The surge is so powerful that the Niti Aayog has been been asked to study the possibility of following countries like Russia to issue its own, government-backed and regulated cryptocurrency
THEY USED a voice-over-internet service running from a mobile phone. They took care to call from different towns and cities each time, only powering on for the time it took to negotiate. Perhaps most important, what the kidnappers wanted in return for their victim’s life didn’t exist, except as a string of digits in cyberspace.
Even as Ashu Jain’s family struggled to raise Rs 2 crore, to be paid online in a digital cryptocurrency, police also despaired. The absence of physical contact to exchange the ransom made it impossible to use surveillance against the perpetrators — and only too easy for them to take the money, and kill their victim.
“The best shot, usually, is to pay the ransom, and then track it. I spoke to every cryptocurrency expert I could locate, but got only one answer: there was no way we’d be able to trace who the money went to,” says Punjab Police DIG Sukhchain Singh Gill.
India’s intelligence services, sources told The Indian Express, have warned the government that the kidnapping — India’s first for-cryptocurrency violent crime — could mark the birth of a new national security threat. At a recent meeting, government sources said, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was told that rupees owned by criminal syndicates, drug traffickers, or tax-evaders, could now be turning digital.
This new gold is safe to store, can move anonymously, and is immune to control by a government or other any kind of central authority. High demand for bitcoin in India has driven its price in the country far higher, even, than global rates: this Monday, the virtual currency was selling at rupee exchanges for Rs 585,361 or $9019.44, almost $1,000 over the $8221.80 price in the United States. From November 28, 2016, the day India demonetised its Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, the demand for bitcoin, the best known kind of cryptocurrency, has surged from $731.84 to a staggering $8,155.83, according to CoinGecko — a rate of return that is unmatched.