With the recent announcement of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) about not accepting Bitcoin or any other form of digital currency as a legal form of payment, quite an uproar was registered in the Indian digital currency market and the fintech sphere in general. People had thought that Bitcoin altogether had been banned and that holding, trading, buying, selling etc is now a criminal offense in India. However, that is not the case. RBI has simply called for not accepting it as a legal form of payment anywhere in India, and digital currency investors and enthusiasts are still active on the digital currency platform with mining, buying, selling, trading and holding their Bitcoins and other virtual coins. However, RBI’s announcement has definitely caused a certain unrest in this sphere with people having started doubting the future scope of their virtual tokens.
A tweet by Zebpay – India’s Bitcoin Exchange
Yesterday, Zebpay, India’s leading Bitcoin exchange tweeted that the local ruppe withdrawals could come to a halt, which created a panic in the market and Bitcoin traded as low as Rs 2,90,000 (in Indian local currency) per Bitcoin in India.
Zebpay Announcement: Your Rupee Withdrawals Could Stop pic.twitter.com/DFQOWC1gBs
— zebpay (@zebpay) June 21, 2018
Is India cracking down Virtual Currencies?
Moreover, with news coming every passing day about some country or the other cracking down hard on virtual currencies, and passing strict regulations on them or banning them completely, people are wondering if India would be the next country in line to do so. Such a ban would result in people losing a lot of their money and that is of course not a good thing. Big countries like Switzerland and Japan are very positive when it comes to Bitcoin, digital currencies and also the blockchain technology but on the other hand, there are also other several big countries like Thailand and China which have completely banned them. This has caused a lot of confusion amongst people and has mislead people to not know what to make of India’s current position in this matter.
RBI after Bitcoin Scams and Frauds
RBI has also issued several warnings to people so that they can save themselves from falling prey to scams and frauds. With such steps being taken by the RBI, I believe it is unlikely that India would ban Bitcoins and other digital currencies. There has already been several statements by eminent Indian personalities who have spoken highly of the blockchain technology and wish to make more research in this space. With them mention of digital currencies in the country’s national budget, this is quite possibly a step in the right direction, and there seems to be a bright future for Bitcoins and other digital currencies in the long haul, if not in the coming years.
Misleading news about Bitcoin Ban
The misleading spread of news saying that Bitcoins along with other digital currencies has been banned in India could be attributed to the fact that there is still not much awareness regarding this subject matter in India and Indians are still quite clueless about them. There is an urgent need for Indians to be educated about the basics, working and technicalities of this decentralized platform and the blockchain technology if one expects to make bitcoins and other digital currencies popular in India. People are intrigued by the entire concept of virtual currencies and the excitement attracts them towards it but the problem is that they do not understand it enough to make any right decisions for themselves.
Even so, the trading volumes of India’s digital currencies has been on the rise which indicates a growing interest of Indians in this digital market.
PayTM and KYC
The underlying blockchain technology of Bitcoins and other digital currencies is what has prevented the government from banning it earlier before. They wish to research further in this domain and do not want to ban the currency altogether since they want to learn further and maybe make more advancements in this sphere. However, they would soon be placing several regulations in place to control the unregulated nature of the platform. Also, they might soon call for a more stronger KYC plan in action for these platforms just like they did for services like Paytm, so that they can recognize the investors in this domain and work on preventing crimes like tax evasion.
Blockchain and Bitcoin
Moreover, the blockchain technology has already intrigued many enthusiasts and academics all over the world and with the Indian government setting up a team to investigate into the details of this brilliant technology, it seems highly unlikely that there would be an impending ban on these virtual currencies. The current stand of the government in respect to these digital currencies is very open minded and under such circumstances, it would be a complete shocker if a ban is placed. With no such future scenarios seeming likely, a ban is quite possibly not in the picture, and since it always takes Indians a little more extra time to get used to something new and be accepting of it, bitcoin and digital currencies would witness a bright future in the long haul.
