Bitcoin Is Officially Illegal In India As The Government Does Not Recognise It As A Legal Tender

This was supposed to happen sooner or later. I predicted a few weeks ago that “The Man” will eventually regulate or altogether ban cryptocurrency and as of today, it is banned in India. Finance minister Arjun Jaitley stated in his budget speech today that the government will do everything in its power to discontinue the use of bitcoin in India. It is not only limited to bitcoin and Jaitley has extended the ban to every virtual currency there is. © BCCL He said that India does not recognise the virtual currency as a legal tender and will instead encourage the use of blockchain technology for payment systems. “The government does not recognise cryptocurrency as legal tender or coin and will take all measures to eliminate the use of these crypto assets in financing illegitimate activities or as part of the payments system,” Jaitley said. © YouTube Cryptocurrency was widely popular in India as one in every 10 bitcoin transaction in the world takes place in India. Ever since Bitcoin became a popular investment option, the Reserve bank of India has expressed their reluctance towards cryptocurrency. Last year the RBI stated “There is a real and heightened risk of investment bubble of the type seen in Ponzi schemes which can result in sudden and prolonged crash exposing investors, especially retail consumers losing their hard-earned money,” the ministry had said. “Consumers need to be alert and extremely cautious to avoid getting trapped in such Ponzi schemes.” © YouTube Other countries have also expressed discomfort towards the virtual currency recently and China has already widened its crackdown on cryptocurrency trading. According to Economic Times“RBI's cryptocurrency could be a part of creating its own Blockchain, a distributed digital ledger and technology that supports cryptocurrencies. State Bank of India has taken the lead in bringing lenders and tech companies together into Blockchain technology to share information among banks which will eventually help prevent frauds and tackle bad loans which are almost one-fifth of banks' loan books. The SBI's initiative christened Bankchain, is in partnership with IBM, Microsoft, Skylark, KPMG and 10 commercial banks. Source: Economic Times