Looks like India is perhaps serious about banning cryptocurrency

[thecodebear]

Just read an article where an official says they expect the crypto ban to be passed, despite other officials recently downplaying the likelihood of it.

India is becoming quite an oppressive government from a monetary standpoint. Giant leap backwards for them if they pass the bill. Won't hurt Bitcoin too much - apparently there's only about $1.2 billion of bitcoin held in India (about a dollars worth for every citizen). If they do ban cryptos it just means that one day when they ultimately reverse that ban we're gonna get a huge pump from a billion-plus people suddenly having access to Bitcoin, by which time Bitcoin will likely be far more engrained throughout the rest of the world.


It's crazy to think about a government actually making it illegal, acting like you are some terrible criminal, simply for holding a digital asset. I guess other smaller nations have done this, but India would be the first major nation if it indeed passes. The idea of banning bitcoin is a great litmus test on how much economic freedom a nation has - and if you ban it you are a terribly monetarily oppressive nation.

Thoughts on the possible India crypto ban?

[1714063749]

1714063749

[1714063749]

1714063749

[1714063749]

1714063749

[bryant.coleman]

There are multiple threads in this forum dealing with this topic. You can visit them to keep updated about the subject.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5316416.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5313666.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5322468.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5322045.0

Originally they were planning to ban all forms of cryptocurrency and make the ownership of crypto a criminal offense. But then there was a massive social media campaign taken out by the exchanges and ordinary users. Still no confirmation is there, but it looks as if the government is shaken by the massive campaign. They are now talking about regulation, rather than prohibition.

[7788bitcoin]

It's crazy to think about a government actually making it illegal, acting like you are some terrible criminal, simply for holding a digital asset. I guess other smaller nations have done this, but India would be the first major nation if it indeed passes. The idea of banning bitcoin is a great litmus test on how much economic freedom a nation has - and if you ban it you are a terribly monetarily oppressive nation.

We are hearing conflicting news regarding this every week and as @bryant.coleman mentioned there are many threads here discussing about it and one think i understood is that India is not a good country to invest as you will stay in the grey as you will not have any clarity regarding your business and as per the recent comment regarding the ban it is said that they are planning to give 6 months time to liquidate and they are criminalizing holding cryptocurrency which is crazy.

[BitcoinBunny]

As Michael Saylor points out; in China they've banned Facebook and Google for over a decade. That didn't make these bad investments for the rest of the world.

If the Indian government really wants to do this it only points out how little they respect people and the right for people to own property or things.

Considering how little the Indian government clamps down on scammers (See the rise of endless scam baiters on YouTube who only ever seem to speak to Indian criminals), this is perhaps not surprising.

It is not going to help the average hard working Indian citizen at all.

[Vishnu.Reang]

It is not going to help the average hard working Indian citizen at all.

I don't think that they are much concerned about the hard working Indian citizens. In their eyes, Bitcoiners are the ones who received a huge windfall as a result of the recent rally. Out of the total cryptocurrency market cap of $1.8 trillion, 3% to 4% is being held by Indian nationals. The government's plan is to impose income tax + GST + penalty, which will work out to 80% to 90% of the total amount, depending on the size of the holdings. Their plan is very simple. They will loot the 10-15 million cryptocurrency users, so that they could provide freebies to the 1.4 billion people. In India, most of the people are living in abject poverty, and they will sell their votes for as little as $50. Imagine how many votes the ruling party could purchase with all this money.

[robelneo]

There are multiple threads in this forum dealing with this topic. You can visit them to keep updated about the subject.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5316416.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5313666.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5322468.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5322045.0

Originally they were planning to ban all forms of cryptocurrency and make the ownership of crypto a criminal offense. But then there was a massive social media campaign taken out by the exchanges and ordinary users. Still no confirmation is there, but it looks as if the government is shaken by the massive campaign. They are now talking about regulation, rather than prohibition.

Our Indian brothers are very active in the Cryptocurrency community, you cannot stop them especially now that the fruit of their efforts in waiting for the bull market has come, they will offer resistance to the government, regulation is better than prohibition it's a win-win between the two-party, they can implement taxation in exchange for letting them trade and create projects related to Cryptocurrency, they need to see that there is a market in Cryptocurrency.

[janggernaut]

Thoughts on the possible India crypto ban?

Idc. 1 thing i know for sure is, when bitcoin dumped by weak hands, that's the best chance to buy it

[Wilhelm]

India always starts with making things forbidden before opening up...

These topics always pop up during bull runs...

[bryant.coleman]

India always starts with making things forbidden before opening up...

These topics always pop up during bull runs...

It doesn't surprise me. First of all, the Indian government (ever since 1947) has taken a stance that is against innovation. That is the reason why India, despite having the largest number of IT engineers don't have corporations such as Apple, Microsoft and Amazon. Every year 100,000 or more of the most educated and skilled Indians renounce their citizenship and take the nationality of other countries (primarily the US and the UK).

And the current government is a mild version of the socialists regime in Venezuela. They have used the tactic of freebie distribution to win elections in an extremely efficient way. In order to distribute freebies, they need money. They are robbing the rich Indians (including the cryptocurrency users), so that they can give handouts to the slum dwellers and other poor people.

[passwordnow]

I don't know, I'm very confused about the status of India about cryptocurrencies. The last time, I think there was another article that I've read that they're about to make their own crypto. Maybe that's just another rumor that I have believed and became comfortable that they would implement but it's the opposite that they're doing. If this is going to happen for real, they're the same as their neighboring country Bangladesh that have also banned it.

[proudhon]

This and the bans that follow will be looked at in a years time as the catalyst to the destruction of cryptocurrency. I've confirmed this with many math calculations in addition to confirmed sources of not fake news in India and other places.

[DeathAngel]

If they’re stupid enough to remove themselves from a financial revolution then let me suffer. Bitcoin doesn't care about India so good luck to them if they want to miss out.

[bryant.coleman]

If they’re stupid enough to remove themselves from a financial revolution then let me suffer. Bitcoin doesn't care about India so good luck to them if they want to miss out.

This is not the first time they are doing it. Right from the case with personal computers in 1980s, to internet in 1990s, the Indian government has taken a regressive view on new innovations. When internet first became popular in the 1990s, the Indian government tried their best to hinder the growth in their jurisdiction by imposing all sort of restrictions and regulations. The issue is very simple and straightforward. Most of the Indian politicians (and this is especially true with the case of ruling party politicians), don't have the skills or intelligence to understand new innovations.

And in the end, this is what happens:

If they’re stupid enough to remove themselves from a financial revolution then let me suffer. Bitcoin doesn't care about India so good luck to them if they want to miss out.

Have to agree with DeathAngel. This is exactly what is going to happen.

[Luthier]

$1.2 billion in Bitcoin in India vs. potentially ~$25 billion coming in from US stimmy checks... https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/stimulus-checks-bitcoin-btc-stock-market-outlook-mizuho-says-2021-3-1030207913

[fadhilz123]

Every country has its respective regulations, so if India was serious about banning cryptocurrency it doesn't matter. The effect only will feel for people in India and maybe will dumped price for a bit. I'm happy that the government in my city is open-minded about crypto, so I'm not worried about something like that

[bryant.coleman]

$1.2 billion in Bitcoin in India vs. potentially ~$25 billion coming in from US stimmy checks... https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/stimulus-checks-bitcoin-btc-stock-market-outlook-mizuho-says-2021-3-1030207913

$25 billion boost from the stimulus cheques is going to be huge. At the same time, it will be a big mistake to underestimate the cryptocurrency sector in India. There are 10-20 million active users there, and they hold around 3% to 4% of the total cryptocurrency market cap (~$50 billion). Obviously the numbers are not as big as what they have in the US or EU, but $50 billion isn't a small figure either.

[Renampun]

As Michael Saylor points out; in China they've banned Facebook and Google for over a decade. That didn't make these bad investments for the rest of the world.

If the Indian government really wants to do this it only points out how little they respect people and the right for people to own property or things.

Considering how little the Indian government clamps down on scammers (See the rise of endless scam baiters on YouTube who only ever seem to speak to Indian criminals), this is perhaps not surprising.

It is not going to help the average hard working Indian citizen at all.

true, actually the problem is the bad government of India in handling the fraud that is rampant there...
as I have said over and over that we are in 2021 where those who buy Bitcoin have become very smart and don't worry anymore about countries that are likely to do the same thing with India because Bitcoin continues to be profitable.

[arufox]

true, actually the problem is the bad government of India in handling the fraud that is rampant there...
as I have said over and over that we are in 2021 where those who buy Bitcoin have become very smart and don't worry anymore about countries that are likely to do the same thing with India because Bitcoin continues to be profitable.

It's a bad idea to ban cryptocurrency because crypto is the future technology and sooner or later everybody will know it. But if talk about a country, of course, they have their own rules, so people in India agree or not they have to stick to it. Some rules created because of the reason behind it, and of course there are a reason behind that banning

[Luthier]

$1.2 billion in Bitcoin in India vs. potentially ~$25 billion coming in from US stimmy checks... https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/stimulus-checks-bitcoin-btc-stock-market-outlook-mizuho-says-2021-3-1030207913

$25 billion boost from the stimulus cheques is going to be huge. At the same time, it will be a big mistake to underestimate the cryptocurrency sector in India. There are 10-20 million active users there, and they hold around 3% to 4% of the total cryptocurrency market cap (~$50 billion). Obviously the numbers are not as big as what they have in the US or EU, but $50 billion isn't a small figure either.

Where are you getting those numbers?  That's a lot more than the $1.2 billion codebear cited.

[STT]

Natural growth is far more important then a one off or what is the dilution of currency basically resulting in speculative flows.

I watched a video that said the opposite and assumed Bitcoin would be bullish from the weight of 1 billion people able to take part.  I'll post up the video so you can see but it seems without doubt they would allow crypto, its not like I think no use would occur anyway but its easier if its not officially illegal in a silly backwards way:

https://twitter.com/DocumentingBTC/status/1371247856821141507

India’s Finance Minister, “We will allow a window for people to use #Bitcoin and experiment”