Bitcoin Forum

One of my friends recently asked me about where should he invest some of his savings ($300) and I suggested him bitcoins. He talked me next day and told me that bitcoins are illegal. Currently, there is are lot of misconceptions about bitcoin investment in India. Let me make everything clear:

1) This started with the recent yearly budget announced where the Finance minister said that bitcoins are not legal currency in India. Media left the currency word here and we saw news like bitcoins are not legal in India. It is completely legal and you can invest without any issues. It is not a legal currency and this means that you cannot do offline transactions with bitcoins in India.

2) There was news that some banks blocked credit cards of people using it for bitcoin transactions. I am using my cards and bank transfer for bitcoin investment without any problems so this is also a rumor.

3) Income tax notices are being sent to all bitcoin investors is another misconception. Notices were sent but only to those who are investing huge money and not paying taxes.

Let us discuss more misconceptions here and I will answer in replies.

Most of the people have this confusion because there is no clear regulation regarding it and the lack of knowledge on what bitcoin is the main factor for these confusions and more over the government is giving statements against it every now and then and the media is creating some confusions over the general public , i am expecting regulation in India this year .

This is exactly the same as what happened in my country Indonesia. Until now we can't do offline transactions with bitcoin and the government will take firm action against those who adopt bitcoin. Hence we always exchange the bitcoin more first in the wallet online and then can be used. However, our government though has never taxed on the bitcoin transactions that took place.

More and more countries are declaring bitcoins to be legally used as a form of payment. Among the list India is not alone, we have Japan, South Korea and Philippines in Asia. Plus, there are a lot more countries on the western side. But majority of countries does not have any declaration about bitcoin thus people are still using it.

The legality of bitcoin affects also the credibility of all cryptocurrencies, hopefully it is true, maybe more countries also plan to adopt and follow on what other countries do. But legalizing cryptocurrency would pass under many reviews and high verifications. And it is not easy to legalize crypto business, because of the anonymous identity of the management peole behind crypto business.

The good news, I believe, is that more and more countries are declaring that bitcoin is legally used as a form of payment.

Bitcoin has been approved by regulators in most developed countries, allowing people to use it freely.

Bitcoin is not legal currency and Bitcoin is not legal, well that’s huge difference in meaning. And yeah no one’s gonna say anything if you are investing in crypto or Bitcoin from India. Just you can’t exchange it to Indian fiat currency. You are right on your point.