Bitcoin Forum

The petitioner, Dwaipayan Bhowmick, said:

"It is submitted that certain countries have made Bitcoin subject to their respective tax regimes, while a few other countries have designated it as a commodity, thereby making Bitcoin subject to government regulation and accountable to exchequer but no such mechanism exists in India till date."

The petitioner also argued that regulatory organizations like the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) were trying to shirk their responsibility with respect to regulating Bitcoin.

While there are multiple Bitcoin exchanges like Coinsecure, Zebpay and Unocoin operating in India, the regulators have not come out with any guidelines for Bitcoin operations. The RBI has in the past (2013 and 2017) warned investors about the risks involved in investing in cryptocurrencies.

As seen in the past, courts often step in to adjudicate when governments fail to offer clear guidance. It is preferable that governments take the opinions of experts and provide clarity on their stance on cryptocurrencies, else regulation will be built on a piecemeal basis from judicial pronouncements.

Its really foolishness to ban bitcoin. I am sure that they wont take such a stupid decision. All major countries started to accept bitcoin and if India bans bitcoin then its like stopping the progress of Indians. That too India is one of the major IT hubs of the world. Two months back, I read somewhere that the government is going to regulate bitcoin under goods and commodities law. Anyways lets wait for the final decision.

Its really foolishness to ban bitcoin. I am sure that they wont take such a stupid decision.
All major countries started to accept bitcoin and if India bans bitcoin then its like stopping the progress of Indians.
That too India is one of the major IT hubs of the world. Two months back, I read somewhere that the government is going to regulate bitcoin under goods and commodities law. Anyways lets wait for the final decision.

Having a country scare its own public of "ban" of Bitcoin will be detrimental as her population will fall behind on the wealth curve of the world and become more poor than others.

With that said, Bitcoin has already been banned all over the world by all big banks in nearly all countries since 2013 (for over 4-years) and the banks have completely failed at stopping Bitcoin's growth. At a bank, just try to do a bank transaction say its for "Bitcoin" and watch your transaction be blocked for review.

BUT Everyone in all countries are still finding a way to get Bitcoins. They simply never say "Bitcoin" when dealing with banks. People are smart.

Notice how Bitcoin has for years successfully defeated all opposition?

A ban would only be detrimental to the country's law abiding citizens. The criminals and tax waders would continue to use Bitcoins. As long as Bitcoin is fungible and accepted by people across the globe, they would be happy to do business in bitcoins. And they profit from an appreciating currency as well.

There's no way for a country to enforce any actual ban once an individual obtains bitcoin. All they can do is block exchanges from operating and certain businesses.

India is a country which banned the use of its own notes through demonetization. It won't take a big jump for it to ban Bitcoin. It will be interesting to see what the courts say. Will they apply outdated laws and come out with a judgement..

Governments will do everything they think is a good move for them. If that means banning Bitcoin in whatever shape or form, they will do it without hesitation. Governments should understand that banning Bitcoin isn't an option, because the only thing they are doing is driving the market to go 'underground' (i.e. peer based trading), which means that the government will lose control entirely. In easy terms, people will always be able to buy Bitcoin or other crypto currencies, which is something that can't be stopped. Regulations allow governments to somewhat know what's going on, who owns what, where does the invested money go to, etc.