Those who are from India and who has invested in crypto or interested in cryptocurrencies have gone on a wild ride of roller coaster in the past couple of years . It is time for another one of those rides , will it end in favor of the people or the government ?
This isn't the first time Government of India has involved in talking about banning the cryptocurrency . RBI had asked the banks to not deal with the crypto exchanges and lots of big crypto exchanges of India closed down after that .
The above headline is from April of 2018 . Although RBI didn't directly prohibit the citizens of India to hold Crypto , it did virtually ban it by not allowing banks to deal with the BTC exchanges.
But fortunately The Supreme Court of India struck down the RBI order in 2020 which was a huge victory for Crypto enthusiasts such as myself in India.
Reason provided by SC - "The ban by RBI, despite the banking regulator not finding anything wrong about the manner in which these cryptocurrency companies were functioning and despite the fact that they had not been banned by any law in India, was violative of freedom to carry on trade guaranteed by Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution and was wholly disproportionate to the object sought to be achieved."
Source
Can this happen again ? Can Supreme court strike down the crypto ban ?
No , it cannot because this time it is the Government of India which is bringing in the "bill" and not RBI banning crypto via an "order" .
As long as the bill is passed , SC cannot strike it down because it is not constitutionally violative ( it should be , unfortunately it isn't ) .
The Parliament in India ( law-making body for the nation ) meets in three session to make laws.
The bill named - ' The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021 ' will be introduced in the upcoming Budget Session ( February - June ) and it states that it will introduce official Digital Currency issued by RBI .
It seeks to ban all 'private' cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ether, and Ripple but will exempt certain uses and the promotion of the underlying technology of such tenders.
The answers to the above will be known only when the draft bill is released to the public , now they have just listed the bill to introduce it in the parliament.
India is a huge market for crypto . The Blockchain technology powered by Crypto provides some amazing opportunity for the young population of India to seize the opportunity and make something out of it . The crypto benefits from India and India benefits from crypto .
Unemployment is a serious problem in India and crypto can solve it to some extent .
The government should have no say in what livelihood I choose . By banning crypto they are taking away my opportunity to create a life out of this techonology .
It will face fierce opposition from all crypto enthusiasts but at the end if the government doesn't pay heed to it ( just like it is doing now with the farmers ) we will fail .
News like these makes people like me hesitant to invest in crypto . I personally love Hive / LEO and other cryptos but it makes me hesitant to invest not only money but my time too . Don't you think?
The reason government is providing for the ban is that it is being utilized for terror funding and sort .
My reply would be -
What is your take on this?
