You can't prove if someone is Holding Bitcoins | Indian Crypto Ban

[ityandsyn]

According to a recent bill's draft:
"India has proposed a jail term of one to ten years for those who mine, hold or sell cryptocurrencies."

I was wondering how someone could say that 'A' is holding 'X' amount of bitcoins in his address 'Y'.
What if the person generated the wallet and learned the passphrase leaving behind no physical evidence of the ownership of the address. At that point, it would just be an address with a balance on the blockchain ledger.
Or if he just made the backup of private keys on a paper and destroyed it upon inspection (having a backup somewhere else). How is the government going to track down who's holding at what address? That's just stupid.

Similarly, they can't impose a ban on mining as it is just a computer software and blockchain protocol cannot be blocked by the government.

What do you think? Would the govt. be able to catch someone who violates this?

      It's not very easy but it can be proven especially if you're in mining business and it needs an  I T expert to search the computer and through interrogation of the alleged person and aside from these I think there's so many ways  of investigating this matters .

[Vishnu.Reang]

Being an Indian citizen, I am very worried nowadays. This proposed bill, if signed in to law is going to be disastrous. And it is very easy to get a search warrant in India. The cops may take away your laptop and mobile phone, and they will be able to prove that you own multiple cryptocurrencies. If you refuse to co-operate, then you can be charged with contempt of court.

[Golftech]

Being an Indian citizen, I am very worried nowadays. This proposed bill, if signed in to law is going to be disastrous. And it is very easy to get a search warrant in India. The cops may take away your laptop and mobile phone, and they will be able to prove that you own multiple cryptocurrencies. If you refuse to co-operate, then you can be charged with contempt of court.

So that's how the government can really implement the rules, if in anyhow this laws got approved it will automatically give the authorities to search things out especially those people who they suspecting that still continuing to do this practice and still working with cryptos, it's a sad truth that if rules got implemented there's no way for crypto lovers from that place to avoid such harassment.

[Vishnu.Reang]

Being an Indian citizen, I am very worried nowadays. This proposed bill, if signed in to law is going to be disastrous. And it is very easy to get a search warrant in India. The cops may take away your laptop and mobile phone, and they will be able to prove that you own multiple cryptocurrencies. If you refuse to co-operate, then you can be charged with contempt of court.

So that's how the government can really implement the rules, if in anyhow this laws got approved it will automatically give the authorities to search things out especially those people who they suspecting that still continuing to do this practice and still working with cryptos, it's a sad truth that if rules got implemented there's no way for crypto lovers from that place to avoid such harassment.

There are a few loopholes. But none of them are 100% risk-free. If you want to reside in India, then I would suggest that you don't deal in cryptocurrency. The legal system here is fucked up. Someone who is accused of evading $100 in taxes may get a 5 year prison term, while a criminal who has been convicted of child rape may be out in 3 months. That's how the system works here. I am seriously considering immigrating to another country, in case they ban Bitcoin here.

[Vishnu.Reang]

It seems to me that the state will not have relevant evidence if a citizen of India owns a cryptocurrency.  Although if the cyber police have the appropriate capabilities, they will be able to track thanks to the Internet traffic what the citizens of India are doing.  But in any case, to buy and sell, you need to use a VPN.  But How to cash out cryptocurrency in India is a very difficult question.

You can use a VPN to move your coins. But in case you want to encash them, how you are going to do that? As long as the transaction is crypto-to-crypto, the authorities many not be able to trace back the coins to you. But once you convert the coins to fiat currency, this anonymity is lost. Selling the coins for physical cash is one of the options, but there are multiple risk factors with this method.

[ubay]

Mine, hold or sell cryptocurrencies are the right of every person, and the government has no right to prohibit them. What a petty thought, the Indian government experienced a setback in my opinion.

And this is the link to the topic https://bitcoinist.com/bitcoin-india-rumor-10-years-prison-hodling/

[Digitalbitcoin]

According to a recent bill's draft:
"India has proposed a jail term of one to ten years for those who mine, hold or sell cryptocurrencies."

I was wondering how someone could say that 'A' is holding 'X' amount of bitcoins in his address 'Y'.
What if the person generated the wallet and learned the passphrase leaving behind no physical evidence of the ownership of the address. At that point, it would just be an address with a balance on the blockchain ledger.
Or if he just made the backup of private keys on a paper and destroyed it upon inspection (having a backup somewhere else). How is the government going to track down who's holding at what address? That's just stupid.

Similarly, they can't impose a ban on mining as it is just a computer software and blockchain protocol cannot be blocked by the government.

What do you think? Would the govt. be able to catch someone who violates this?

According to specification of Bitcoin, Bitcoins are a peer to peer based decentralized tokens which can be held and transact electronically only. Along with this specification bitcoins transactions are completed and stored on Blockchain with SHA256 algorithm, which requires higher electric power.

In such scenario no one have control over production and distribution of Bitcoins, so currupt government with lack of knowledge and lack of willing to accept change along with fear are taking such wrong steps of banning.

Actually no government have rights to make laws and bills on things which they cannot control, distribute, produce or monitor.

[hisuka]

Mine, hold or sell cryptocurrencies are the right of every person, and the government has no right to prohibit them. What a petty thought, the Indian government experienced a setback in my opinion.

And this is the link to the topic https://bitcoinist.com/bitcoin-india-rumor-10-years-prison-hodling/

Even we hold bitcoin the government cannot prove it. Exactly, it is everyone’s right to own a crypto and cannot catch by the government. I am just thinking how a government can control or catch those who holds bitcoin.

[Zemomtum]

The Government itself does not have deep understanding how Bitcoin operates as immutable and cannot be cracked down by any Government. Before anybody can be jailed, there must be a convincing evidence that indeed he/she does operate and hold Bitcoin wallet. There are many exchanges to buy and trade Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies outside their jurisdiction. Don't use  paper backup in case of police search, don't store it locally on your computer and never use the system that holds your passpharse and mnemonics to login. Indian need to just be extra careful.

[bryant.coleman]

The Government itself does not have deep understanding how Bitcoin operates as immutable and cannot be cracked down by any Government. Before anybody can be jailed, there must be a convincing evidence that indeed he/she does operate and hold Bitcoin wallet. There are many exchanges to buy and trade Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies outside their jurisdiction. Don't use  paper backup in case of police search, don't store it locally on your computer and never use the system that holds your passpharse and mnemonics to login. Indian need to just be extra careful.

I am not an Indian citizen, but I have lived there long enough to have a good understanding of the system. Going against the law is very risky in India. The entire system is corrupt, and in case they catch you then be prepared to lose all of your life savings, reputation and current job (on top of a possible prison sentence). One thing I have noticed is that the punishment for white collar crime (such as tax evasion and concealment of income) is treated by the courts more severely when compared to blue collar crimes (rapes, murder, theft.etc). You may be able to get bail within 2-3 days if you commit rape, but if you do tax evasion then it is a non-bailable offense and you may undergo considerable prison time before you get parole.