Bitcoin Forum

India has decided to completely ban the possession, sale and purchase of Bitcoin or any other form of crypto-currency.

According to the mainstream media, the measures will be implemented this month, with a 90-day waiting period. Anyone who don't "dispose off" their crypto holding within this time period will be charged with non-bailable criminal offenses, which can be punished by up to 10 years in jail.

What makes this measure different from others is that while countries such as Nepal and Bangladesh have arrested random individuals for trading in cryptocurrency (or for exchanging crypto for fiat), none of the authorities anywhere in the world have arrested users just for the possession of crypto-currency.

There are an estimated 100,000 crypto-traders in India, and there are another 5,000,000 individuals who have dealt with crypto at some point of time.

Sources:

https://www.bloombergquint.com/bq-blue-exclusive/exclusive-india-proposes-10-year-jail-for-cryptocurrency-use-may-introduce-its-own-digital-currency
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/cryptocurrency/10-year-jail-for-buying-selling-cryptocurrency-in-india-report-4073451.html
https://entrackr.com/2019/06/crypto-users-india-may-face-10-year-jail-term/
https://www.ccn.com/bitcoin-india-anti-crypto-bill-imprisonment
https://www.fxstreet.com/cryptocurrencies/news/indias-crypto-ban-draft-bill-suggests-10-year-jail-term-for-those-dealing-in-cryptocurrencies-201906071050

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. This is a proposed bill - it has not been put into law just yet. If it becomes law, it will be a global embarrassment, because it will keep India behind economically.

In case this proposal can come into law, it would be a sad day for many Indians who believe in the use and advantages of cryptocurrency. Now, I am wondering how will the government determine if one has a bitcoin or any type of cryptocurrency? Will they be searching the computer files of someone suspected to "possess" such an asset? This is insane because this measure would virtually equate cryptocurrency with that of possessing an illegal drug or paraphernalia thereof. This is insanity at its best but once this can be the law there is nothing we can do to counter such a move from the government but to follow or maybe just hide.


It would be interesting how the cryptocurrency community in India will be reacting to this proposal. I am hoping that this can be the fire that can ignite them to fully unite and have their voices get heard. I am still hoping though that soon a better climate for cryptocurrency in India will ensue.

The Title is misleading. Just state India Lawmakers Proposes 10 year.....

It is likely that the government will support this proposal and is likely to be approved by the lawmakers. I do hope their local court invalidates this if it ever becomes a law.

There’s still a chance that this will not become a law but Indian people will panic because of this not good suggestion. I don’t understand why India have to do this, i know they are a religious country but I hope they won’t stop their people to grow and help them, educate them not to remain poor. India will be left behind if they continue to stop their people from adopting, hope this wont succeed and never become a law.

look at the government of India, is a government that wants to have full control of its people and the caste problems that exist in India only prove that they are long overdue on basic issues as equal rights for all citizens. hardly a country like this can live very well with bitcoin as long as it has a government like what they have. governments that seek control over their people will hardly accept decentralized things

It's not confirmed yet because it's still undergoing a certian process but it will affect the market somehow. India has a huge number of users and it will be a big lost if they will ban cryptocurrency completely. Users will surely do a panic selling which may affect the prices as well.

another thing that reasonable for such kind of governments is to make a centralization within a decentralized system. forcing KYC/AML verification, and taxing it. Is such of option to make it possible, to take away the decentralization. although the pseudo-nym nature of Bitcoin in addition to privacy and anonymity tools are enough to prevent us from being tracked. It is necessary to use a decentralized exchange like Bisq to convert into FIAT in case of such governments condition.

Going on the calibre of people involved there's a high chance this is going to happen.

India does not have a huge number of users. Prices will not be affected.

The whole of India has 29 full Bitcoin nodes and Localbitcoins volume was less than $2 million last week. It's nowhere and it's staying nowhere.

This is not finalized according to the sources you yourself have mentioned. If this would actually be the case for India, it would be a complete miss on their economy knowing so well that the crypto industry has been moving forward lately. Also, if this would be the ultimate end of crypto development on the said country, imagine how much jobs would have crypto services created had it been opened and supported by the government. It's quite unfortunate really but if that's what they wanted, no one can ever change that.

It's a risk for most Indian users. We know how crypto works and how it makes every individual's financial status better.
It will be a disadvantage for most holders if India will ban it.
India is a developing country and cryptocurrency contributes a lot in their development. It's just sad news that their government is really against it.

No, nothing was banned. There is a proposal to ban crypto currency and arrest its users. That would be a very arbitrary measure worthy of the most tyrannical countries of the world. I don't think India wants to be seen this way by other countries.
Especially a country that is so famous for its technology interest and labour. Now indians need to raise their voices against this absurd, do you live in a democracy or not?

Being a resident of Indonesia, I can understand the frustration and helplessness being faced by Indian nationals. Even here the government was quite hostile to crypto sometime back. Only recently did they changed their approach to the cryptocurrency. Hold strong guys, it is just a matter of time before the government realizes its mistake and reverses this policy.

I don't really care about that. A huge part of minor crypto users is coming from different shitholes like Venezuela or India and this part of users  deal absolutely nothing on the entire crypto ecosystem and at the same time they are holding or shilling a huge amount of crypto scams.
To make cryptocurrencies somehow established we need normal people to use it.

I really doubt if there will be any change from the proposed bill, i really do not understand the concept behind people who are possessing bitcoin too will be jailed, earlier they were saying that these things are done to protect its users from fraudsters, but now it is clear what they are really aiming for, to have a dictatorship level control over its citizens and the moment the old government got re elected i knew something like this was coming as majority of the people in that party does lack common sense. There is a court system and i hope will have some justice and the proposed bill will not get passed as drug peddlers and rapist are not getting this kind of sentence in India, which part of the brain they came to a conclusion to give this kind of punishment  :o.

This news looks surprising to me, indian law is very flexible and it cannot impose 10 years jail. I doubt the publishers publishing this. This is a proposed bill and should not come into existence. Such hard punishment only to trade/hold crypto is not at all justified in the country with such a flexible law. Indian govt is focusing on digitization and such ban on crypto will surely set them back. I hope govt will realize it and avoid bringing such baseless law into mainstream.

If this legislation is confirmed by the parliament, then Indian Bitcoin users will be having very few options. Let me check the options one by one:

1. "Dispose off" the coins and report past holdings to the authorities: You can't "sell" your coins, so you need to give it to someone for free. How practical is this?

2. Moving to another country: For the ultra-rich, getting a new passport and emigrating out of India may be an option. But 99.99% of the Indian Bitcoin users can't afford this.

3. Hiding your Bitcoin holdings: Very risky. As we all know, Bitcoins are not 100% anonymous. It is not impossible for the authorities to trace the wallet holdings to you. And once that happens, you will be jailed and in addition to the prison term, you will be slapped with a crippling monetary fine. All of your assets may get seized by the government and by the time you manage to get out of the prison, you may not be having a roof over your head.

Right now, these are the only viable options available to the users. And their small size means that they will be unable to exert any influence on the government. India is a country of 1400 million people and the total number of Bitcoin users may constitute around 0.1% of this number.

But can the authorities arrest 1 million people and send them to jail? And that too just for the possession of some codes.

Why the misleading title? There are bills in the US to ban crypto. It’s all proposals, not law.

its very likley it will get passed, but agree the title is a bit missleading its like its already in effect and that people got jailed for holding btc lol

Exactly. Any party or even a single MP can write a bill. Bulls are voted every single day and usually they have to go through 2 chambers of parliament and then be signed by the president. If any of these 3 parties don't agree with the bill it gets reset and has to be revised and be presented again to the first chamber.
10 years in jail is too extreme it's not going to be approved, although a normal ban is possible if not likely. India is a weird country.

India is getting more users over the period with its market getting widening. Earlier several legal issues have taken place relative to the usage of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Over the days the appeal was delayed and it keeps on getting delayed. Probably this time also same thing is gonna happen in my view. As an user mentioned, even if it was imposed with a law market won't get disturbed.

I'll just add it to the list of laws I do not obey.  ;)

exactly to the stone ages

This is very sad and tough. It will affect a lot of people in India, and set a bad precedent. But others are right that for now, it's just a dangerous possibility, not reality. It's only a draft bill, so it is yet to be passed and after that perhaps signed by the head of the government (I don't know how it works in India, but in my country, the president has a right to veto a law, and in that case only 3/4 of votes in the parliament can overrule the president's decision). I hope that India will choose wisely and that if it does not, people will not put up with it and will make a petition or peaceful protests for reconsideration.

I am from India, and I need to say that this is a very worrying development.

As many of the users have posted here, it is true that this is just a proposal. But the plans have been finalized and this draft bill is supported by the members of the ruling party. The opposition is also likely to support this bill, as I can't find a reason why they should oppose. Anyway the ruling party is having an outright majority and they can easily pass the bill in the two houses of the parliament. Till now, not a single one out of the 543 parliamentarians have spoken out against this bill.

The next step is getting the approval of the president. And here, the president is a member of the ruling party, and the chances of him refusing to sign is virtually zero.

The only step that is left now is to challenge this bill in the Supreme Court of India. But there is no guarantee that the judges will side with the Bitcoin users. And also, any such litigation can take at least a few years time. And that duration is enough for the authorities to harass the million+ crypto users in India.

This kind of thing will happen more and more as corrupt governments wants to eliminate their competition. They need 100% control over their cititzens and when a technology like this emerge, then it pose a threat to their control.

The problem is that a government like this will never survive if they are elected officials, because the voters will turn against them if they do not serve their purpose and the mandate that the majority of the citizens wants.

Advice : Use your vote and get rid of governments like this.  ;)

India country proposed bill one of the cluase of banning crypto now going like wild wire all over the world but in reality  still surpme court should give hearing about crypto in the month of July

This is only a proposal, not defined yet.
But guys, do you really believe governments will close their eyes forever about BTC and cryptos?
You're so naive, today the BTC does not represent a real threat, but soon or when BTC reaches some real high levels, we should be worried (or not  ;D, BTC purpose is to fight against governments and banks in general)

It is only a proposal and I do not think India will execute the ban.

Nope. It must work side by side with the government since we all want the adoption to happen. I don't think it will be approved though knowing most countries today and even banks are now into developing thier own chain. Their government should realize that. If imposed though, we might be seeing a slight decline again.

Though this is just a proposal , not been fully implemented into law and not enforceable yet . I believe if this proposal could become a reality it will keep India economy  behind so much because the future is obviously  very bright . I also believe Government of a nation should always respect every human right and interest. Formulating or proposing such principle is  just like infringement on their citizens right though i do not know the kind system of  Government  they are running . I believe the Banks are the  architect behind this and if this could become a reality more countries who does not want to embrace the world of transparency are likely to follow the suit . Personally, i do not see cryptocurrency as a threat to any nation economy .

So, India is going to ban the cryptocurrency entirely, which is a very bad news for the crypto community! India is one of the large countries and it has millions of bitcoin supporters but this 10 years jail attempt will create chaos into the Indian crypto community! About a month ago, my Bengali friend told that his friend got arrest by the police in money laundering case because he was a regular crypto buyer. So, these news you can't ignore. At least I want to see the crypto freedom flag in India!

Maybe India government has decided to keep its citizens from the future of money and what will determine the international monetary policy in ten to twenty years to come. I have pity for traders living in India and this is seriously going to affect bitcoin and crypto currency in general because many of the India holders are going to dump the coins in their possession in others not to be cut-up with this laws. However, I do believed that since this is a proposal, this laws may not seal through at the end as reason is going to prevail on them at the end.

i am sorry that India is against bitcoin and has introduced such strict laws but it is their choice and we must respect it

They cannot force you to give up your password, Like they did with gold back in the day in America, They went into peoples houses and stole the gold, they cannot take your bitcoins, fuck your bills India and Mr Sherman.

This is really bad news for the Indian crypto user. In many countries of Asia, Bitcoin has not been legally validated by the government of Bitcoin. Yes, news has been heard in Bangladesh, now in India. I think the government of these countries should think about the crypto currency.

These are bad news, i don't think it will affect the bitcoin price or the markets but always to have a gov vs technology is like make a back step on evolution. And is crazy when for a government put on the same place assassins, corrupts and traders, like if they were all the same bad guys.

And how exactly the Indian authorities are going to enforce this? Their stupidity is infinite.

Boot Tail OS live linux iso, make cold wallet with Electrum, write your seed words, share your wallet addresses online or whatever, shut off pc.

Where is the money? In the blockchain. People don't "possess" bitcoin, or wallets for that matter...

Now they would have to "prove" an individual could control a group of coins, how are you going to do that? The seed words are perfect for stenography, just pick a random book and mark some words, etc.

India should take a look at its neighbor China to see how well they ended enforcing things like that, ie. quite the opposite result.

Indian people might take it underground, but stopping it is impossible, it is designed to prevent this,

If you are Indian make your cold wallet now and keep your coins safe until those old fools making this "law" leave this plane of existence. Banning Bitcoin is a perfect way to keep wealth away from your country, don't be surprised one of your neighbors adopt it and become rich while you continue the misery for your people.

Please OP, don't say "Third world country", spell it correctly: India wants to impoverish their people even more by banning Bitcoin.

I wonder why "Bloomberg Quint" is the only source that had access to the proposed law. All the other sources listed in the OP are citing it as a source, and in the case of Money Control it even says:


Also interesting:

https://www.coindesk.com/reserve-bank-of-india-denies-involvement-in-draft-bill-to-ban-cryptocurrencies

That would mean that while there are government agencies in favour of a ban, the draft seens to be still in an early stage.

Found also this older article from April 26:

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/government-department-discuss-draft-bill-to-ban-cryptocurrencies/articleshow/69048480.cms

I was so surprised to know they got over 5m people involved because the country had always been against cryptocurrency. This could deprive alot of indian as country with high number of technology human resource. I also wonder how they monitor country men's involvement to keep such stats, so it could be dangerous to dare this news.

Just finished reading this news from the moneycontrol website! It is wired! When India finalized this rule? They banned cryptocurrency, it's ok! But they should not arrest people for dealing bitcoin in the p2p method! I hope that guys will release very soon. Buying bitcoin is not a sin, and 10 years in jail is enough to destroy a man's life. India should reconsider its step about cryptocurrency.

Majority of the people who invested in bitcoin will not obey those rules, they will just take the bitcoin market underground and that is what they are doing if that proposed bill becomes a reality, they are not capable of sorting the general problems of the common citizen and yet they are coming up with a bill which will be impossible to track if we trade smartly and there will be new P2P based markets coming up just because of the situation.

There are a lot of people that are users and holder of bitcoin in India, and if this proposition passes through it won't just be bad for the Indians but it will be catastrophic, if this goes through how will they exchange all the crypto they have, I think that this is not going to be happening simply because the government does not have the ability to track the people that posses cryptos, they can monitor ips that go popular crypto sites but people can just use VPN, and 10 years is a lot for possessing crypto it is hire than possessing and dealing drugs, all of this seems dumb.

That's true how they can trace the people who using crypto, it's sad for India if they regulate that kind of law. That's why some people of don't want government enter to crypto because of this. Maybe they have reason to do this but some are want to currupted it.

Give proofs or STFU because it's just a proposed draft and not a bill that has come into execution already. Wait for a decision to come out and we'll see. I'm from India too and I know what kind of media do we have here. They hear something, they add a lot of spice into the debate to make it the talk of the Town. So, let's not just come to a conclusion here and wait for final results.

You can propose any law. You can propose wearing red underwear on fridays. It doesn't mean it goes into law. Noone will listen to this bs. Lol being arrested for doing something that doesn't hurt anyone.
Great way to start a war with your own people. If someone threatened my way of life or my assests in anyway I will defend myself. I worked for it, it is mine to do as I wish to.

If any law like this ever passes then its own obligation to break those laws because...

When law becomes injustice then rebellion becomes duty.

I am India and this title is totally misleading. The news is that this is a draft bill. This can be rejected or can be changed . No one is going jail for holding crypto as of now. This is a just a new article that this is a draft bill and this might happen. And we all know how much FUD news come in crypto market. So personally i will wait for official government bill.

We all know that those news agencies work dirty and will put misleading title so just people will click them. But I  agree with you man, you have 5M of your people involved in crypto and that is a  lot. Your number will definitely change their mind and you guys better start doing a campaign in India and how blockchain could help your economy to make them on your side.

Many crypto users specially Indians will be disappointed by this move as this will not favor the market which is starting to recover from bearish trend. Expect many Indians crypto users will protest to this and will do counter measures just to make their government to not to support this proposed law like in South Korea that after the people protest on banning of Bitcoin their government decided to support Bitcoin.

A total of 51 posts in this thread and not a single user has proposed a solution in case the Indian parliament passes this draft bill.

I am not an Indian. But here is what I have to say: rather than fighting among ourselves, we need to act quickly against this measure. Legal avenues needs to be explored, and at the same time awareness campaigns must be taken out so that ordinary people are educated about the fallacy of this measure. Bitcoin users in India needs to make a plan, so that anyone facing legal issues from this new measure is provided adequate support.

I am not sure about the total number of Bitcoin users in India, but it may be in millions. It is time to stand united and if there is no unity, then things will get easier for the dictatorship. And don't wait for the government to implement this measure. Start taking precautions from today itself. Most likely, the government is likely to arrest a few random Bitcoin users and use their detention to create a fear psychosis in the mind of the remaining users. The Indian Bitcoiners need to think about the action plan, in case such a measure is taken from the part of the government.

of course they can't effectively enforce it, but such a blanket ban would deter a lot of users. people are generally fearful of their governments and the police. if they selectively enforce it and publicly throw a few traders in prison, it will destroy the market. obviously black markets will still exist but they will pale in comparison to previously legal markets.

This is one of the worst information in 2019. India has begun to act against Bitcoin and Crypto, which will be the dumbest thing the government does. The ban starts to implement, but this will not eliminate investors in this country. Cryptocurrency is always an anonymous platform, so the government in this country cannot control all investors.

Yes, India has many crypto users. With such a proposal, I think the best way for Indians is to take a safe path. That is by selling their coins while waiting for the final decision from the government. This kind of news is certainly very stifling and I am afraid if this action will be imitated by the lawmakers in my country. I wish there will be a win win solution for india citizens in regard with crypto currency.

It is my understanding that the caste system has been weakening over time as India moves to modernity. I believe deep down the Indian government wants India to become a leading nation, but it fears that the rupee will be abandoned in favor of bitcoin. Possibly, the Indian government fears being rendered useless by decentralized systems as well.

Is this some kind of strategy? When I remember correctly it was China and India way back 2017, and other big populated countries are into something like this, banning crypto and other related to it. And yet the price plummet and after that the price reach to certain heights. Is it just their tactic to bring down the price of Bitcoin and the buy more? What do you think, anyways if the country India would totally ban it another country would take it's place anyway so there is no big deal.

Many countries prohibit bitcoin, but it only stops at the proposal, because they still worry that bitcoin will become a global trend, when their economy will be left behind.

Black money scare has scared India. I think USA has allowed Bitcoin to function as a digital asset.

Lol. This whole topic is hilarious. Firstly, as others have mentioned already, this is just a stupid proposal and nothing more which may or may not pass at the end of the day. Lets just assume that it passed. What happens next?

The RBI banned crypto completely many months ago and people still actively trade crypto. This is a similar situation. People will find some way or another to continue trading crypto since you cannot actually ban crypto entirely.

The Indian government has banned porn completely at present, but people found workarounds. Torrents are banned, but people still use proxies and VPNs to view them.

The owner of bitconnect.com was arrested in India for $14 billion ponzi scheme using Bitcoins. India has all the scammers and "billionaire frauds"

ROFL. It was a retarded step to ban porn. And you are right. In today's world these sort of bans don't work as VPNs can be purchased for as little as $5 per month. This is what happens when we have uneducated and illiterate people as the lawmakers. So this does not come as a surprise. India is a country that has banned porn. And the lawmakers are retarded enough to propose a ban on crypto as well.

Each country has its own view on cryptocurrencies and their lawmakers' views may be different but the decision to sign the law is still in the of head of state. If the head of state did not like the proposed bill to be enacted, he will not sign it and if he/she signs it, the cryptocurrencies will find their way to the underground exchanges. Since the cryptocurrencies existed only in the web, people will always find ways to buy and sell virtual currencies even there is law that restrict them.

Bitcoin is the most transparent form of money and there is nothing you can hide from the blockchain and yet you think that the Indian government is scared of black money if there is every recorded transaction ever done in bitcoin and if that is the reason they are coming up with for passing the bill, the world will laugh at them for their lack of knowledge about the entire bitcoin infrastructure, if they ban the use entirely people will still trade away from government eyes because the no one can stop the market.

The political system in India is different. The effective head of the state is the Prime Minister, who is a part of the ruling party. The president has only nominal powers and he is also a member of the NDA (ruling alliance whose members proposed the measure to ban Bitcoin). The proposed bill in all probability will be passed in both the houses of the parliament, and then signed by the president. It may face legal challenges in the top most court, but I am not very optimistic about this scenario. The mindset of the supreme court judges in India is not very different from that of the lawmakers.

Does this mean that even though this is just a proposal, it is most likely will be approved and become a law in India? Do we expect another dump because of this law?

Completely agreed. 10years jail term for just trading cryto and that too in India which has most flexible law seems ridiculous, even if it is implemented people will find other ways around. Forex trading is banned in India since beginning but still you can find forex broker in every city, they can accept paymet in INR and can credit your account in USD. Moreover current Indian govt is focused on digitization so I don't think they will ban thing like cryptocurrency.

Why are they doing this? People want to improve their lives with bitcoin, why the government won't let them do it. They do not want to see the positive side of bitcoin and it is very sad.

Why did they restrict gold imports? Why did they trip up their population by deleting their banknotes?

It's about driving money into bank accounts so they can tax, surveil and control it plus preventing capital flight. Widely adopted crypto would be a nightmare in that scenario so if they don't do it this time around they'll certainly try again in future.

Thank you for bringing this up here, it shows the failure of democracy to the whole world and India is the largest democracy and it is showing its flaws here, the president is a set up of the ruling party and he is a mere dummy to play according to their plans which sucks, i am from a state where the ruling party is not even having one seat in their entire history and they will never win a single seat because of their ideology, literacy is a major factor why these sort of parties are still ruling India in 2019, people will be happy to get money and free goods in order to cast their votes.

I think this is a very strict law. 10 years in jail for trading crypto is a lot. I would like to have a good future with cryptocurrency, so that all countries have a positive attitude to it. I hope I will can see that.

I think you are from Southern states such as Andhra and Kerala, where the NDA failed to win any seats. This is one of the flaws of democracy. In a democratic system, if a particular group increases its population, it gets more votes and thereby more power. The Southern states have very low population growth and are therefore becoming insignificant in the Indian politics. On the other hand, the states of UP and Bihar are home to almost 30% of the Indian population (the proportion is increasing every year due to huge population growth), and they are having a stranglehold over the Indian politics now. NDA won 103 out of 120 seats from UP/Bihar this time.

It is not good for indian citizens because they will be affected on that. I do not know the reason why they do that because crypto is good opportunity and people in India will forcing to sell their coins they have right now to not punish by the government I hope this law will be abolish it is not fair for everyone.  Crypto is legit and they did not do this. 

yeah, BTC banning every country when they sold out at top price, and they give us bad news to dump btc price and buyback at down price. It's classic news

yh there are lot of crypto traders in india and investors too , i saw the article there is no official conformation from ministries or rbi but big stop for crypto traders in india 10years jail thats big too 

That's truth, seems like they are not so effective at enforcing their laws like practically any third-world country especially. Even the developed ones had problems when it comes to something banned.

Now, they are not completely useless i'm sure and the few ones who get caught will pay a fine and face up to 1 year of jail if it pass so they will be together with criminals for doing something harmless. That sounds like a complete injustice for me.

Leaving that place would sound like a better idea if the thing passes out. The ones who stay it's their decision but they know what they're playing with.

well said yes people will search for alternative and this laws keep on going either they should ban completely or they should let crypto trading legal , this type of statements don't have value 

there are at least five million crypto users who actively create charts of crypto trade, investment and mining.  the aim of the central bank of India's decision to provide security for public transactions. 
the Indian government's decision to make BTC fall.  I think this is a bad decision.  and it would be better if each country to control the circulation of each crypto transaction with regulation.

I think that in every country there are certain government officials or politicians who put down a proposal that is extremely harsh and meant to specifically target a certain industry or group of people.

The thing here is that just because it concerns crypto, it's suddenly worldwide news. Crypto has been the hottest topic for years now and what's better to leverage this and spread a bunch of nonsense to generate clicks and views?

This proposal is so ridiculous that even for a country as India (which has been quite negative towards crypto for a long time now), it's likely going to be rejected by a majority vote.

India has been sitting on a fence regarding cryptocurrencies for a long time
and now they decided that if they cannot control something , they will ban it
its a shame if the news is true and they are starting a witch hunt :(
but i'd wait some time and see if it is enforced or not , we all know that the news from India and Russia about crypto are controversial

A condition that is not favorable for crypto owners, and if such regulations are really implemented in your country it is better to sell than to have to deal with the law.

I agree that its a bad decision, even proposing the banning already a big mistake I don't understand why the government need to take so harsh decision, bitcoin is not totally used for criminal things, I believe there are some people making a living using bitcoin in that country, if btc really being adopted in a lot of countries then India will be left behind, it's such a shame that the government got a negative perspectives on bitcoin

Its quiet serious condition there in india. You will be jailed just because you have a bitcoin and i do hear its really hard to cash out your cryptocurrency into fiat money in india right now.Yes i believe many people in india are thought to sell all their cryptocurrency cause the regulations, i dont know why goverments i so afraid with it, and i dont think india have such a great influence in world economy, maybe they are afraid that some parties would use bitcoin to do fraud and hidden transactions that not suppose to happen.

And you selling your bitcoin can affect the price of it in the market, that would be bad but some says India doesn't have that much bitcoin investors so I think despite the effect of it, it would not be that big. Also, we should not be scared of it for now since it is still in the process, it is still just proposed. Still not implemented and regulated.

This is headlines in the crypto community, I consider this a big blow in Cryptocurrency but hoping that no country will follow India's very harsh law, it's like a capital punishment to me, because it's non-bailable I feel sorry for our Indian brothers they don't deserve this, they are one of the contributors in promoting Cryptocurrency.

This is a very bad move from the India government. After so much drama, in the end, they come with this solution! 10 years of jail is just an insane punishment for this activity! Where developed countries appreciating crypto technology, at the same time India is capturing crypto supporters! I thought India will accept cryptocurrency this time, I really fed up by reading this news!

having spoken to the locals ,I was sent a link to a video that busts it as fake
in short , the media took one abstract from the draft and presented it as if you get punished even for watching a bitcoin gif picture or typing bitcoin in your search window :)
this is far from the truth , actually it says that the particular use of bitcoin , described in subsections 1,2,3 etc. is punishable , not just possessing it
in any case , watch the video and decide yourself who to believe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV-drIodJEQ

That's really bad news. India is so many people what could be involved and rise cryptocurrency capitalization. But after some time I completely confident that any banning in India will be canceled. Cmon, facebook make it's own crypto.

Don't worry.India never will do that.There is a little chance to ban bitcoin in India.Lot of people using bitcoin in India.Indian government is welcoming cryptos. There are few meetings about crypto currency with the support of government.This is fake news don't caught for this and don't loose your valuable bitcoins and cryptos.

Its just a proposal and its not yet final. Everyone can make and submit a proposal like that but not every proposal gets signed and makes it a law. So as for now sit back and relax, maybe someone will oppose this proposal and create a better proposal to protect Bitcoin holders from scammers. This is the reason why such proposals are created.

Since its still a proposal, I don't think there is need to jump the gun for whatever reason. Even though India is a being regarded as a third world country, it does not means every of their law makers are people who don't have the knowledge and exposure to know what is right and thereafter decides what is best for the country. I expect there would be changes and some reasonable amendments before it becomes law and ultimately binding on every citizens of the country.

Why do these people always want to make the wrong news when they should be promoting it instead ???
AFAIK Indians are quite talented people in many fields and we need their freelance services and other professional services which is now possible with cryptocurrencies as the means of payment. The government alone that side can't provide jobs for its people and should find a way to embrace this as a way to support it's people.

It's just a proposal and has not been signed into law, this may take another time for it to be pass and implemented. India is different from China, the price of bitcoin will happily shot up as a result of this news. An average India who has tested the good side of bitcoin will find a way around this government fiasco.

the number of crypto users in India is very much if refer to the OP data that provides above. if this rule really implemented there will be a major crypto dump from india user. what I'm sad about is that many people will lose crypto earnings, and i believe many india people depend life from crypto.

The OP has given an imaginary number of 5 million users, but gave no source for this information. Due to the lack of legality of cryptocurrency in India, quantifying the user-base is very difficult. But I remember ZebPay (one of the Indian exchanges) claiming that they had more than half a million users when they closed down. Now only the serious users would be registering to an exchange by undergoing the KYC process. Therefore I would assume there are between 1 million and 2 million serious users in India.