Crypto India: Welcome To The Banking Banana Republic!
Cryptocurrencies are getting increasingly popular in India. Coffee table discussions have cryptos in them today. Many people that I meet are aware that there are new investment instruments such as virtual currencies even if they don’t know how to get involved.
Indian government and banking structure however is yet to welcome this growing popularity amongst its citizens towards digital currencies. Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency ever created was made to disrupt traditional methods of banking. Nearly a decade after its invention it is begun putting central banks and governments across the world on the backfoot.
Let’s take India for example. In the past year or so, Bitcoin has seen massive gains, and the entire cryptocurrency space has witnessed tremendous growth. So much that at press time, BTC’s market dominance is a mere 35%.
The Indian government and RBI-our central bank is not in the least bit pleased about it. They have no intention of declaring Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies as legal tender or mode of payment in the country.
People here are quite unhappy with some of the government's policy and aggressive taxation. Therefore, many have completely ignored its warnings to desist from trading in cryptocurrencies.
Despite repeated warnings from the government and the central bank-Reserve Bank of India, citizens across the country are queuing up to exchanges to buy their favourite cryptos. So much that the exchanges are heavily burdened by new signups and are backlogged for weeks on end.
This has led to the government ever increasing its arm-twisting tactics. It’s attempt to show its brute strength as the all powerful authority controlling its citizens’ money and their lives has led to further dissent in crypto circles.
From raiding exchanges and harassing Bitcoin investors by way of tax notices the government seems to be leaving no stone unturned in its attempt to clampdown this crypto euphoria. According to this report which hints that RBI has been pushing for these tax raids as well as arm-twisting banks into getting out of business with crypto-exchanges or making it harder for exchanges to deal with their customers.
The delays in deposits and withdrawals that we face are largely due to the corrupt nature of central banking prevalent everywhere including India. Inspite of exchanges creating a positive environment by ensuring complete transparency by way of KYC and online transfers, bankers are breathing down their necks.
Setting up I-T task force, repeated warnings, tax raids, notices to investors, clampdown on intermediaries such as banks and payment gateways, lack of regulation and policy, creating a sense of panic and chaos are all part of government’s desperate attempt to rein in citizens right to choose what they want to do with their money and slow down this rapidly growing trend of investing into cryptocurrencies.
That’s not all, few litigants have filed PILs in order to curb growth of disruptive cryptocurrencies in India. This is the state of affairs in one of the fastest growing economies in the world where our government adheres to archaic laws to prevent growth and prosperity of its own citizens as it continues filling its coffers in numerous ways!
However, fear not! Government of India maybe 100% clear about not legalising cryptocurrencies anytime soon but it is not banning them-atleast for now. Crypto market will continue its growth in India as it will in the rest of the world.
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Government can just give Statutory warning, as they do in case of Mutul funds: "Mutual funds are subjected market risk", if we loose in MF, does the government provide any help... It does not matter whether Crypto-cuurencies are declared illegal tender, we should be allowed to invest on our own risk. Government of India does not provide any new job opportunities for the youth, the Jobless growth in India is dramatically increasing at exponential rate. If youth of India believe in this new "Blockchain" technology revolution, why the government also want to take this opportunity away.
Hey hms818,
Pretty much greed is why Governments want to take this opportunity away. They see it as an encroachment upon their "turf". And it takes away their power and control . They want that control because it serves their bureaucratic system very favorably. And has aligned the pockets of those bureaucrats very nicely for many, many years now.
It's not just government in India that are fighting to seize control of what's happening in the crypto world. All the government around the world are against the threat of their power. 2018 is an interesting year to see what kind of legislation is put in place to curb the use of crypto currencies.
@firepower We need to get India involved a lot more! Not only in crypto in general, but also specifically with Steemit. They can make it grow big really fast!
India has big userbase!
Respectfully, I think Steemit needs to focus on more media-savvy users to fix the content and comment quality issues. See /r/indianpeoplefacebook on reddit for example...
Although perhaps the curation rewards system will perform its job and make the best rise to the top regardless!
hello
upvote back yes my friend
I know the pain since I do belong to India
Government will put its hands on crypto world, after of before..
but until now, we can enjoy it!
Thanks for the important info
Situation looks bad, I just started in crypto, let see how it goes.
The awareness is much needed in my country Nigeria too and I'm planning on holding mini seminars in my locality to create awareness. I only recently joined the bandwagon of cryptocurrency investors and I feel the need to enlighten others sooner rather than later.
I don't think the government will be able to do anything about cryptocurrencies becoming mainstream. They might be able to stall the process a bit, but in the end, they lose!