bills. 

 8)

In India, mostly 90% or more transactions are done through cash and lot of black money, and duplicate notes are around. So government want to cut down all these things, so they have no other choice. This is the best way to stop using all those activities. It is actually good move but managed it even in a better way. It has caused lot of issues to common man in their daily life activities.

It is true that still in remote and village area they dont have any knowledge about this law and still using 500 and 1000 currency,

It is true that if you are owing the legal money in the sense if you have account of what currency amount you are holding then their is no problem, but if you dont have any account about what you are holding then you will have to pay 30% tax and get your money get legalized by depositing in bank. But that too till 30th december 2016, from 31st december 2016 they will be worthless

This is kinda a bit serious that India already forgotten their largest fiat currency. For sure that is needed for some serious matters. Because if a note will be totally ban by a government and its currency is totally worthless. And for sure, there are countries that will do the same move as India does, this is the start of the conspiracy of cashless society, 666 is already in the world.

Guys, I have been following responses on this thread.

Let me clear one thing that I am also from India and situation is under control. This step was taken to deal with fake currency notes as well as undeclared cash causing a major loss to the Indian economy.

Citizens of India can now exchange their currency notes of Rs.500 and Rs.1000 with new notes of Rs.2000 and lower (Rs.10, Rs.20, Rs.50 & Rs.100 etc).

Some members raised a question that how this topic is related to bitcoin. Well, let me explain that the popularity of bitcoin is based on cons of fiat currency and how such situation can affect other commodities or our own bitcoin.

If you are from India and you have cash not more than Rs.2,50,000/- then you can exchange it with the nearest bank or post office. If you have cash more than this limit and if you can't declare its source then you will have to pay 200% fine for the evaded tax.

India is not banning the highest denomination (₹500 and ₹1,000) notes. They are simply replacing the old banknotes with the new ones. And they have introduced the ₹2,000 banknote, which didn't existed earlier.

Yeah and I think that was the smart move taken by the Government of India to replace the currency notes as it will bring out lots of black money and it will helped the economy in the best ways as we know that in India the corruption is at its peak and this move will surely end up corrupted activities.

Yes, the government has introduced new currency notes but banned all current notes in circulation and that means the value of current Rs.500 & Rs.1000 notes is collapsed but still the government is going to pay for it because it was a decision of the government to abolish these notes. All current Rs.500 & Rs.1000 notes are no longer traded in India (except places specified by the government). Now if you have some notes then you must declare it to the government or lose all of your holdings.

It's one of the best step to eradicate black money from within the nation. Because this time all money will go out from lockers of money holders home. Because its been announced that 500 and 1000rs note after 31st December will be just a paper and nothing more than that so all money will come out of home for exchange and then they will get captured.

There gonna be lot of controversy about it. Already the news had hit like tsunami and all black money holder are moving here and there to buy gold because if they exchange their old money with new currency then they will get caught and will have to pay taxes for their money so demand of gold had risen up and almost 80% rise in good price had taken place

It stops in December? Then the black money homes are out buying things and getting real money back right now. There's no way they're going to hold onto them for longer than they would, and something like this is something that they would pay attention to. There's more intelligence than you'd expect for criminals of this sort.

The ban is mostly aimed to tap corruption/black money..but the thing is already the politicians are aware of this fact since much of the planning was done 10 months back.

So the politicians have made away with their black money in all means as soon as they could

Yes actually this new regulation have only made hard for normal level businessman and farmers to exchange their stored cash into new cash. This will surely not limit all the black money that were stored in swiss banks.

It's another step towards eradicating black money from within the country. MODI had taken this step in very clever manner just in a day he changed the view of country. It's an awesome step and i had heard that new 2000 Rupees note will come with computer chip which will send date to satellite with serial number and coordinate of geographical location. So now tax department could easily manage the situation when one have billions of money stored in one's house

Though it can make the work of people involved in illegal activities harder but i don't see any impact for bitcoin in this, because bitcoin is far not related to paper money yet and also they have not banned the complete paper money system but just a few notes are banned which won't affect bitcoin in either positive or negative way.

You cannot be serious.  ???

If it was about getting counterfeits out of the way, a simple and anonymous exchange of old vs new (with the help of  a cash checker) would suffice. This is all about registration, taxation and people control.

Here in Europe, old banknotes have been replaced by new ones several times. Never ever was it necessary to register and/or deposit in a bank account. Banks would simply keep the old paper and hand out new paper.

do you guy think this can lead to an increase of adoption for bitcoin, since to do black market now they need somethign else, because with cash it will be more difficult for them to do it, there might be a chance for them to use bitcoin more, thus the price will increase because of more buyers from india

500 rs is only 7€  :D
Indian contry is so poor they ban 7€ note  ::)

People from India will start using bitcoins only if they are aware about it and I don't think many people knows about it at this stage but the scenario can be changed over a period of time as of now people are busy in using their black money in buying gold so that they can at least have some investments for the future.

Indians queuing to exchange their cash

https://s22.postimg.org/m1fci72ip/indians_change.jpg (https://postimg.org/image/7uzlmyrnh/)

Hey, what are you doing, today?
I'll spend the whole day at the bank, exchanging my cash...

Governments have such a twisted mind, they have invented the concept of black money (or dirty money). Money which is earned the usual way, by hard working people, but the government wants its share of it, just like the mafia, you know. So, it resorts to extortion, by forcing people to come out with their money, so the bad guys can get a piece of the cake.

I read about this couple of days ago, I think this is a step in the right direction to get rid of the dirty money and introduce a better economy to the country. Also this could bring more customers to bitcoin if it makes them feel safer to own btc than to own the fiat currency.

Stop being so condescending. How does inflation in a country relate to the country being poor?   >:(

Thats like saying 0.01 is 7 bucks so the people who use bitcoin must be extremely rich. Completely untrue.

Yup it's true what he did is correct now think what will happen to those who are holding black money in 20,000BTC + in INR currency
I think that they cant do anything to it now rather than burning it away.
Also i got a news locally that some guys thrown worth 80BTC of INR cash on the road from car.

yup only 7 euro .
What do you think if some people are having 100,000+ Notes of 500 Rs which is stored as black money in the form of 500 & 1000 Rs Notes.

This will not stop holding black money or black money holder in anyway. They might already changed the currency to USD or some other currency and they'll not be catch on red hand imo.

Then 500 euros are equal to 165 Kuwaiti dinars so you would also apply your logic to this inflation rate too right?

Dear, growth of the economy depends on many factors and to measure the growth of it, there are some key factors such as gross domestic product, gross domestic income etc. It’s baseless to determine the status of a country by considering any single factor if you are expecting fair results in analysis.

This is one proof lack of paper money that refers to deploy of black money and could cause inflation .
Bitcoin may get more positive result as solution to choose digital currency and have greater control of funds, lower fees, more secure and immutable.

Not all people can do that easily because if you want to convert it to USD, then you should provide some documents to prove for some purpose or should be done some illegal ways. But this announcement has given many people surprise and even many politicians didn't have any clue of this is going happen. I don't think because of this it will stop, but to some extent, it will reduce the black money.

You really think it was a wrong move to eliminate black money or to bring it back by the gov ?
I think it was a correct move done by the gov of India since everyone will have to show the proof of their earnings including people having black money if they want to get it exchanged otherwise the money they have earned in wrong way is useless " Nothing more than a piece of paper " ...

I am from india. Its a move to destroy black money stored by corrupt politicians and fake currencies circulated by mafia gangs.Immediately after the announcement on ban, gold worth of several crores got sold in just 2 days.Middle class people suffered a lot by this sudden move by government.Still most people are unaware of Bitcoins.If they would have already known about Bitcoin, they would not have suffered this much.

I don't think this will have any influence over the use of black money, people will just find other means.
I really don't like the trend of moving to a cash-less society..

The buying power would be same, because of the differences in value of money when you exchange 7€ to indian rupees it is a a big money even if it might be small in your country. Even India is poor country, they are contributing a lot to the world economy. I guess, other countries also may follow India's idea on black economy.

Hello,

You are right. The big currency notes have been demonetized. Only Rs 10,20, 50 and 100 are in circulation for next two days. Then again the new Rs 500 and Rs 2000 note will be brought into existence.

May be it was a master stroke by Mr. Modi. But this move can in no way prevent fake currency prevalence in India in future.

And coming to the point of how this will affect Bitcoins....?

Well, there may be a temporary surge in bitcoins buying thinking that all the illegally earned money can be used to buy bitcoins. But it is false in all terms.

In order to buy bitcoins, one should buy them from exchange using fiat currency which is in digital form in your bank accounts. So, you need to have your money deposited in your account. If you deposit more than Rs 2.5 lakhs, it will surely attract the attention of IT department.

So, to all those who are thronging bitcoins exchange sites in a hope that they can make their black money-> white will just receive a big disappointment sooner or later.

Yes it's a good decision from tax department. It would somehow hep India to completely eradicated internal black money. And from now itself it would become hard to store black money in home because new currency note are coming with computer chip

Standing in line with all the bills in the air for some one to snatch and run off!

The crack down in India will be studied by other Countries and most likely copied to achieve more power over the currency. The USD is one of the most mattressed currencies in the world and any move to change the bills would cause a global ripple. One thing I always notice when travelling abroad is the guys with the briefcases in the local square that help the unbanked at a high percentage. Imagine those guys in India are making serious profit right now.

A US federal prosecutor stated that you can't shut down bitcoin. http://motherboard.vice.com/en_ca/read/us-federal-prosecutor-you-cant-shut-down-bitcoin-kathryn-haun

I don't know how they would "divvy up the funds between the elite" with one click?

We are not talking bitcoin specifically when we are talking about crypto currency being a wet dream for government.
If a bank or government creates a crypto that is controlled by them,meaning they have written into the code a way to grab all funds or automatically charge interest,then you are one click away from that happening. It is a very clear point and issue,I do not mention bitcoin anywhere in my response.

To address the Federal prosecutor link I will just say the Elect President has gone on record about scraping laws and agreements he deems unfit. So with that same reasoning he could change the outcome and make the "you cant shut down bitcoin" a out of date statement. We have to remember that super powers wane and so does societies norms,you can not presume things are always going to be the way they currently are. To state it another way... Would you rather be prepared for that day or unprepared?

Notes are so unsafe and not cheap to government print just like the coins...

And that's why cryptocurrencies are the future, we started trading goods, after metals, paper and now bytes.

 Actually Indian government is not banning the highest denomination (₹500 and ₹1,000) paper notes. They are simply replacing the old notes with the new notes. And they have introduced the ₹2,000 banknote, which didn't existed earlier and news rumoured that there will be Nano GPS Chip in the note which will help tax department to track money through satellite.

Replacing the old notes is not something new, but the way it is done is. I hope the banks are still willing to exchange the old notes for equal value of new notes for long enough. I guess many unbanked people in India are keeping their money using the notes and not bank accounts.

Every currency in the world does this. It is not a ban but a replacement because of forfeiting the current money is the only way they know how to curb the counterfeiting trade.

Ahah, this is all because the Government could not see the advantages given by bitcoin and they only concerned with individual interests than seeing the voice of the people. So they took the decision that actually does the right thing to do. But it all will not give negative impact, because those who want to use the bitcoin can still do so using the VPN or other. All of this just as a test for the users, and I am sure if one day bitcoin will be recognized by all countries

I think not only black money will be affected here but a lot of fake banknotes that are going around. i think this is good in one sense and better for bitcoin as more and more educated people will seek to turn their fiat into either gold or bitcoin or both.

Fiat and Bitcoin, and every other form of money, are essentially the labor of the people.

Governments are trying to suck up every dollar they can get. They are trying to eliminate the competition. They are using the sucked-up money to prepare for war. This does not look good for Bitcoin. Why? Because Bitcoin is sucking the money back to the people again.

The only way to grab the money is to destroy Bitcoin, or adopt her. Either of these things will not be an easy task for governments at this stage of the electronic/internet game. Attempts to absorb or destroy Bitcoin may result in a great big crash of the fiat Ponzi, worldwide, before Bitcoin is out of its infancy. This might destroy Bitcoin, as well, and turn the world into chaos.

8)

The information here is not true "not the largest Fiat currency note", we should try as much as possible to read the whole content of a news and not rely only on sensational headlines

Its true that India have banned Largest Fiat Currency Notes in India to eliminate black money from Market, as 86% of currency is used in India with note of 500 Rs and 1000 Rs. I think This decision can really reduce black money supply to market, Its true but its too dangerous for common people who are genuine and stake some of note for security of financial freedom.

Still in India new launched currency note are not distributed to bank to avail for common citizen.

I personally think that bitcoin or any other decentralized digital currency can give best solution for such crisis of money supply and for reduction of black money use with centralized government acceptance with regulation for digital currency.

What you should pray instead is for there to be an effective and efficient cashless system in your country than the illusion that those top currencies does your country any good. In reality, those top currencies would be the main reason your grocery would get to be sold at a much high rate, because the small currencies sooner than later lose their purchasing power.

I must commend India for taking that step and it could not have come at a better time, than now as they concentrate their efforts to develop and advance their country. It is something other developing countries should embrace and you will find that it is even the poor countries that hasten to create high currencies notes and not so much for the interest of the country, but simply to facilitates looting by their very corrupt rulers.

Not really. AFAIK, most of the politicians became safe even some peoples who's having black money. As this news was leaked before few days. I don't want to mention their name and company and they had gifted new cars to all their employees with n agreement that they should sell those cars after two months!

I agree...but I meant that the circulation of those notes will be finished obly in January. They have already been sent but very few banks have received them till date. Some banks are receiving them as we speak. That's the reason of the long queue. So, there is no water circulation will be finished before January 2017.

It can somehow be a good decision regarding that black money thing but i don't feel that this thing will bring any change for bitcoin in India or anywhere, maybe the people keeping cash at homes would convert their money into bitcoin if they know about it, but it is not likely to happen.

In India, about 10% of the whole population knows about bitcoins, so it's not likely that they will convert their money into btcs. The ones that do know about bitcoins will consider it a fatal risk to convert even some of their money into bitcoins, as, in India, unfortunately, most do not even believe in online shopping sites like Amazon. They consider trusting Amazon a fatal risk. So, I don't think many people of India will convert their money into bitcoins, even after this incident.

yes that a fact that they have taken the step to stop the black money in the market but i thin it will not help them so much, they need to take a positive action again the smugglers and the illegal printed currency center they need to vanish the evil from the root and only it will be fruitful.

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There is a YouTube video out which tells that gold is now selling in some parts of India for a majestic $3000 / oz (US market price about $1228).

The parts of India that my wife and I visited (on a tour) were not ready for Bitcoin (that included Mumbai/Bombay and Delhi) that I could see.  Our guide had not even heard of Bitcoin. 

India also has a HUGE rural population that is very poor with little infrastructure.  Bitcoin will do very little for Indians in the short-term.

You are right, most of India hasn't even heard of Bitcoins. And those who have just either don't have an internet connection (yes, that's pretty common in India, not having internet connection) or think of Bitcoins as a huge risk. It's just the view point of people, they don't even trust online marketing, let alone trusting a currency that is pretty unstable, like, *cough* Bitcoin*cough*. Even some people here who don't have the basic concept of how mobile phones work, think that when they are talking to a person on a mobile is some fake person. So, this eradication of the largest Fiat notes won't have much effect on people of India buying Bitcoins.

Thank you for clearing things out,i really thought that they are getting rid of 500 and 1000. And it is a shocking news that theyre releasing a 2000 banknote with Nano GPS Chip. Maybe this time laundering of money and taxation will be implemented clearly.

No, they aren't banning those, but the circulation of the new notes of those denomination won't be fully complete until Jan of 2k17. Meanwhile, we are getting 2000 Rs. Notes more frequently and most shops aren't taking those notes, as, if we buy stuff worth Rs. 50, tell me , who would give 19 Rs 100 notes and one Rs. 50 in exchnage for that brand new 2000 Rs. note. It is jur making things difficult for us.

So it means that In India and in other countries, Bitcoin can have a really good future. Paper currencies notes if cancelled become zero in value, while on the other hand No Govt. can make the value of bitcoin to zero , as it is not in the hands of the Govt.

You are completely wrong and misinformed. The new ₹ 2,000 banknote is already in circulation. The new ₹500 has entered circulation today. So higher denomination notes are also in circulation, in addition to the lower denomination (₹10 to ₹100) notes. The only issue is that there is a shortage of the ₹500 banknote. In the coming days, this issue will also be resolved.

Yes, current prime minister of India Narendra Modi is very pro-active for cash less society, entrepreneurship, attracting foreign direct investment, digital India and many other reforms so I believe that he won’t bring any ban or restriction on bitcoin as far as bitcoin is not being used for the purpose of tax evasion.

This is a great opportunity for Bitcoin. But the problem is that very few people are aware of it in India. However, the other online payment applications are exploiting this opportunity to capture market share. During the past few days, hundreds of thousands of merchants have started accepting payments through PayTM, a mobile payment platform.

Check my next post for what I meant.

Can't be very sure about it. There is one positive thing though. The last RBI governor (Raghuram Rajan) was rabidly against the Bitcoins. He banned exchanges and other BTC ventures from setting up bank accounts and harassed them to no end. He was fired a few months back.

...

It's also possible that people in India will NEVER have any trust in their government and central bank.  It would only take a fairly low percentage of the population to decide to accumulate "alternative savings" wholesale, and for many, many others to to buy a little BTC and/or gold & silver to change the global markets for all three.

Long Au, Ag and BTC. 

Worldwide.

I think and hoping they will be buying or parking their money on bitcoin. Or they can have business and let their money help the economy and provide jobs to the deserving ones.

Yes and Rajan (former governor) was also against some latest decisions taken by government. Anyway, getting first step towards cashless society is a positive thing for bitcoin. At this moment the companies like paytm (owned by jack ma) is getting most benefits because of such decisions and there is a scope for crypto currencies too and I am eagerly waiting bitcoin to see appear in day to day life.

It's too far for think if they have put his money on bitcoin? It is just about pulling back his large currency notes. It can make non-sense for me.

Now it sounds confusing and seems misleading for a government to ban a high denomination only to replace it and introduce yet another with a higher value. Not a very good decision from economic point of view and if indeed, they were pursuing a cashless society agenda. Even the rumour about planting Nano GPS chip on the 2000 banknotes turns out to be true, it won't accomplish much, because those who have something to hide would definitely avoid it, knowing those notes are tracked.

I had heard that the new 2000Rs note will have embedded NATO GPS CHIP which will transmit data to satellite which will help government to track the amount of money stored in a suspicious area for a long time then Tax department will take action against it to tackle with three situations. I think it's a best idea that MODI could ever decide.

That's a wrong thing..search it on Google, Reserve bank of India confirmed that that's not the case...it's just a wrong information that has gone viral over social media.

i think the best way to control black money is by starting the use of bitcoins or any other single decentralized currency which is better i guess. inn this way there will be no black money and there will be a huge control on the racket of bitcoins .well i think there should be a education system onn bitcoins and it should be done as soon as possible..

PayTM is rapidly expanding its market share, through various promotional offers. It is having the backing of large number of industrialists and businessmen. Bitcoin lacks any such backing.

read an article today about a boy in India who died because the hospital refused to take one of the notes
the operation cost was 6.000 RS and one of the 500 notes was not accepted so the parents had to take the boy to a different hospital
he died on the way
and all because of a 500 note,this is so sad

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/baby-died-hospital-india-refused-to-accept-parents-money-banknotes-mumbai-modi-cash-crisis-dies-a7416336.html

While I do agree it shows the unreliability of traditional fiat currencies, this policy does make sense.
Not speaking from personal experience, but only 2 to 3% of people in India actually pay income tax, so this should get rid of "black money." However, obviously this policy is too extreme, and has caused problems to so many that it really can't be justified.

Such news are the ones that make me proud of owning bitcoins and precious metal and using all my fiat to buy more bitcoins.

Terrible news but it was bound to happen. That's the power of governments. They say they act to help or protect people but while doing that theirs stupid policies also cause some unfortunate poor people to die. I hope the parents who've lost a son will have the courage to bring the body to the house of the prime minister. Because he could have allowed hospitals to accept any currency. I see Modi as 100% responsible of this death.

That's stupid bait from the government while they a great criminal in his country. A lot of people were losing his money caused by this. And they'd think again for supporting his government.

I heard that there was a redemption period before the publically announced one, where wealthier individuals were allowed to exchange black notes for fresh notes, ahead of the lines. Has anyone else heard this/ is this true?

Yeah, various sources describes that a small percentage of the wealthier network is governing the entire nation. They were reported regarding this earlier, so that they won't get affected by the new regulations upon the currency change.

How much is 500 and 1000 rupias?

I saw it yesterday, don't remember where and far I remember, isn't a big value...

Fake notes will always appears in the market, I think it's an smart idea, paper notes are not so hard to fake nowadays...

well,according to http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?From=USD&To=INR
a 500 note is worth 7.38 USD, 1000 rhupee note- 14.75$
it is not about the value of the notes in question or fighting crime or anything else
it is all good and dandy
BUT the population of India was given only THREE days to be able to exchange their old notes
consider all who could not exchange and the sum would be huge
and not the bankers nor corporations paid for it but simple people of India
who are not exactly the wealthiest on earth
p.s. there are about 1 billion of indian people on earth and they are the second largest nation after chinese

I agree that a govenrment-controlled or backdoored system could be used to track and shut down certain transactions. People would be foolish to use such a system. Zcash is a good example of such a crypto. Bitcoin is highly unlikely to be government controlled or backdoored - it's open source, and furthermore it seems to be a thorn in the side of government and monetary authorities around the world.

The federal prosecutor would love nothing better than to shut down bitcoin! She meant that you can't shut it down for technical reasons! Remember 10 years ago when they tried to shut down bittorrent? A brief arms race which pitted ISP filtering and love letters/lawsuits from Hollywood lawyers against port randomization and protocol encryption ensued - guess who won? The Hollywood mafia tries to cover up the fact that they completely lost the fight... Given that bitcoin had a very similar peer-to-peer architecture which supports billions of dollars of wealth, something tells me that the bitcoin network won't go down without an analogous fight.

So don't worry...

Not sure if it has already been shared. IMO this is what's driving current price rise.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/15/india-rupee-restriction-boost-bitcoin-digital-currency.html

That might happen because every country focus towards making things digital. Now this might help get the attention of people from India towards bitcoin. Decentralization won't make any hesitation because the increased price stands first in such situation.

I don't think anything like that will happen anytime soon. People are afraid about trusting any currency and more over, Bitcoin is a decentralised currency, which won't uplift the trust rate of Indians in Bitcoins.

It actually makes me feel bad for them when i think about the ones who may could not exchange their money because of some reason and later on they became worthless, because they are all innocent people who had nothing to do with black markets and etc so they were supposed to be given some chance to convert them anyhow.

They weren't given three days... lol...the money exchange is still going on here...it will go on till about the end of December. The circulation won't finish finally before the middle of the January of 2k17.

     This happens in India a country which in 2022 will have greater population than China (currently has 1.31 billion inhabitants) is an example of the means the financial systems use in order to persuade Indian citizens to create bank accounts. It is characteristic that the notes will stay in circulation (10, 20, 30 Rs) are very low value when the banknotes of  Rs 1000 is only 14.6 US dollars.

I think this is a good move to ban but it should be announced in advance to prevent all the problems poor and middle class people have to go through because of this ban.I think it will also encourage online transactions and sooner or later Indian Banks will also adopt blockchain

You are misinformed, Indian have 50 days to exchange their old currnecy notes. And Even if someone could not change their currnecy in that period. still they have 3 months of period with additional formalities and they can seek help from central bank (reserve bank) of India.

Well this is a big step to save from corruption. I appreciate this but unfortunately the system is not playing fair thats why this produce corrupt person. we need to change the system first...

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The below links to a very negative article on India's ban of R500 and R1000 notes.  Briefly, it states that Modi is incompetent and dictatorial, and that India never gets complex things done right.  The chaos will get worse.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-16/stunning-scenes-panic-gold-price-skyrockets-india-after-currency-ban

We were in India in Nov. 2015, and saw (and heard) NOTHING among those we spoke with about Bitcoin, even in Mumbai.  So my *guess* would be that India is probably not responsible for today's BTC price spike.

Its not your guess, its completely true. Indians dont know about bitcoins and the handful that do do not trust it due to its peer-to-peer structure. And the few people that do know, also dont trust it as they dont know the actual facts about bitcoin and only know the negative and criminal rumours of bitcoin.

Yeah it does something right. Many of them and also Governments around the world are wrong about the system bitcoin, so they assume that bitcoin is a poor means of payment and can give a negative impact to them if it can not control or use it. This would not be a bad thing if we want to give the right information. Just trying to give the best information it will give us something good things or good impact for bitcoin

I have tried promoting bitcoins in my locality without little success. Most people here don't even have a decent internet connections and they dont know about the millions of viruses infecting their PCs. And most people dont even care to listen to me, they just dont give a damn to bitcoins :(

why he does this?

It's most likely a great step taken by the gov but some people don't understand it and they are opposing this step..
They are most likely black money holders ..
But who want the country to be saved from corruption they are in favor of this step.

No, have you even seen the massive queues in front of ATMs and other exchanges? The ones are in favour of this have a lot of money, they just are making their employees withdraw/exchange money in behalf of the holder. But the common masses who havent done anything have to sleep and cook on the pavements near banks so that they can get into the queue right when the bank opens so as to exchange money. And many times the banks dont even have money and the withdrawal limit is not enough to support families. So, its actually a rip off. I live in India buddy, I know.

It's ridiculous, how could a country ban her legal currency without any advanced warnning?


Yes, they aren't, most of them don't even know how to find a way to buy Bitcoin.

Lol, not just about buying bitcoin, as I showed above, many are helpless here and cant afford or even know about internet. Most are afraid to trust bitcoin as they dont know its true value. Its just bad, and its not getting better.

Yes we can always have different opinions on this matter (or any matter), I see effects of this action in the long term. Yes a person might lose his day for withdrawing cash from ATM or bank but in the long run it’s going to be a game changer move. Being a law student, I have seen some black money holders and their cases and I can surely state that ‘This decision is a hit in bulls eye’ as far as Indian economy is concerned.

i think many were not using those cash value anymore, hey faded away slowly until they banned them, it's a common use to band the biggest cash in other country as well or to limit them, because of counterfeit, they are problematic indeed

12 days have passed since the demonetization, and still the situation is chaotic. People are still queuing outside the banks and ATMs, and they are running out of cash in a matter of few hours. If the situation doesn't change, then the government may have to face the wrath of the people.

i would say that India will suffer for this for many years to come.  you cant just scrap a percentage of your money and no expect consequences.

It won't suffer but mainly those who wanted to escape tax would suffer now. Also, the banking institution was not ready for this change and half the banks are without any fiat cahs due to the RBI not supplying them with new notes that has created a chaos among the citizens. The situation now has worsened and all banks have put up their hands to help the citizens. Only those who use online wallets/debit cards are managing.

Well, the situation isnt getting any better. More than anything, its getting worse. This was a move against the common people, more like the government tried to kill the crocodile and dried the entire pond and killed a bunch of innocent fish instead.

yes i am also agree with you, i think that they have not take the right decision, they must suffer for it for years, it will  effect their economy as india is already passing from financial crises as most of the people have no shelter they are sleeping on footpath.

It was something unprecedented. Hopefully other countries learn lessons from India's mistake and don't repeat mistakes. It was a costly mistake, but at least the world can learn something from the whole experience.

That is a very good step taken by the government of India to crack the black market transaction and corruption. However, the honest citizens will not have to worry for this. Not even for bitcoin transactions.

If you selling something and earning bitcoin in return, then you will have to show it in your IT return form and nothing will happen to you. But if you hide this and the amount is big, then you have a reason to worry. However, government is planning to scrap the income tax totally and about to introduce banking transaction tax and GST. Good reform.

Widespread repression on black market money India could lead to a ban on gold imports as text by the Indian Bullion & Jewelers Association (IBJA) to be believed.

The professional organization has its 2,500 members a text message to them in the government's proposals on a possible fate of gold.

"We hear some areas of this possibility (ban on gold imports and the progress of the settlement date), as if nothing has officially yet," said Surendra Mehta, national secretary, IBJA. The government's struggle against black money and its members the possibility of such action on the ground. We have asked our members to support the government wholeheartedly.
The government goes after not only imports but also information held by the jewelers of the nation. "Already 600 jewelers receive advice from the tax authorities for their sale until November 8. We are aware that some trade import members only applied to the same selling old notes to disclose a substantial premium. Otherwise, if it leads all jewelers to collapse the old notes or declare on November 15, it would not necessarily consider a ban on imports.

As gold becomes less available to the Indian public, this may not be one thing for India's average demand Bitcoin. The price of Bitcoins in rupees has already exploded. As banning the move to gold imports to the surprise move India minister Narendra Modi was destined to ban the old 500 and 1000 rupees to the black market to undermine the stores of wealth.

Sandeep Goenka, the co-founder of Zebpay, a compliant Bitcoin portfolio provider application held an AMA 21 November It paid a glimpse of the Bitcoin market amid a changing landscape of India's money. Users asked the CEO a big difference between buying Bitcoins in India versus Western countries.

"Since we do not import bitcoins, which limits our offer to the Indians," says Goenka, "when price increases in India there are more buyers than sellers. Prices are higher than world prices due to an increase in local demand. "Most of the price is higher than the world price. Of the players were clearly the company's relationship to Bitcoin, and Mr. Goenka gave to explain much of the AMA what is Bitcoin. He explained that the moment to forbid any trend for nation-states Bitcoin.

I hope every country should install these new technologies like block chain to control the black money, because every four years bitcoin will be halving so it will reduces to 1/4 of total transaction will be converted. I hope now Indian should carry smaller notes like 10, 50. I don't know exactly how those notes value. But to carry smaller notes it is very difficult may be.

Other notes than 2000/- INR circulation has been almost stopped. All ATM transactions are yielding mostly 2000/- INR and if we try to transact below it (2000/- is the limit again) its saying no money. And getting change is very very difficult, as giving change of 2000 INR when a person is buying something that costs 50 INR, they have to provide a change of 1950 INR, which is very difficult to do as it will mean giving the people 195 notes of 10 INR, or 39 notes of 50 INR. So masses are not accepting 2000 INR always. Its a very difficult situation here.

Seems like you guys are having really hard situation there but this is transition phase and this ban may help Indian government to freeze really hell lot of black money. Regarding changes i think you guys can try online transfer or mobile payment wallet like oxygen wallet or something similar (have heard about them in television). However i think situation is even worst in remote areas where people have no access to banks or internet/mobile banking.

In that case, I strongly suspect that businessmen and other people are hoarding the lower denomination notes. Two days back, I had a chat with my relatives in India. They are saying that the ₹500 banknote is still in short supply, but there are enough ₹100 notes floating around. But still, it will be quite difficult, to give the change for a ₹2,000 note in ₹100 bills.

the situation is pathetic,all the ATMs are having shortage of notes at the moment and the ones that have notes would only dispense one 2000 rupee note per individual and most of the small shops would not accept the 2000 rupee note as they don't have enough balance to give the change .

No wonder Indian people noticed idiocy of discontinuing higher denomination banknotes and turned to cryptocurrency instead.
They would rather buy Bitcoin at an inflated price than store a pile of hundred-rupee bills under their beds.

They are already buying Bitcoins at very high prices.
One of my friends lives there and he said that price in USA is much better compared to what is going on there in India.
They are selling it for 25-30% more the current price we see at preev.

Crypto future is brighter and brighter :) This is happening worldwide

Seems like the spike has ended. The exchange rates in localbitcoins are down to INR 60,000 per coin (down from the peak of INR 66,000 two days ago). It still represents a premium of around 20%, but the trend is downwards.

That is good news for every body interested in buying bitcoins, some fools even said it would be touching 1,50,000 Rs and the global market has been keenly watching what it has to offer. Glad to see price out there are softening, so will the global prices also fall?

I don't think that the transactions in India will be having any impact on the global exchange rates. The usage in India remains limited, thanks to the draconian laws and regulations. And from what I am seeing, Bitcoin just lost an opportunity to utilize the demonetization to widen its user base in India.

Nope, the spike hasnt ended. It will increase, again, it is starting to do so, and will soon be high again. I dont think the chance of demonetization to widen user base in India by the bitcoin has been lost,....yet. I fail to see how RBI will finish cash circulation in all areas within some weeks, I think it will atleast take 3 months or even more to finish it. By then, the user base will already have been widened in India, I think. :)

I have been to India, and although exchanges such as Localbitcoins are active there, the user base is very small. A lot of people still associate Bitcoins with the purchase of illegal stuff, and in general most of the users are in the 15-30 age range. The Indian mainstream media almost never mentions Bitcoin, and this is one of the main drawbacks in popularizing the crypto-currency there.

It wont help to freeze the black money anyhow. Dont you see? The ones with the money are either hiring employees to exchange their money (a person reportedly had hired 25,000 employees solely for this purpose), and the 2000 INR notes are helping them hoard up the money even more. Only the common people are the ones having problems, they are having to giving 195 notes of rupees 10 in exchange for 1 2000 INR note if a person is buying something worth 50 INR. The business in general has been put to a halt. People cant eat. Banks dont have notes that they need to exchange. ATMs have large notices in front of them saying that no money is present in ATM. People are bashing up each other to get in front of the queue. People are being killed. Choas is everywhere. Many people dont even know how to survive, so tell me, how will they even dream about investing in something as volatile as bitcoin?

Just read this. This sounds crazy, wouldn't this destabilize their entire economy ? Haven't other countries already implemented this in the past and have failed ? I can't see why an economist in the right mind would take this step.

It's favorable for bitcoin by all means

Although in my view government have done the best way to eliminate black money because all money from inside the room had to be taken out into light and this from now storing money would be tracked.

Yes, even the great Amartya Sen, a Noble Laureate from India in economy has greatly critisized this move by stating, "To achieve something good, sometimes bad things happen before good, but it doesnt necessarily mean that all bad things are for the greater good."




Could you please explain your view? How can they expect to track the money? Refer to my previous post, already an industry has about started just for exchanging the money, people are hiring thousands to just exchange money, so how will government track the black money if the come in very small amounts at a time from various thousand sources?? Its impossible.

Meanwhile, the banks have somehow become vulnerable to hacking, i should say, as just some days ago, 70,000 INR was stolen off from an artist's bank, at midnight. So its a lose-lose situation for us.

I was looking this up, and seems a lot of people are facing issues. Is this step actually working ? I would imagine all the money to be in the form of investments since their currency is much smaller than dollars, i.e 10 100$ bills are equivalent to a bundle of their biggest currency.

Amartya Sen is a communist stooge, who got the Nobel prize purely due to political considerations. According to the opinion polls conducted by independent agencies, anywhere from 80% to 90% of the Indian population supports the demonetization drive.

what I don't understand about this is that India didn't ban or change anything about their currency and it is just a "currency note" which was explained somewhere in the first couple of pages. and what I don't get is that why so many people are talking about Indian economy and their fiat getting banned.

Could you please provide the link? I can see pretty much no one supporting this move, along with the media. And I dont get your authority to call someone a communist stooge, especially someone from my state.
most people are against this move, open your eyes. Please provide me the link where you got that info.

Here are a few links, for you:

https://blog.inshorts.com/2016/11/Pulse-of-the-Nation-500-1000-Rs-Notes/ (Inshorts is India’s highest-rated news app, and IPSOS is a global market and opinion research specialists).

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Over-80-percent-dont-mind-inconvenience-of-demonetisation-says-C-Voter-poll/articleshow/55566700.cms

And even Pew Research think that the popularity of the current government is at peak levels.

http://5forty3.in/first-hints-of-a-namo-tsunami-after-demonetization/

http://5forty3.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Media-govt-Public.jpg

http://5forty3.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/By-Poll-and-Projections.jpg

Coming to a country near you soon...

Adding some news headline since this move, worth reading :)

1) No cash, no plastic: India's demonetised economy rushes towards cryptocurrency (http://www.catchnews.com/india-news/no-cash-no-plastic-india-s-demonetised-economy-rushes-towards-cryptocurrency-1479569915.html).

2) India’s rupee restrictions are boosting demand for bitcoin (http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/15/india-rupee-restriction-boost-bitcoin-digital-currency.html).

3) Digital Currency the ‘New Normal’, says Indian Finance Minister After Cash Curb (https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/digital-currency-new-normal-says-indian-finance-minister-cash-curb/).

4)  Why Bitcoin Will Succeed in India in Just Two Years (https://cointelegraph.com/news/why-bitcoin-will-succeed-in-india-in-just-two-years).

5)  India Encourages ‘Mission Mode’ Digital Currency Adoption (http://www.nigeriatoday.ng/2016/11/india-encourages-mission-mode-digital-currency-adoption/).

The intended effect is that it will be impractical to use gold as form of tax avoiding cash. You can bury gold in the ground and never use it, because that it no threat at all to the government's desire to tax everything that moves. Have fun eating your gold or watching it sit there useless in the ground while the economic opportunities move on without you.

The elite are moving the tangible economy to electronic currency that is tracked for taxes.

They will use the poor as a weapon against the middle class. The poor will avidly support increased taxation because the government will promise them free things. In India, the government is recently offering a basic level of free food and medical care system support to the indigent. This is a big deal because in the past 1/3 of Indians only ate once a day.

The poor see these increased taxation as ending corruption and funding the support for the poor. They don't realize it is the laying the seeds for tax slavery.

But we in the crypto-currency currency arena can offer the poor a better deal than what the government can give them. We can offer them a job in the virtual economy where they can become independently a middle class person. And then they will hate taxes.

I am working on this now. Steem(it) was the first (failed) example. We can onboard the billions into crypto-currency by giving them currency when they do work on a social network. We can change the economy of the world.

Tinfoil hats are doing nothing. They are stuck in an unimaginative old world fight over tangible resources. Iron used to be a precious metal. Everyone needs to understand we live in an age of surplus and we are moving to a Knowledge Age:

Interesting news about India and increasing demand for bitcoin since government bans Rs.500 and Rs.1000.
We know that fiat money has some disadvantages which could covered by bitcoin such as
Sandeep Goenka stated: “With credit cards, you have to pay VISA/Mastercard 2-3 percent on every transaction and you get the money after a few days, and sometimes in case of a chargeback, you don't. None of these problems exist in Bitcoins.”
But, what I concern is higher price to buy bitcoin there. It seems unfair if we could buy BTC1 / $750 outside the country but in India exchanges sell it about $100-200 higher than market price.
One bitcoin on the Indian exchange Unocoin is worth 55,405 rupees, or $817.97, at the time of writing. Dollar-denominated bitcoin currently costs around $709. and this>>>
Toward the end of November, the premium was soaring further, as the price to buy bitcoin reached $985 while Indian bitcoin exchanges continue to push for adoption.
I don't know for sure is it good or not for people there, but this mean increases adoption and higher price of bitcoin.

I think the price will always be higher than international markets because the charges for foreign remittance are high and also there are currency conversion fees and we have to pay tax like service tax (around 0.15% to 15% depending upon cases) on the top of that amount so it will cost the same for resident Indian buyer to purchase from  International markets unless he is NRI (There are some provisions for NRI where they can maintain account in USD). I am working on the solution and in the process of research. Let's see what happenes.

I have another good news, Ground zero merchants from India are also getting aware about digital payments (although they are using fiat now but still they are getting used to digital payment technology) and that's very good sign for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.


Picture from the internet : A local street seller from India with a board Paytm accepted here. Paytm is a fiat wallet (backed by Alibaba), it is almost same as paypal but it is much more convenient and cheaper to use.

Now you anyone convert his bitcoins in Paytm cash, click following link to know more..


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Dudeperfect

A friend of mine told me that due to this move the price of bitcoin is 900$ in India, can someone verify this ? Sounds like a fantastic opportunity to arbitrage sell.

India’s snap decision to ban RS 500 and 1,000 notes caused panic as it reportedly caused 86% of India’s currency to be no longer valid. The announcement made by the Indian PM on an unscheduled live televised address predictably resulted in chaos.

And they have baned import for gold too, it is mean the chance for bitcoins becoming next gold on India is very high and just need 1% people on India for bitcoin's price increase become $1000.

You are right. This has created a huge chaos here, people are struggling to pay for their food. Anyways, it cant be undone, but this might mean a good thing for bitcoin, on the brighter side. So, I guess, this move has a mixed effect on me, being a resident of India, as this might mean popularity of bitcoin here, and that could increase the price faster, although more steadily.

Its better for our country that it has banned its fiat money so that people are being able to use digital currency which for the better good that they are being able to monitor every penny .kudoos :)

I am sure bitcoin on your country will be more growing, because ban Fiat money is mean Death of currency and war against cash is begining and there are no other choice except bitcoin for making people on there prosperous, may Allah SWT blessing Indian people. Amen

How can someone think this would stop the counterfeits? Even teenagers know that if you want to make a fake bill it's best to make the smallest ones, because of two factors:
1. They have the least security features
2. Nobody bothers to check them

It has not much to do with counterfeiting as the main intention of such actions by the government is to trace down large holders that weren't known before.

It's once again the hunger for full control over people that is making governments to take steps like these. People are nothing more than sheeps following what is being told them to do.

That's why there is a growing demand in India when it comes to Bitcoin. People are looking to stash away their money outside the regular banking system where the government has full sight on everything.

In my country they do check them. They're not going to stop the counterfeit but limiting the money you can exchange to the new bank notes would "stop the black market and disable the black money". That turned into a complete chaos in there, imagine having saved a lot of money and one day later it becomes all just paper..

I have always believed that we will have a cashless society one day and this might be the catalyst to start that revolution against fiat currency just not in India but globally too. ;)

The war on cash is on full force. If anyone has kids here, your kids if they are small they will never see physical cash. In 18 years the war on cash will be complete and they will never see cash ever again. The only way out from that mess is bitcoin, too bad all those indians are clueless about bitcoin and are trapped in the government mess, not even gold can save them.

This is also the main reason of Bitcoin price rising in particular indian local exchange , where lot of peoples are adopting bitcoin and investing their black money in bitcoin. And more over India is also taking all steps to include Bitcoin technology in India. Their are meetups in delhi where they are discussing about blockchain development in india