Bitcoin Forum

It's been in news these days that Indian Government is looking forward towards banning of cryptocurrencies. India is one of the major Economic Powers of the World especially in Developing Countries. If after China, Indian government too places a ban on Cryptopcurrencies it could be a drastic state of affairs for the Bitcoin World. A few Months Back a report was submitted by the Central Department of Economic Affairs to Ban Cryptocurrencies in India. I have made a synopsis of the same report in plain English but as being Indian Centric Posted it here in the Indian Section. You can read it here:

Is Indian government going to Ban Cryptocurrency? If yes then how? - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5258373.0

It must be noted that Government is putting up strict punishments for those who don't obey the rules which include fines extended upto INR 25 Crores means around $4Million or upto the Amount of Scam involved. Also you might end up in Jail for upto 10 years. It's pretty evident that FBI in a case in US were able to track down a person using his bitcoin Address which reflected that Bitcoin is Pseudo-Anonymous and not Completely Anonymous. Special thanks to the KYC performed by almost all exchanges  
 Here is the Link as to how it can be done: https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2019/12/26/bitcoin-cryptocurrency-criminals-law-enforcement/

Now if governments are able to track down Bitcoin users. And these 2 big Economies banning cryptocurrencies many other could follow the steps of these countries. Especially in the Eastern World which is still developing.

It's only been like what, a few weeks or months since Bitcoin was basically declared legal in India through a Court decision? It's not like it has been legal there for a significant amount of time in order to also significantly affect the price; doubts about this decision have existed ever since then.

Would've obviously been much better to hear that the decision is final and they are not planning to ban it again in the long term future, but I think a fuss larger than needed is made out of it.

RBI is planning to fight the decision of IDC a couple of months back when they overturn RBI's circular. So the table has turn now, however, I think this will be a lengthy process, as it will involved even the parliament if I'm not mistaken.

And with the pandemic around, I'm sure this could be decided later as there are more pressing issues that the India government will have to deal with. Unless RBI is hell bent to challenge the earlier decision. However, I doubt that they can really stop bitcoin or crypto trading in India and for any other government for that matter, the best they can do is regulate it.

Court decides according to the rules and laws of the nation. The court decriminalized crypto trading cause there were no specific prohibition on the law. The government and the parliament holds the power to modify laws and hence make it illegal to trade crypto. Many have also seen the window was to get rid of crypto for many prominent political keens and as they've done it, now they are making it illegal.

Let me make a Correction supreme court didn't declare cryptos legal because they were not illegal in the first place. RBI central bank just gave directives to it's banks not to use interact with anyone using cryptocurrency there was no criminalization. I had made a thread on this too. You can read it here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5256767.msg54649644#msg54649644
RBI hasn't filed for a review petition the latest I know. Therefore they don't stand a chance of fighting the supreme court order. Moreover as it seems from the facts of the case it's not fruitful for them to fight review petition. But yes due to pandemic this thing might be delayed for sure.
Exactly true.

From 2018 till today I have been reading and hearing that Indian government is going to ban cryptocurrency. Don't you think that is too long to take a decision by the government. If they wanted to ban it they would have done that completely and not partially in 2018.

I do not believe that it is possible to ban cryptocurrency by any country. It is practically impossible to monitor the internet and with India's population and internet density it is next to impossible to monitor and control the internet.

So if the government does pass s law to ban cryptocurrency, how will they manage to implement the ban when they do not have the resources or the man power to monitor activities on the internet.

India has always been cold to cryptocurrencies. There have been talks about bans for years. However, like 20kevin20 mentioned, I thought the debate was settled recently with Bitcoin declared legal (or at least that it was unconstitutional not to allow banks to deal with cryptocurrencies, an article about it can be seen here (https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-legal-india-supreme-court-verdict-cryptocurrency/#:~:text=The%20Indian%20supreme%20court%20has,industry%20has%20now%20been%20lifted.&text=Both%20the%20government%20and%20the,bitcoin%2C%20are%20legal%20in%20India.)). I can see from more recent articles that the talks have been renewed about banning cryptocurrencies, but for now it's more like rumors and intentions of some parties rather than a resolved matter. It sucks that Indians have to deal with this uncertainty around Bitcoin. I do hope the idea of banning will be dismissed.

It's just a week that this thread was posted Bitcoin trading in India is on fire, India just legalize Bitcoin and trading is on fire, and now we have a news that they are banning again, what is the final decision of the government, are they banning or not or they just want to see how many traders they have.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5256454.0

This news is not true and there is no source of news. A court ruled several months ago on the legality of digital currencies, and many companies and pioneers of crypto have shown interest in India. I do not think they might do this if the Indian economy was collapsed.
they will accept bitcoin exchanges and may ask for big bitcoin taxes but of them economy.
and india traders will learn how to buy bitcoin without them government knows.

Yes I wonder where the link from their government websites as well. It is sure that they are going to be hiring an expert in blockchain if they are going to be dealing with all the tracking. But this expert might just be scamming the government asking for fee if he'd suggest pursuing the law.


I wonder if they can also asks the dex to participate in this because if not then dex will still be a solution and that they can't completely ban cryptocurency.

If i live in a country where trading and holding BTCitcoin could get a death sentence (paying INR 25 Crores just for trading BTCitcoin while the rest of the criminals who fucks up economy (bankers) and murder get a much less fine around 40k INR )while people who trade BTCitcoin gets 25 Crore ::). I know the present government works on sensationalism rather than doing anything on the right track and with that knowledge i know that the present government will pursuit anything that could divert the attention of the common citizen and they will not do jack shit about traders who knows their trade and all they do is cluster analysis, break the chain which is not even that hard and you are safe.
 

Didn't India already ban Bitcoin and then unbanned it? It gets so tedious to track countries like China, Russia and now India, they constantly send mixed signals to the point when it's hard to remember what was their last stance and what's Bitcoin's current legal status. And crypto journalists make it worse by using words like "X government" when it's really just one lonely MP with no power to change anything.

Can someone with a good knowledge summarize the history of Bitcoin legislation in India? I'd much appreciate it.

Few months ago Indian supreme court took first step towards embracing cryptocurrency in India, which definitely has a potential of becoming one of the largest cryptocurrency markets because of more than 1.3 billion population. India's stance on banning cryptocurrency has been unclear so far but reportedly there is draft passed by the ministry of finance cabinet that seek to set up a legal framework for banning crypto like bitcoins in India but nothing is official yet. I very much doubt that authorities would be able to stop people from trading crypto.

I know something about this. I have some friends who live in India. Talking to them, I found out that the news that came out to be on the side of the government is true. However, it is not yet known whether a final decision has been made. This is being done for money laundering and Bitcoin is being used as payment for various crimes. There has been a lot of trading from India in the last few days. We'll have to wait and see what happens in the end.

How many times bitcoin has been banned in many nations? Real and fake news, FUDs, we can not count all of them. Let's take China for further discussion. After many years and FUDs that Chinese government bans bitcoin and crypto currency, all of them forced bitcoin and crypto market dumped many times, we had the Xi pump and a green light for bitcoin and crypto currency in China.

India will not be a different. When the globe widely accept bitcoin and cryptocurrency, India will not stay outside the game and common acceptances.

I think that there's a conflict between the Indian government and Indian Supreme Court in regards to Bitcoin.
This is bad,because we as a crypto community need India to adopt cryptocurrencies,which will help the millions of poor people there,at least providing them with a payment alternative and an opportunity to make money.It seems to me that Modi is an authoritarian leader that is pretty anti-Bitcoin and wants more tax revenue and less money/capital to get exported outside of the country(crypto coins can be used for that).

Maybe their country is really having a hard time to manipulate cryptocurrency in their economy. Some of the government officials there are not that knowledgeable about the advantages of cryptocurrencies in the market. They are lacking of proper manipulation and knowledge on how they will make this legalization of cryptocurrency more effective. It really depends on the government if they are willing to trust the bitcoin process and how it can really make an economy grow. But the government are the one who will make laws about this cryptocurrency, so if they don't see it much effective and they are struggling to manipulate it then it is also good for them to illegalize it again in their country.

Indian media has always been creating panic among the Indian crypto community by printing such news for the last two years now. They have been successful in doing that again as there have been multiple threads created in this forum about the same issue.

India is a democracy and passing a law takes time. There is no conclusive evidence that this law will get passed from both the house of the parliament. If it does get passed then this law can be contested by the Indian crypto community in the Supreme court.

Therefore it is too early to come into any conclusion.

one important thing that you will soon learn about "news" (specially cryptocurrency related news) is that in most cases they are poorly written with very little research because they are aiming to spend the least amount of time to create the most clickable articles to generate traffic and make money.
the country X banned or is planning to ban bitcoin is one of the most common nonsense articles they can come up with and it has been almost 8 or maybe more years that they have been using this topic!

India is now a state where there is no cryptocurrency regulation. Cryptocurrency in India was not prohibited and has never been legalized. The Supreme Court of this country a few months ago declared illegal the decision of the Reserve Bank of India on some restrictions on the circulation of cryptocurrency. The restriction was lifted and a legal void remained. The government and legislators of this country have not yet adopted any regulatory acts on the regulation of cryptocurrency, that is, there were no prohibitions or legalization. Now we expect what will be adopted with respect to cryptocurrency at the state level in India.

A ban on crypto in India may have an affect to the crypto space but that will not be high. Remember that crypto was not much legal in India couple of months ago. Still now, as far as I know Banks don't cooperate any crypto trading. So, what's the changes or affect are you expecting?

Actually despite of central bank not supporting cryptocurrency exchanges indian crypto players weren't really facing any problem. We used to sell our cryptos using P2P and as there was nothing stopping us from trading/buying/receiving crypto we were pretty much safe. This law will bring complete censorship on usage using firewall and make it punishable to trade in cryptocurrency which is a pretty big concern.
Atleast click on the link to see what it is, it's my own written thread which discusses draft law which has been suggested. It's obvious that no one knows when will actual law come we are not members of parliament or something like that? No one can know that except them.
This seems pretty much true to me but from the other side. I think Indian not being a very literate country. The consumer investors might find it troubling to go into schemes not regulated by Government. People look upon police whenever such things happen and they won't be able to do anything due to pseudonymity and irreversibility of bitcoin and cryptocurrency.

There are few topics recently that talks about this issue and i don't know if this will come true or another warning from the said country.
It has been months ago when they declared the legalization of Bitcoin and cryptos  and now here we go again,planning to ban for same reason.

I think there are really Inside this issue,and for me it is the bank owners  who are being threaten with the presence of crypto thats why they are lobbying for the banning.

Is legit information? Last time I have read an article about trading in India saying that they are now being so popular in terms of trading then why it contradicts the story that I have read. Why they need to ban the cryptocurrency in their area if this will help a lot for them, there are many people who make trading as their source of income but it will all disappear once the government will implement to ban the cryptocurrency in their country, I think they choose to be centralized over decentralized because they are one of the third world countries and the government will have less money if the decentralized system will happen to them.
It seems like they are still confused about what to do with cryptocurrency, they should have a strong and well decision, a good leader or a good government should have a strong and wise decision at all.

Banning cryptocurrencies won't be off the table, it is being set aside around the table until they want to check on it again. I don't know what's behind on all of this, I don't really think it is with cryptocurrencies itself, it will be most likely the elite people in India being advised to stay away with, so they let their puppies to do the job for them. I'm tired of seeing this same old news, banning and unbanning of cryptocurrencies in a country, such a whacked argument to discuss.

That's it! they are threatened, the only downside with cryptocurrenices are scams that can circulate everywhere on the internet which they can easily solve using their cyber agents.

It will probably affect the cryptocurrency space but I don't think that it will be a huge factor. They only accepted cryptocurrency since March 2020, and their contribution about the mass adoption of digital coins are not that huge enough but still there is some. If they will ban cryptocurrency again, the opportunity to help their economy grow will be wasted. Not all of countries are not that knowledgeable about the advantages of these cryptocurrencies. This will make some changes in their economy but not that huge, maybe that's the reason why they are confident to ban cryptocurrency again in their country.

I don't think it's about less or more money. considering India's GDP is even more than few first world countries as they say. But more importantly I think it's about consumer protection that they are doing this. Because they have kept raising money through ICOs as a non bailable offense. So it's about consumer protection as these transactions won't come under the regulation of the government.
Actually in literal sense currently cryptocurrencies offer no help to economy in current situation. I mean i know the economics and if cryptocurrencies come in at this crucial stage all it would do is to take up the much needed money supply out of the economy. I don't know why but we need to rethink the concept of fitting cryptocurrency in any economy.

Is it fixed?
I think that they have planned about it several times and in fact, it is not working. As we know, many Indians are working with crypto-related industry. And in this case, it will be sometimes very difficult to be banned.
In my opinion, rather than banning crypto, it is better that they should find the alternative ways how they can cover their citizen necessities, the ways how crypto regulation, and also its utility in the country. So far, is there any problem related to the crypto in that country? Why should we be banned?

Cryptocurrency is the future economic development platform so India will never banned the cryptocurrency. Nowadays many countries are understand the crypto potential so many industries are plan to provide the cryptocurrencies. Few months before India was announced the crypto acceptance but further decision is pending because of COVID issues in India.

Today I’ve seen a news about Indian government will legalize BTC soon. so, I don't think that they will ban BTC, because there are many people in India who already invested in BTC. Even if the government ban Bitcoin then users will find out another alternative way to use BTC.  If they legalize crypto then it will be easy for Indian peoples to invest in crypto market, and people are able to earn revenue for the country. I think Indian government are able to conjecture about the bright future of BTC or cryptocurrency that's why they decided to make it legal.

So in talks of taxation then it would really be beneficial but the decision isnt final yet if they would decide to legalize it or totally ban it. We have seen Indian news towards crypto which this is just like
a tug-of-war when it comes on making decision on which one they would totally take.We have read up about adoption and next we have read up that they would gonna ban it but even upto now
they havent able to make such final decision that they will implement.

India is becoming the new Russia, a place where so much empty shite is threatened about BTC that everyone gradually stops paying attention. People who are interested will ignore then and get on with it.

India becoming a crypto wasteland would be a shame but no great loss, it already is one. Indian government policies seem crude and abusive towards its population so I expect there will be some formal restrictions soon. Ah well. More for us.

Haha you know there is another sphere where India is becoming the new Russia that is the Leadership. Pretty much like Putin we have our Prime Minister who would soon declare himself as supreme leader of Country and would make many more terms the way he is brainwashing the citizens. You would see a whole lot of people who just have their blind faith in him no one knows why. Maybe because he has made India a religion centric country by spreading a wave that you need to protect your Religion. He has failed miserably in Economics and Political Stability yet people feel he is their God. Until this government is there in the tenure I doubt any forward looking technology would be implemented in India.

Restrictions only stimulate curiosity of human and people who are living in crypto-restricted or banned countries will spend more time to find out about bitcoin and crypto. When they have needs, they will do spend time to search, and learn about what they are looking for.

China, Russia, and now India, they will contribute huge crypto enthusiasts in the future. I don't have doubt about their accounted crypto enthusiasts. More countries have plans to create their government digital currencies so banning crypto currencies, really? I don't think so.

Very true. I can tell about India, the population is already pretty tech enthusiastic considering that there are pretty huge amounts of jobless or Underpaid engineers. Currently also I feel people are just a bit unaware once there is are ban speculations in general public lots of new people will come to know about this technology and chances are they would be pretty much be enthusiastic about this technology. Moreover banning things in China is pretty easy for India I think that this law could be a bit tedious to Implement. We already have a huge list of pending accusation cases in different types of fraud. I doubt how strict they could be with this law because even our rapists here aren't punished in timely manner. Here is a fun fact:


Think of this law now  ;D

The excitement will be just for a short period if soon India will act to fully ban crypto in their country.
That's a big market that will be lost because of the government anti crypto policy, I think people should fight that just like they fought when the fought against the central bank. I really thought it's the beginning of the growth of crypto india as there's no more threat, but here we go again, its too concerning not only for people living in India but overall as India shares a big market in crypto as well.

This is the positive news we read before,

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-04/india-s-top-court-strikes-down-curbs-on-cryptocurrency-trade

What could be next? let's watch it.

I've often seen people claim that restricting it will be 'good for Bitcoin' but that seems ludicrous to me. People will seek out drugs no matter what their legal status. It doesn't work for something that's designed for utility.

It won't stop those who were going to get into BTC anyway. It will stop the majority who otherwise would've had a dabble.

Such bans, restrictions and news are free marketing for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. I like it.

There are two types of people: The first type are for people who easily to accept new things, new technologies. They are similar to baby and have opened mind. They are always readily to learn. The second type are for people who never want to learn or accept new things. Good or bad news, restrictions or widely adoption, they will not join the party.

Is this a joke? Lol. It has not been long that I read the news that the Indian Supreme Court declared Bitcoin legal and ruled the RBI ban on banks selling cryptocurrency as unconstitutional. Why then are they turning again to say that it's illegal? This is a really dumb move that they are making. What exactly makes these people think that cryptocurrency is bad? I do know that there are lots of scammers in the cryptocurrency market, how about they start tracking down those that are using it for bad things and stop disturbing those that are using it for good?

I think if you read the complete OP and the link given. I would like to clear once again. Supreme court said the RBI stopping banks from dealing with cryptocurrency exchanges is unconstitutional. Supreme court cannot make any act by themselves it's the function of the parliament to do so. The ban now happening is being suggested by the government in parliament. Once parliament passes the bill it would become a robust law where usage will be punishable. As per them cryptocurrency is bad because they cannot completely control the credit supply in it and also cannot control who is purchasing selling what. It will put unnecessary burden on the government. I think Indian government are just not ready for it.

Not to worry about that, wait for the next months, the news will be diffe3ent again.
Well yeah, this country several times makes an announcement about banning crypto, but they do not give any solution to the people involved in the crypto world. This can't work well if they decide a big decision without planning about the compensation to the citizen. We know that many Indians are involved in the crypto world. many of them work as the developers, bounty hunters, investors, traders, and also other crypto activities. In this case, it may be difficult to suddenly emove the crypto world from that country.

I don't think so. They would ask developers to take their payments in INR using appropriate channels, while they might not even care about bounty hunters. While trading and investing in cryptocurrencies is the main thing that they want to stop. So I don't think they would worry about this community that much. Moreover fact that they are even promoting Digital ledger technology but banning bitcoin shows that they are providing these people avenue to create something in blockchain but not cryptocurrencies. So that already is enough of a compensation. Asking for compensation in such cases would be like a tax defaulter asking for compensation because government is stop his tax evasion?