Unocoin co-founder arrested after opening first cryptocurrency ATM in India

[BIPBot]

The Indian government appears to be like most governments - decidedly not in favor and in some ways vehemently against cryptocurrencies.

But not qualifying as legal tender does not make Bitcoin an illegal asset.

The minister’s statement was clear: cryptocurrencies are not legal tender in India. They did not say ‘illegal tender’. There’s a huge difference.
This means that you bear the risk of your investment and there’s no regulation for the industry.

But today we see a crypto businessman sitting in jail because he set up an ATM in bangalore which in all fairness was not even operational yet.
It was still in the final testing phase.

This kind of bullying by the government leads to black markets, which is exactly the sort of thing the government has promised to mitigate. How ironic that the government themselves are causing it now. As such, the Indian LocalBitcoins market appears strong, with apparently better rates for acquisition. LocalBitcoins is more of a “gray” market, with peers incurring their own risk in making in-person trades on a daily basis the world over.

The government of India is in no way pure. There is corruption upto the top level of management and cryptocurrencies would help curb this.
But that's not something they would like. As much as I would like to think that the RBI is trying to protect the people and avoid any financial crisis. It does not seem fair to arrest a man who is trying to bring about a change in order to ensure transparency and fix the flaws in the current financial system. Sadly RBI loves its place of power to much to let this change come about.

Power in the hands of the people?
Seems more like power in the hands of first wolrd instituions like the RBI.

This in no way excludes the government of other countries.

Reference: https://www.ccn.com/unocoin-co-founder-arrested-over-non-functional-bitcoin-atm-in-india/

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[CryptoHaris]

+1
Have to say that corruption is the biggest problem of India.

Once they get ahead of that, only then will they be able to welcome such changes.

[jseverson]

So what law did they say he broke? They may have a case if the accused actually used crypto for financial transactions, but setting up an ATM shouldn't really break any existing laws.

Really though, what the hell is India doing? The way they're acting, it seems like they're stopping just short of implementing an outright ban.

[crwth]

Apparently, a lot of corruption is happening, not just in India but all over the world. It's just that India is continued to be one of the top ranking countries to be corrupted. Reference (Transparency International) I'm not sure on how it is there in India but I heard a lot of stories from my friends who have been there, and he said that it's saddening him about what is happening there. I thought the corruption in my country is wrong, then in India, it's worse.

Probably, the government wants a part of the pie with regards to cryptocurrency, they might not be implementing yet, but I think they are finding a way to have it. They might be threatened by the man starting something that they cannot understand, and it's sad that he was just trying to help a lot of people being able to access BTC and ETH, and ended up in jail.

There could be power to the people, they just need to stand together and know what they are trying to do and the challenge is the government.

[BIPBot]

So what law did they say he broke? They may have a case if the accused actually used crypto for financial transactions, but setting up an ATM shouldn't really break any existing laws.

Really though, what the hell is India doing? The way they're acting, it seems like they're stopping just short of implementing an outright ban.

Operating Bitcoin ATM Kiosk is Illegal according to the RBI.

In April, the central bank prohibited banks from working with cryptocurrency exchanges. But over here the ATM was not using any banks as a gateway.
This is clearly not a violation.

The reason stated is
"They did not have any license from RBI, Sebi or any other agency to carry out the bitcoin transaction, says police".

Which is utter non-sense if you ask me.

[BIPBot]

Apparently, a lot of corruption is happening, not just in India but all over the world. It's just that India is continued to be one of the top ranking countries to be corrupted. Reference (Transparency International) I'm not sure on how it is there in India but I heard a lot of stories from my friends who have been there, and he said that it's saddening him about what is happening there. I thought the corruption in my country is wrong, then in India, it's worse.

Probably, the government wants a part of the pie with regards to cryptocurrency, they might not be implementing yet, but I think they are finding a way to have it. They might be threatened by the man starting something that they cannot understand, and it's sad that he was just trying to help a lot of people being able to access BTC and ETH, and ended up in jail.

There could be power to the people, they just need to stand together and know what they are trying to do and the challenge is the government.

India is no doubt corrupted. The corrupt politicians do not like change because that would mean less money in their pocket. People fear what they don't understand.

The RBI will do everything to make sure that the power remains in their hand.

[frchowe214]

He probably forgot to pay off the police and local government with their usual bribes. Can't do any business in India without those under the table payoffs. Could even be a bitcoin bribe

[jseverson]

-snip-

Operating Bitcoin ATM Kiosk is Illegal according to the RBI.

In April, the central bank prohibited banks from working with cryptocurrency exchanges. But over here the ATM was not using any banks as a gateway.
This is clearly not a violation.

The reason stated is
"They did not have any license from RBI, Sebi or any other agency to carry out the bitcoin transaction, says police".

Which is utter non-sense if you ask me.

Why would they need a license for Bitcoin transactions in the first place? Bitcoin ATMs basically facilitate buying/selling of a product. If they have a valid business permit, which I assume they do, there shouldn't be any issue at all with this. It's not an ATM in the traditional sense after all, and it's not even operational lmfao.

I hope your courts are a little more sensible than your central bank.

He probably forgot to pay off the police and local government with their usual bribes. Can't do any business in India without those under the table payoffs. Could even be a bitcoin bribe

Lol everyone says this about their own country to be fair. Doesn't make it any less true, but still.

[Herbert2020]

So what law did they say he broke? They may have a case if the accused actually used crypto for financial transactions, but setting up an ATM shouldn't really break any existing laws.

Really though, what the hell is India doing? The way they're acting, it seems like they're stopping just short of implementing an outright ban.

Operating Bitcoin ATM Kiosk is Illegal according to the RBI.

In April, the central bank prohibited banks from working with cryptocurrency exchanges. But over here the ATM was not using any banks as a gateway.
This is clearly not a violation.

The reason stated is
"They did not have any license from RBI, Sebi or any other agency to carry out the bitcoin transaction, says police".

Which is utter non-sense if you ask me.

this doesn't really sound like nonsense to me to be honest! and i believe anywhere else in the world things are the same as this case which means you can not install an ATM machine in public without acquiring a license first for that kind of operation.
using bitcoin is only like the cherry on top to create a more dramatic atmosphere otherwise they would have arrested him if this was a regular ATM too.

[Eraldo Coil]

That guy is really unfortunate. But I think it would just be better if he is going to launch cryptocurrency related things in other countries that allows the use of bitcoin. He played risky in his part because he should be aware that cryptocurrency is banned in India.

[jseverson]

this doesn't really sound like nonsense to me to be honest! and i believe anywhere else in the world things are the same as this case which means you can not install an ATM machine in public without acquiring a license first for that kind of operation.
using bitcoin is only like the cherry on top to create a more dramatic atmosphere otherwise they would have arrested him if this was a regular ATM too.

I get that there could be special regulations regarding ATM installations, but Bitcoin ATMs can't really be considered true ATMs. They're only really called that because they allow you to "withdraw" coins, but they're much closer to a vending machine that can work both ways. Assuming they don't have specific laws for Bitcoin ATMs, that would be like arresting someone for owning perfectly regular bread that just happened to be called Cocaine.

That being said, I read more about this situation and their ATM does look like they function more like traditional ATMs:

Users of the machine could reportedly withdraw and deposit Bitcoin, but not buy or sell the cryptocurrency.

So maybe it could be justified? I hope we can get answers in the next few days.

[crwth]

India is no doubt corrupted. The corrupt politicians do not like change because that would mean less money in their pocket. People fear what they don't understand.

The RBI will do everything to make sure that the power remains in their hand.

The RBI and politicians want to control and I asked my friend again when he was there about the government (because I remembered this thread). He told me if in our country, if it has a budget for something, either infrastructure, research, education, etc. That amounts to some price, here in my country they say that it's ~20%  and in India, it's up to 70%. I have no source of that, but it's just saying.

The ranking of India currently is posted in here, and a lot of other countries are there, and I'm not sure how legitimate the site is but it's something. Checking different ranking from other countries, being the least corrupted had shown a lot of improvement in their countries. Just like Singapore.

[bitfocus]

Indian currency is already going down under bizarre financial steps of the present BJP government, and their such steps toward crypto will take india back to the dark age, no doubt, just wait and see.

[BIPBot]

Indian currency is already going down under bizarre financial steps of the present BJP government, and their such steps toward crypto will take india back to the dark age, no doubt, just wait and see.

I do agree with you but at the same time I feel like there may be those within the government who may help push the country into a cryptocurrency system.

India may be corrupted but isn't all that bad there is still hope.

[chidrawarster]

I understand there is no regulation approved in India to open such crypto atms. But India also has to step up like other countries and move ahead for regulation of crypto space and bring a change in the economy like other countries. This would only happen when the corruption in India is reduced, else it would never happen. The politicians there are scared that their pockets would be reduced if the development happens.

[JSRAW]

Indian currency is already going down under bizarre financial steps of the present BJP government, and their such steps toward crypto will take india back to the dark age, no doubt, just wait and see.

I do agree with you but at the same time I feel like there may be those within the government who may help push the country into a cryptocurrency system.

India may be corrupted but isn't all that bad there is still hope.

I am too optimistic when it comes to corruption due to current gov. at least there aren't big scam coming out every day when comparing to the previous gov. but ground level corruption is in a different league, no doubt about that.

[pakhitheboss]

The Indian government appears to be like most governments - decidedly not in favor and in some ways vehemently against cryptocurrencies.

But not qualifying as legal tender does not make Bitcoin an illegal asset.

The minister’s statement was clear: cryptocurrencies are not legal tender in India. They did not say ‘illegal tender’. There’s a huge difference.
This means that you bear the risk of your investment and there’s no regulation for the industry.

But today we see a crypto businessman sitting in jail because he set up an ATM in bangalore which in all fairness was not even operational yet.
It was still in the final testing phase.

This kind of bullying by the government leads to black markets, which is exactly the sort of thing the government has promised to mitigate. How ironic that the government themselves are causing it now. As such, the Indian LocalBitcoins market appears strong, with apparently better rates for acquisition. LocalBitcoins is more of a “gray” market, with peers incurring their own risk in making in-person trades on a daily basis the world over.

The government of India is in no way pure. There is corruption upto the top level of management and cryptocurrencies would help curb this.
But that's not something they would like. As much as I would like to think that the RBI is trying to protect the people and avoid any financial crisis. It does not seem fair to arrest a man who is trying to bring about a change in order to ensure transparency and fix the flaws in the current financial system. Sadly RBI loves its place of power to much to let this change come about.

Power in the hands of the people?
Seems more like power in the hands of first wolrd instituions like the RBI.

This in no way excludes the government of other countries.

Reference: https://www.ccn.com/unocoin-co-founder-arrested-over-non-functional-bitcoin-atm-in-india/

This was suppose to happen, when this exchange announced that they will open up a Bitcoin ATM. I knew this was coming.

How can you legally open up a Bitcoin ATM, when you do not hold a license?

I am not a law expert, but as per my understanding any ATM that collects cash, dispense cash and allows you to do financial transaction has to be authorized by the regulatory body. In this case it is RBI.

All of these so called Indian Crypto exchanges are registered as private companies doing software development, they do not have the license to operate an exchange and niether as a financial institution.

Do not relate this to corruption or black marketing, its is plain case of not following the law.

Like other exchanges they also need to wait for a verdict to come from the Supreme court, which I am sure will come out after the Election next year.

[shadyrifles]

This act has proved again that India is not entertaining decentralization.  
The Indian government will never allow the currency competition because they are aware that the Indian Rupees will lose. The Reserve Bank of India and Indian Government is using police for their agenda when Crore of Crore Rupees been siphoned from the banks when they supposed to protect.