India is on track to ban all but a few private cryptocurrencies after the government announced on Tuesday it was introducing a new financial regulation bill.
The ‘Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency’ bill will create a facilitative framework for an official digital currency to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India, and ban all private cryptocurrencies.
Such a pre-verification approach would create obstacles for thousands of peer-to-peer currencies that thrive on being outside the ambit of regulatory scrutiny.
Earlier this month, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi said all democratic nations must work together to ensure cryptocurrency “does not end up in wrong hands, which can spoil our youth” – his first public comments on the subject.
Earlier this year, the government considered criminalising the possession, issuance, mining, trading and transference of crypto-assets.
‘The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021’, to be introduced in the winter session of Parliament beginning November 29, seeks to “create a facilitative framework for the creation of the official digital currency to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India.
The bill also seeks to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India. However, it allows for certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses. Currently, there is no regulation or any ban on the use of cryptocurrencies in the country.
What Is Private Cryptocurrency ?
There are many private coins that host several built-in privacy features and even keep users’ identities and activities concealed. The difference between private and public cryptocurrency is confusing for many. A private cryptocurrency uses several cryptographic measures to mask this information. This means, on the network of private cryptocurrency, the wallet addresses will be masked or hidden and the details of the transaction may be hidden and so on. This allows users a level of privacy that is not available with their “public” counterparts. It is said that all top private coins fend off numerous hacking attempts.
While in the case of public cryptocurrencies, transactions happening over such networks can be traced or linked to the wallet addresses, and even their amount can be deciphered. The wallet address linked to the users can still be configured through a trace.
Meanwhile, Speaking to India Tv on private cryptocurrencies, Hitesh Malviya, founder of ItsBlockchain, said ‘banning such privately owned cryptocurrencies is a good move.”
“The different interpretations about the definition of private cryptocurrencies by media, and influencers have orchestrated this environment of fear among retail crypto investors. In my understanding, bitcoin, ethereum, and other popular cryptocurrencies are not controlled or managed by any private entities, transactions are on the public ledger, and they are recognized as public cryptocurrencies in every major economy,” said Hitesh Malviya, founder, ItsBlockchain, India’s First & Oldest Blockchain Cryptocurrency Publication.
“But on the other hand, there are a good number of cryptocurrencies being promoted by MLM companies, private companies in the country right now, these kinds of cryptocurrencies have been subjected to a couple of huge scams in the past. So if the government is looking to ban such privately owned cryptocurrencies then it’s a good move,” Malviya added.
Meanwhile, Malviya also appealed crypto investors to not to panic and wait for the regulation bill to be passed.
“My appeal to investors, don’t panic sell, wait and watch for the regulation bill to be passed in the winter session, and you will get an idea about the future of crypto investing in India,” ItsBlockchain founder urged.
On paying taxes on crypto gains, Hitesh Malviya said, we need to have a dedicated framework designed for crypto investing in India to keep every citizen in the same loop.
“Some of the Crypto investors are still paying capital gain taxes on their crypto investment gains since last year, but we need to have a dedicated framework designed for crypto investing in the country so every citizen should be in the same loop when it comes to paying taxes on crypto gains,” he added.
List of Private Cryptocurrencies:
Monero (XMR)Dash coin
Zcash (ZEC)
Verge (XVG)
Beam
Grin
Horizen (ZEN)
ByteCoin (BCN)
Firo (FIRO)
Super Zero Protocol (SERO)
BTCX India
UCoin
Delta
Other Crypto News
Visa to allow payment settlements using cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin trading above $47,000 and dogecoin surges over 9%
Crypto exchange ‘CoinDCX’ becomes India’s first crypto unicorn
JPMorgan is preparing to offer a Bitcoin fund to wealthy clients
