Topic: Is Indian government going to Ban Cryptocurrency? If yes then how? (Read 341 times)

Cryptocurrency is not legel or not a ban I Indian government.

Actually, I sort of agree with you to some extent the laziness has played it's part too. But money laundering is an issue actually you might be able trace fiat generated transaction easily. Problem isn't with money laundering of retail investors like us. More prominently it's about those business giants who would get a way of converting their funds in tax heavens into bitcoin and doing direct transactions in bitcoin. These days you can buy a lot of things using bitcoin and advent of lot of mixers have helped these people too.

But obviously this cannot be taken as an excuse to ban cryptocurrencies. And moreover seeing politics of today's India I doubt that at core governments cares about such things any more. These days decisions are taken merely on those issues which could affect some or the other vote bank.

Money laundering seems an obvious issue when you look at it superficially. Yet, anyone who uses cryptocurrencies for actually hiding gains will need to convert fiat and vice-versa at some point of time. Every single fiat on-boarding method, is traceable today. Until someone is willing to deal in cash in such a way that they have a whole setup of street level P2P bitcoiners exchanging millions everyday, transferring the billions of INR that are supposed to be "black money" using bitcoin would be no easy task.
If you do it through established centralized exchanges, it'll be easy to trace them. Infact, once a single connection is established between fiat and your BTC, the steps to trace back will never be that difficult in case of a criminal activity. I think its just typical laziness on part of the Indian babudom. While the whole world is busy in evolving regulations in such a way that the innovation potential is realized, these illiterate fuckers would prefer to throw the baby out with the bath water. It makes me feel so frustrated as an Indian.

Actually that is the major probelms. Thr scams can any way be controlled using the existing laws you don't have to ban the whole ecosystem for that.

Actually this isn't about sucking taxes because they know it would be really challenging to collect taxes from crypto investors due to lack of identity on blockchain. infact this could be a major source money laundering. I bet this would have been one reason why they are thinking of taking such a step but however a new technology cannot be banned or exploited merely because it has flaws in it.

And I fully support it. The more potential they see in new technologies, the more they want to get their hands on it and suck up money for supposedly "taxes"

Or it could take couple of big frauds and then this will get pushed to be submitted in parliament asap.



Yes. The Indian exchanges will have to be shut down again. The P2p will always be risky because if you get caught, you'll be in really serious trouble. All I can say is that it sounds like a disaster, if it becomes a reality(which it looks like it will). With people already struggling to make a living after Covid, this will be one more less source of income for many.

Don't mind toughening the laws for stopping frauds using Crypto but this will kill honest users like traders who are perfectly aware of the risks of investing in something volatile but choose to do it because they see profit in it (just like some see profit in Mutual Funds besides the risks) or the freelancers who receive their small income in Crypto because transferring it from other means costs too high of a fee, Skrill for ex. charges 3.99% exchange fee.

Haha I feel it's primarily for retail investor who would blindly invest in ICOs just by looking at lucrative returns. Whatever we say ICO really aren't the best way to invest for investors. There is zero transparency on funds usage. And ICO makers have used this too much in their favour. That's why I believe they have hatred towards this.

Can anyone else smells the hatred of the committee for ICOs here?

Committee has made it pretty clear that, raising money by the way of Initial Coin Offering = Destroying your Life!

I can't help but laugh at the short-sightedness of our deary lawmakers. In short, if you don't understand something then just ruin it!

PS: Sorry, I am out of merits right now so only 1 for now.

So you all must have heard or seen the news bulletin that Indian Government is deciding to ban cryptocurrency but none of them shows why and how? Moreover what would be the meaning of such a ban? Will this mean you will be fined for using cryptocurrencies? or you would be jailed for using Cryptocurrency? Here is the synopsis of how Indian Government is trying to ban Cryptocurrencies:

It started in 2017 when the Department of Economic Affairs made a recommendation committee headed by Shri Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary, DEA which would study the aspects of cryptocurrencies and suggest government some legal measures related to it. So the committee finally submitted it's report in February 2019. It's on the basis of this report that Indian government is deciding to ban Cryptocurrencies.

Before reading keep it in your mind that these were merely the recommendations given by the committee and it's not necessary that the original law would come and would match the aspects of report. This is basically a summary of what was written the report.

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Characteristics of Virtual Currencies which make it necessary to regulate them:

i. They don't have any intrinsic value and therefore are subject to huge fluctuations.
ii. They are decentralized networks regulated by no central authority.
iii. The transactions in cryptocurrencies are irreversible therefore scams and frauds cannot be reversed.
iv. They carry a degree of pseudonymity, although can't be said to be completely anonymous for participants.

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1. Protecting the consumers from fraud: There have been various frauds in cryptocurrencies. Moreover forking is also done where network protocol is changed for personal benefit of earning money.
2. Protecting financial system and economy: RBI wouldn't be able to regulate the supply of money in the Economy.
3. Need to Prevent Criminal Activity: As law enforcement and seizure of asset becomes difficult in decentralized blockchains

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Here they have taken inspiration from our very good Friend (Sarcasm Intended) China. Example was cited that post ban in China the use of RMB in global transactions fell from 90% to less than 1%. Just like China India would also use a big firewall to ban such sites. Most probably just like the way they banned Porn   . Moreover no place will be allowed to host cryptocurrency related events. They also have agreed that use of VPN could be possible in such cases but would still be traceable as to who is using the website.

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It's pretty evident from the text that Government is a sketchy regarding a lot of cryptocurrencies have arrived in the marketplace where everyone is creating their own currency. Thing is that they call themselves are currencies yet they have no underlying intrinsic value. Moreover as per traditional economics Money must have 4 necessary attributes:
1. Store of Value
2. Medium of Exchange
3. Fixed Nominal Value
4. Divisibility

Now as per the committee Bitcoin cannot have a store of value because it's price is merely a bubble of demand and nothing else. But I don't know why they said it can't be medium of exchange. But then I found the reason they were giving was the high transaction times involved in transferring hinders it's ability to act as medium of exchange here is the quote

Thirdly they said it doesn't has a fixed nominal value which is true it is subject to extreme volatility. This is why they are recommending ban of cryptocurrencies altogether.

Now comes the most important Part Banning of Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill was suggested by the committee which gave the following law.

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"(1) No person shall mine, generate, hold, sell, deal in, issue, transfer, dispose of or use Cryptocurrency in the territory of India.
(2) Nothing in this Act shall apply to any person using technology or processes underlying any Cryptocurrency for the purpose of experiment or research, including imparting of instructions to pupils provided that no cryptocurrency shall be used for making or receiving payment in such activity.
(3) Nothing in this Act shall apply to the use of Distributed Ledger Technology for creating a network for delivery of any financial or other services or for creating value, without involving any use of cryptocurrency, in any form whatsoever, for making or receiving payment."



1. Whoever directly or indirectly mines, generates, holds, sells, deals in, transfers, disposes of or issues Cryptocurrency or any combination thereof with an intent to use it for any of the purposes such as raising of money, investment, as payment system, related services, basis of credit etc. shall be punished with fine and imprisonment of not less than 1 year extended upto maximum of 10 years .

2. Whoever directly or indirectly promotes, issues any advertisement, solicits, abets or induces any participation in any activity involving the use of Cryptocurrency for any of the purposes or for purposes generally prohibited above shall be punishable with fine or imprisonment which may extend up to seven years or both.

3.  Whoever directly or indirectly acquires, stores or disposes of Cryptocurrency or any combination thereof with an intent to use it for any of the purposes prohibited on a non-commercial basis shall be punishable with a fine.

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For the purposes of Sections 8 and 9 , the maximum amount of fine that may be imposed upon a person for an offence shall be as follows:
(a) the higher of, –
      (i) three times the loss or harm caused by the person; or
      (ii) three times the gain made by the person.
(b) If the loss caused or the gain made by the person cannot be reasonably determined, the maximum amount of fine that may be imposed on such persons shall be as specified in First Schedule as against each of the offences under Sections 8 and 9.

First Schedule:

Offence Maximum Fine Limits

Under section 8(1)-Buying/selling/mining/dealing/disposing/issuing for Commercial purposes	Upto Rs. 25 crores
Under section 8(2)-Using it as crowdfunding/payments sytem	Upto Rs. 25 crores
Under section 8(3)- Promoting/ Advertising	Upto Rs. 25 lakhs
Under section 8 (4)- Using for Non-Commercial purposes	Upto Rs. 1 lakh
Under section 9 (1)- Convicted for the Second time under this act	Upto Rs. 50 crores

All the offences under this act are Bailable. Except when Cryptocurrency is mined/used/generated/disposed/held for purposes of raising money / as a means of investment or offering financially related products. This offence is Non-Bailable and Cognizable. Cognizable basically means a serious crime where you can be arrested without an arrest warrant.

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Also all this would apply to all the persons including Individuals/HUFs/Firms/BOI/AOP/Body Coroporates/Trust etc.

So this was the basic draft law prepared by the committee and as submitted in it's report to Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance. Moreover it must be noted that in this very same report the Committee has praised the Distributed Ledger Technology a lot and is saying that Blockchain is the future and will be used in various segments of government. Non of this law would be applicable on usage of blockchain in financial systems or other systems. But creating of virtual currencies using these blockchain systems is not allowed.

PS: It must be noted that this is a draft Bill and a recommendation. Do not get into any FUD on basis of this. This is still to be finalized as a bill and then would be presented in Parliament after approval of which and President it would become a Law this thing could take week, Months or even years. Moreover Chances are that Government might quash these recommendations and might order a new committee on the basis of the Status-Quo. This is merely for Educational purposes and Not a Legal Opinion.

I hope you guys like it. Feel free to ask for any query or thing that you don't understand from the text. Would this ban be sustainable?

Reference Document: https://dea.gov.in/sites/default/files/Approved%20and%20Signed%20Report%20and%20Bill%20of%20IMC%20on%20VCs%2028%20Feb%202019.pdf