Topic: Breaking News! Third world nation bans BTC. 10 years in jail for holding crypto - page 4. (Read 10928 times)

Maybe India government has decided to keep its citizens from the future of money and what will determine the international monetary policy in ten to twenty years to come. I have pity for traders living in India and this is seriously going to affect bitcoin and crypto currency in general because many of the India holders are going to dump the coins in their possession in others not to be cut-up with this laws. However, I do believed that since this is a proposal, this laws may not seal through at the end as reason is going to prevail on them at the end.

So, India is going to ban the cryptocurrency entirely, which is a very bad news for the crypto community! India is one of the large countries and it has millions of bitcoin supporters but this 10 years jail attempt will create chaos into the Indian crypto community! About a month ago, my Bengali friend told that his friend got arrest by the police in money laundering case because he was a regular crypto buyer. So, these news you can't ignore. At least I want to see the crypto freedom flag in India!

Though this is just a proposal , not been fully implemented into law and not enforceable yet . I believe if this proposal could become a reality it will keep India economy  behind so much because the future is obviously  very bright . I also believe Government of a nation should always respect every human right and interest. Formulating or proposing such principle is  just like infringement on their citizens right though i do not know the kind system of  Government  they are running . I believe the Banks are the  architect behind this and if this could become a reality more countries who does not want to embrace the world of transparency are likely to follow the suit . Personally, i do not see cryptocurrency as a threat to any nation economy .

Nope. It must work side by side with the government since we all want the adoption to happen. I don't think it will be approved though knowing most countries today and even banks are now into developing thier own chain. Their government should realize that. If imposed though, we might be seeing a slight decline again.

It is only a proposal and I do not think India will execute the ban.

This is only a proposal, not defined yet.
But guys, do you really believe governments will close their eyes forever about BTC and cryptos?
You're so naive, today the BTC does not represent a real threat, but soon or when BTC reaches some real high levels, we should be worried (or not  , BTC purpose is to fight against governments and banks in general)

India country proposed bill one of the cluase of banning crypto now going like wild wire all over the world but in reality  still surpme court should give hearing about crypto in the month of July

This kind of thing will happen more and more as corrupt governments wants to eliminate their competition. They need 100% control over their cititzens and when a technology like this emerge, then it pose a threat to their control.

The problem is that a government like this will never survive if they are elected officials, because the voters will turn against them if they do not serve their purpose and the mandate that the majority of the citizens wants.

Advice : Use your vote and get rid of governments like this. 

I am from India, and I need to say that this is a very worrying development.

As many of the users have posted here, it is true that this is just a proposal. But the plans have been finalized and this draft bill is supported by the members of the ruling party. The opposition is also likely to support this bill, as I can't find a reason why they should oppose. Anyway the ruling party is having an outright majority and they can easily pass the bill in the two houses of the parliament. Till now, not a single one out of the 543 parliamentarians have spoken out against this bill.

The next step is getting the approval of the president. And here, the president is a member of the ruling party, and the chances of him refusing to sign is virtually zero.

The only step that is left now is to challenge this bill in the Supreme Court of India. But there is no guarantee that the judges will side with the Bitcoin users. And also, any such litigation can take at least a few years time. And that duration is enough for the authorities to harass the million+ crypto users in India.

This is very sad and tough. It will affect a lot of people in India, and set a bad precedent. But others are right that for now, it's just a dangerous possibility, not reality. It's only a draft bill, so it is yet to be passed and after that perhaps signed by the head of the government (I don't know how it works in India, but in my country, the president has a right to veto a law, and in that case only 3/4 of votes in the parliament can overrule the president's decision). I hope that India will choose wisely and that if it does not, people will not put up with it and will make a petition or peaceful protests for reconsideration.

exactly to the stone ages

I'll just add it to the list of laws I do not obey. 

India is getting more users over the period with its market getting widening. Earlier several legal issues have taken place relative to the usage of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Over the days the appeal was delayed and it keeps on getting delayed. Probably this time also same thing is gonna happen in my view. As an user mentioned, even if it was imposed with a law market won't get disturbed.

Exactly. Any party or even a single MP can write a bill. Bulls are voted every single day and usually they have to go through 2 chambers of parliament and then be signed by the president. If any of these 3 parties don't agree with the bill it gets reset and has to be revised and be presented again to the first chamber.
10 years in jail is too extreme it's not going to be approved, although a normal ban is possible if not likely. India is a weird country.

its very likley it will get passed, but agree the title is a bit missleading its like its already in effect and that people got jailed for holding btc lol

Why the misleading title? There are bills in the US to ban crypto. It’s all proposals, not law.

Don't worry, in the long run, this will stop. Banning BTC is not the solution.

If this legislation is confirmed by the parliament, then Indian Bitcoin users will be having very few options. Let me check the options one by one:

1. "Dispose off" the coins and report past holdings to the authorities: You can't "sell" your coins, so you need to give it to someone for free. How practical is this?

2. Moving to another country: For the ultra-rich, getting a new passport and emigrating out of India may be an option. But 99.99% of the Indian Bitcoin users can't afford this.

3. Hiding your Bitcoin holdings: Very risky. As we all know, Bitcoins are not 100% anonymous. It is not impossible for the authorities to trace the wallet holdings to you. And once that happens, you will be jailed and in addition to the prison term, you will be slapped with a crippling monetary fine. All of your assets may get seized by the government and by the time you manage to get out of the prison, you may not be having a roof over your head.

Right now, these are the only viable options available to the users. And their small size means that they will be unable to exert any influence on the government. India is a country of 1400 million people and the total number of Bitcoin users may constitute around 0.1% of this number.

But can the authorities arrest 1 million people and send them to jail? And that too just for the possession of some codes.

This news looks surprising to me, indian law is very flexible and it cannot impose 10 years jail. I doubt the publishers publishing this. This is a proposed bill and should not come into existence. Such hard punishment only to trade/hold crypto is not at all justified in the country with such a flexible law. Indian govt is focusing on digitization and such ban on crypto will surely set them back. I hope govt will realize it and avoid bringing such baseless law into mainstream.

I really doubt if there will be any change from the proposed bill, i really do not understand the concept behind people who are possessing bitcoin too will be jailed, earlier they were saying that these things are done to protect its users from fraudsters, but now it is clear what they are really aiming for, to have a dictatorship level control over its citizens and the moment the old government got re elected i knew something like this was coming as majority of the people in that party does lack common sense. There is a court system and i hope will have some justice and the proposed bill will not get passed as drug peddlers and rapist are not getting this kind of sentence in India, which part of the brain they came to a conclusion to give this kind of punishment  .