Well i never said i am the vanguard. We are just trying to get a chance to lobby with RBI. To us this looks to be the right path. If this appears wrong to you, i cannot do much.
To start with, bitcoin itself cannot have an association in any country because it is decentralized in nature. But we need an association to connect the centralized regulators with decentralized currency. If you have a better way, i have my ears open.
SORRY FOR THE TYPO: NDA also wants to help RBI to write the regulations for virtual currencies in India.
It should have been RBI and not BAI lol. So now this should make some sense to you i guess. Regulation can never be made to benefit of someone unless it benefits and safeguards
There is no one who can really speak about bitcoin on behalf of entire bitcoin community in india. It is not our attempt to do it as well.
BAI being newly formed, the only thing it has done till now is to gather a press meet which had NDA to declare bitcoin is per se not illegal based on their techno legal analysis team. The meet also gave more info about bitcoin and business and trading with bitcoin where a common man was in the illusion that bitcoin is illegal based on ED and IRS raids to bitcoin business. His statements got published in 18+ news papers and a couple of TV channels which we believe helped to get credibility of bitcoin back a little bit. If I or you call a press meet and say that just because we already know it is not per se illegal, it wont become the news. We needed a credible law and auditing firm to declare after they did the needed analysis.
We have plans to perform more through BAI in near future but again waiting for the registration to complete.
That typo should answer your next 3 statements. We believe that, safeguarding an economy is only possible when there are businesses around out. Safe guarding business in turn safe guards its customers and hence the economy sustains. Tomorrow if India as well declares bitcoin as illegal, you need an association to fight with - i am not sure if you get this part. That is the reason i am saying, i would be happy to join an association if some one is willing to put one together if they do not like they way we are trying to head BAI.
It is a pity where apart from founding members putting their own money towards association, the association also needs to convince that it is not doing it for its own benefit or just for the benefit of its founding members haha.
You make once of the most epic typo and place holder mistakes, firstly this BAI is not yet formed. secondly it is formed by businesses that have in the past shown an interest towards maximizing profits and very little community spirit. you tried to push bitcoin into the limelight to fast to soon. then decided to get a bitcoin idiotic investment conference. with many of your members over inflating figures.
Why am i not trusting that your association would be for the benefit of the people? Its because you have not shown a lot of ethical behavior, let me start by pointing out the conference, you decided that the first conference in India. Where, give a take a few thousand people ever used Bitcoins, would require a conference to be head in a hotel and charge an entry fee more expensive that a three course lobster meal in a three star Michelin restaurants, that made it look like bitcoin businesses in india we the next bit IT thing.
Then came the over bloated figures 30,0000. Some where in the conference someone said that there was over 5,00,000/- btc in india (should have just said over 9000! jk).
and then the press picked up saying there are about 50 establishment in india accepting bitcoins i can count about only 10 services and goods businesses in india right now doing active btc transactions.
Then as soon as the conference happened the ED had to raid Mahin, Coincidence much.
Ok i bet this is how the RBI must have thought, they cam to the conference took down numbers and did a calculation of their owe. take
BTC500,000
multiply by the rate of $900 that gives them a value of $450,000,000
now lets multiply that by let say the exchange rate lets give it Rs 60 which is Rs 27,00,00,00,000/-,
Now lets look at the number of people 30,000, which gives them an average of Rs 9,00,000/- worth of btc they hold. Next they took a look at businesses that accepted bitcoin 50 establishments they must have thought lets find these 50 businesses, but they can find it.
So now they start to think, 'there is so much money' , 'we dont know who holds these bitcoin, we dont know who are these 50 establishments providing btc service in india'. then what is the money being used for.
Obvious answer would be money laundering and criminal activity. Bling !!! what did you think people holding such huge assets and no place to spend it, would they have been said
" Wow amazing you guys are rich and getting richer day by day let have more people enter this system where there are no services to spend your bitcoin on."Next you decided to put the figures to 8% which was like
BTC960,000/- (I'm not even going to bother with this calculation).
Then you decided to launch your exchange (Which was a good move, i supported it), however the first problem was you decided to uses someone elses name to boost your business(Justifications here wont work), you could have used any thing to have that placeholder.
Next came the association, which was a piece of work. using whatsapp to get members in a hastily thought up plan. decided to call your self an association without any registration done before hand. and announce to the the world that this group of people that was formed would make up the association. i still remember reading the chat where in you all were scrambling to find members asking people to join in. But to what no one had an idea on its direction, just that ED has done a raid and no one knew what to do.
then you go have a lawyer say what you want and now pay that lawyer 10 lakhs, for 10 lakhs a chicken will give birth to a duck.
Next you start charging your users for a BAI donation and and make it mandatory. Only after people said, that is wrong you decided to not charge the donation. and still you have some type of fee(I dont knkow much about your fee structure).
You are using the Old School Indian Business practices. " Trample over your customer, because i am the only player and i do what ever i want."
Oh and the typo " NDA also wants to help BAI to write the regulations for virtual currencies in India " = RBI i dont buy it.
Oh and did i read some place that you only got involved in bitcoin around may 2013 when the prices hit the roof and made headlines. Did that shock your head as a potential money making scheme ?
And what happened to your mining shares you had started?
Looking at all these things it shows how unethically you are running your business and if you are any going to be good for the bitcoin ecosystem in India.
Yeh! BAI has a purpose of only safeguarding the Business interest, and is not even suppose to be mentioned on your website, just because the Foundation did that on Gox you should not do that, look at gox it is declining day by day. greed does not play any role in a decentralize system.
Just look at the shear number of massive fuckups made in the course of a year. does not take a rocket scientist to come to a conclusion that some one is doing some thing wrong.
oh!
It is a pity where apart from founding members putting their own money towards association, the association also needs to convince that it is not doing it for its own benefit or just for the benefit of its founding members haha.
Yeh its a pity, ckz..... NO ONE KNOW HOW SPENT HOW MUCH IN YOUR BOYS CLUB AND ON WHAT THINGS! JUST STATING THAT YOU SPENT MONEY DOES NOT PROVE ANY THING. PUTTING MONEY INTO YOUR ASSOCIATION DOES NOT SIGNIFY THAT YOU ARE DOING THIS FOR THE BENEFIT OF ANY ONE ELSE . IT SHOWS YOU HAVE INVESTED YOU OWN MONEY INTO SOME THING TO GET A VESTED BENEFIT OUT OF IT. IF YOU WANT THE COMMUNITY TO SUPPORT YOU YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE TRANSPARENT ON WHAT YOUR CLUB WAS DOING, AND NOT ANNOUNCE IT IN THE TIME YOU ARE BEING QUESTIONED BY PEOPLE.
I AM NOW CALLING UNOCOIN AND THE BAI A
HARMFUL ENTERPRISE. AND WOULD ADVISE USERS TO USE ANY OTHER ALTERNATIVE SERVICE.