Cryptocurrency in India - Its Effect and Future On Economy With Special Reference To Bitcoin
Cryptocurrency in India - Its Effect and Future On Economy With Special Reference To Bitcoin
Cryptocurrency in India - Its Effect and Future On Economy With Special Reference To Bitcoin
29ESSAug-5367.pdf
Euro Asia Int ernat ional Journals
Demonet izat ion Drive: Biggest Economic Reform in India One year aft er Demonet izat ion
Euro Asia Int ernat ional Journals
International Journal of Research in Economics and Social Sciences (IJRESS)
Available online at: http://euroasiapub.org
Vol. 8 Issue 3, March - 2018
ISSN(o): 2249-7382 | Impact Factor: 6.939 |
ABSTRACT: Imagine a country which has a large economy and a despotic regime. This place is
prosperous despite having complex and arbitrary rules and regulations designed to keep non-
oligarchs perpetually nervous. Everybody has to carry an internal passport. Censorship and
surveillance are all-pervasive. Bank accounts can be frozen at will. Property is confiscated on a
whim. Nothing is denied to the oligarchs and their little princes and princesses. But non-
oligarchs must ask permission even for simple things like getting married, having children,
running businesses, et cetera. Those who have become rich, never mind how, want to store nest
eggs abroad in case the regime suddenly goes after them. But of course, it’s a criminal offense to
walk into the bank and convert local currency. Calling bitcoins, the next big thing since the
internet and computing themselves are major statements to make. Bitcoin and other
cryptocurrencies may not be much of a threat fiat currency today in India. Cryptocurrencies are
a type of digital money that rely on distributed networks and shared transaction ledgers to
combine the core ideas of cryptography with a monetary system to create an anonymous,
traceable, secure and potentially stable virtual currency and it will be effective in India. Bitcoin
and Ethereum are two highly disruptive cryptocurrencies looking to leverage blockchain
technologies to drive innovation across numerous industries in India. With regards to the
Blockchain, )ndia can’t be overlooked. )t is an incredible country with more than a billion people
who recently experienced demonetization. The objectives of this paper are to understand the
future of cryptocurrency in India, to evaluate the perception of bitcoin as the future currency
and to analyze the probability of legalization of bitcoins in India.
OBJECTIVES:
To study the concept of cryptocurrency, also understanding the bitcoins and its scope
To study the legalization of bitcoins in India, its comparison with other cryptocurrencies
and the government’s stand towards it
To study the future of cryptocurrency in India, and the views of experts for investing in
the same
INTRODUCTION: That is the time that numerous Indians started capitalizing their cash in Bitcoin
and proceed to owe them now. This spike drove some tech-savvy citizens of the India to purchase
Bitcoins as well as accomplish something with the blockchain protocol itself in India. One can
argue that while Satoshi Nakamoto invented Bitcoin, it is India that may well be the first country
to entrench its credibility as an alternate monetary system. Every year, we have seen the crypto
network growing at a rapid pace. Apart from that, there is no one who understands Indian
consumers better than native companies. In a country like India, where we value everything by
its monetary worth, the sure-shot way to beat cash is to make currency that is more valuable than
cash. A crypto exchange and a wallet that would allow hundreds of millions of citizens of the India
to become part of the crypto economy will be a great leap for the entire blockchain community.
Currently, the crypto-currency is neither illegal nor legal in India. The government is considering
the introduction of a regulatory regime for virtual or crypto-currencies, such as Bitcoin, that
would enable the levy of the Goods and Services Tax on their sale. The new regime may possibly
bring their trading under the oversight of the stock market regulator, Securities and Exchange
Board of India (SEBI). The idea is to treat such currency in a manner similar to gold sold digitally,
so that it can be traded on registered exchanges in a bid to promote a formal tax base, while
keeping a tab on their use for illegal activities such as money laundering, terror funding and drug
trafficking. Crypto-currency is a digital currency that allows transacting parties to remain
anonymous while confirming the transaction is valid. It is not owned or controlled by any
institution – governments or private. There are multiple such currencies — Bitcoin, Ethereum and
Ripple are some of the popular ones. Currently, they are neither illegal nor legal in )ndia. One
bitcoin today is worth as much as 60 grams of gold. The market cap for all crypto-currencies has
just crossed $100 billion, with most of the increase coming in the past few months. On April 1,
2017, the total market cap was just over $25 billion, representing a 300% rise in just over 60
days, said a senior government official.
The discussion on whether crypto-currencies should be banned or regulated has been on for
some time. The pros and cons for both aspects were put forth in the meeting chaired by Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley last month, the official told The (indu. A proposal to ban such currency
altogether was also considered at the meeting, but found few takers among top officials from the
Ministries of Finance, Home Affairs and IT as well as SEBI, the Reserve Bank of India, the State
Bank of India and NITI Aayog. Bitcoins were in the news recently when during the two global
cyber ransom ware attacks Wanna Cry and Petya attackers sought about $300 in bitcoin as
ransom. Crypto-currency can also be used for a lot of legal activities depending of which retailers
accept such currency. Even as economies like Japan and Russia move to legalize the use of
Bitcoins, India, despite being at the cusp of a digital revolution is yet to officially recognize the
cryptocurrency. India's central bank, the Reserve bank of India or the RBI, which regulates Indian
rupee, had earlier cautioned users, holders and traders of Virtual currencies (VCs), including
Bitcoins. "The creation, trading or usage of VCs including Bitcoins, as a medium for payment are
not authorised by any central bank or monetary authority. No regulatory approvals, registration
or authorisation is stated to have been obtained by the entities concerned for carrying on such
activities," the central bank had said In March, RBI Deputy Governor R Gandhi warned against
crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin. "They pose potential financial, legal, customer protection and
security-related risks," Gandhi said. "Payments by such currencies are on a peer-to- peer basis
and there is no established framework for recourse to customer problems, disputes, etc. Legal
status is definitely not there," he added.
What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and worldwide payment system. Bitcoin is a digital currency created
in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto. It based on the ideas set out in a white paper by the mysterious
Satoshi Nakamoto whose true identify has yet to be verified. Bitcoin regulate and generate units
of currency using the rules of cryptography. It is also called as decentralized digital currency. The
transaction fees of traditional online payment mechanisms are more than the transaction fees of
bitcoin transaction. These transactions operated by a decentralized authority unlike government-
issued currencies. Bitcoins are completely virtual coins designed to be self-contained for their
value. There is no need for bank to move and store money. Bitcoins are not physically present, so
that only balances are kept on a public wallet in the cloud. All bitcoin transaction is verified by a
massive amount of computing power. A personal database that you can store on your computer
drive, on your smart phone, on your tablet or somewhere in the cloud is called wallet. Bitcoins are
transferred from one personal wallet to another.
commonly known as ICOs, have become popular as well, since these bypass the usual regulations
about raising cash for a new business. Bitcoin prices went through the roof last year as trading
volumes zoomed. In January 2016, bitcoin was trading at $429 per coin – it peaked out at $4,969
this month, just before China came down like a ton of bricks on coin-trading. Ethereum, another
crypto-currency, did even better than the bigger bitcoin. Ethereum was trading at $2.84 in January
2016 and it hit a recent high of $394.
In India, the Mumbai film industry seems to love bitcoin, given the number of celebrities who have
burbled about it. But the Chinese crackdown and fears that India might see a similar crackdown
have led to wild swings in rupee-values of bitcoin. The bitcoin was trading at Rs 3.01 lakh on
September 1, it dropped to Rs 1.95 lakh on September 15 as panic took hold, and it is back to Rs
2.58 lakh on September 20. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been consistent in warning
citizens of the risk associated with cryptocurrencies and traders of its perils, Indian Prime
minister, Sri Narendra Modi, indirectly promoted Bitcoin, on July, 2, 2015, with his ambitious
Digital )ndia. Plans included digitizing government data, improving )ndia’s digital infrastructure,
and optimizing its online connectivity. The Finance Minister in the country has labelled
cryptocurrencies are not being legal tender. In recent time a debate has emerged within the
country as to whether profits from crypto transaction should be taxed or not. Last week, )ndia’s
Department of Economic Affairs in its Ministry of Finance met to discuss how Bitcoin could be
regulated. The committee suggested the following, that cryptocurrencies should be governed by
the Reserve Bank of India Act of 1934, that Bitcoin investors should be taxed, that guidelines for
buying and investing in cryptocurrencies should be drafted. As per business standard report the
Indian government is going to introduce its own Cryptocurrency similar to bitcoin. They also
added that the government might its cryptocurrency Lakshmi . )n a move to regulate the
cryptocurrency market in India, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today cleared that it is not legal
tender and it will discourage its use. However, he mentioned that the government will look at the
utilization of blockchain technology. During the run-up to the budget, there have been talks that
the government could come out with a roadmap to regulate the cryptocurrency market. There has
been rising craze among investors to put in their hard-earned money into the highly volatile
cryptocurrency market setting off alarm bells in the government. Even before the budget Jaitley
had already said that the Cryptocurrency is not legal tender in India. The recent action of
conducting survey by the IT department over all the major exchanges has also triggered issuance
of income tax demand notice by the department to the users of these exchanges. There have been
reports that several banks have frozen account cryptocurrency exchanges in India, while the
registrar of companies (ROC) has stopped registering companies intending to act as such
exchanges.
ENTRANCE OF RBI:
Will the Reserve Bank of India try to regulate bitcoins and other crypto-currencies? Almost
certainly. No government that imposes capital account currency controls can afford to ignore non-
fiat currencies. Will the Indian government mess up attempts at regulation? Almost certainly. The
RB) doesn’t have a shining track record in terms of its recent actions and it could fumble this task,
for sure. In fact, the RBI is supposedly considering setting up its own crypto-currency, which is a
step in the wrong direction. Crypto-currencies work for people who want anonymity and who are
seeking alternative stores of value. No fiat currency, crypto or not, can reasonably offer this
combination. What’s more, crypto-currencies have features and bugs that fiat currencies don’t
and that’s precisely why users love them. The blockchain system of generating an exact increase
in money supply gives comfort to speculators. This eliminates worries about inflation caused by
a sudden expansion of money supply by the central bank since there is no central bank and the
money supply is governed by pure maths. This also makes fractional reserve banking
cumbersome since currency swaps or exchanges are always required for such actions.
Also, while bitcoin, ethereum, and other crypto-currencies can be banned by government decree,
these cannot be withdrawn from circulation except by peer-to-peer consent. A fiat crypto-
currency – well, that could be deleted in a minute at the whim of an oligarch. Indians started
trading in bitcoins and other crypto-currencies enthusiastically after Nov 08, 2016, precisely
because they became wary about such possibilities. )t’s hard to see a fiat crypto-currency catching
on.
Bitcoin vs gold
Since ancient times, gold is usually the most popular choice of people for investing. Many people
invest in gold as most of the time it gives profit to the investor.
Though gold is the first choice of investors, bitcoin is much better than gold. As bitcoin can easily
carry no matter in how much quantity it is, on the other hand, to carry gold from one place to other
place is difficult and not at all safe.
User can easily access their bitcoin wallet from anywhere by using a computer, laptop or a
Smartphone this is not possible with gold.
Chances of forgery are possible in gold, whereas it cannot be possible with bitcoins.
The government can confiscate gold but can never confiscate bitcoins.
When you think about Bitcoin Vs Gold as Investment then its better to consider Bitcoin.
Bitcoins vs bonds
A bond is where the investor lends some money to a corporation for a certain time period at a
fixed interest rate. This option for investing is not safe as it depends upon a third party, whereas
bitcoin is independent where a user doesn’t depend on a third party. Bitcoin allows the user to be
powerful on their own.
Bitcoin seems to give you better when you talk about Bitcoin Vs Bonds.
FUTURE OF CRYPTOCURRENCY
Cryptocurrencies like bitcoins are rapidly mutating into real money that will give a healthy
competition to the different currencies issued by the centralised governing bodies. Bitcoin’s
current price hike could reflect a bright future therefore, it can be clearly seen that Bitcoins has a
very bright future ahead. Cryptocurrency is also called as digital money in any payment system
such as the points we get in some random stores can be called as digital money or cryptocurrency
because it can be used instead of physical money for payment. The genuine cryptocurrency is the
decentralised. Cryptocurrency will be grown in future and will have a huge scope ahead, however
this new form of currency does not benefits all systems of power and control that are currently in
place. )t’s hard to tell what fight will be put up in order to control cryptocurrency and the obstacles
that will need to be overcome to solidify its presence in everyday life.
)t has the potential to be the world’s currency in future there will be no need to keep a specific
currency for every individual country all the time. With a type of currency which is difficult to
regulate , which is decentralise, that anybody can use and that eliminates the exchange rates
across the world makes the future of the world by being a centralised currency across the world.
This suggests the concept one world one currency. Central banks are slowly arriving to the
conclusion that cryptocurrency are here to stay. And according to various research papers and
economist the value of digital currencies such as bitcoin are market determined still there is a lot
of analysis to be done regarding the effect of cryptocurrency in future. Example of
cryptocurrency:- Ether ET( , Litecoin LTC , Bitcoin . And in these Ether is the second largest
cryptocurrency in terms of market cap. Litecoin enables faster block time around 2.5 minutes
whereas, bitcoin needs 10 minutes so Litecoin enables faster exchange between users.
CRYPTOCURRENCY IN INDIA
In India bitcoins has been available since 2012.And at present in India there are 11 trading
platforms and around 1 million users of bitcoin. At the movement RBI has banned the transaction
of bitcoins in India. So, one cannot use the cryptocurrency for the payments of goods and services.
Recently in 2018 during the union budget declaration the Indian government declared that
cryptocurrencies such as bitcoins were not a legal tender. There is no protection available to those
using and trading them or dealing in them. In recent days finance minister Arun Jaitely said when
asked by the media the Government views on cryptocurreny he said the government was aware
that the cryptocurrency is being used for the illegal activities such as terrorism, cryptocurrencies
function within the community and they enjoy the trust of that.
According to the Indian government people using these types of currencies should take certain
caution because there is no lawful protection for these currencies. And no help can be gained by
the people from the government side if some fraud is faced by the people. Regarding the future of
cryptocurrencies in India an expert committee also constituted to measure the risk involved in it.
This committee will examine the action of cryptocurrencies and release the report in few months.
Some countries are accepting the cryptocurrencies while some are not, some of them are yet to
make their decision. Cryptocurrencies has its own set of complications.
of 86% of Indian currency on November 8 triggered off an explosion of interest. Some estimates
indicate that rupee-denominated bitcoin trades now generate the third-largest volumes after
American dollar and yen. Bitcoin has now been around for many years and its codes are open-
source. But many people don’t understand how it works.
)nternationally, bitcoins are traded on multiple financial exchanges and they’ve shot up in value
over the last year. Most exchanges insist on some degree of Know Your Customer or KYC details,
but there are loopholes. For example, the same person could own many wallets in which the coins
are held. It is possible to layer trades such that it is impossible to figure out who sold what, when.
What’s more, the underlying reason for a trade is irrelevant – all that is known is that a coin has
moved from one wallet to another.
CONCLUSION:
Observers predict that )ndia’s government will regulate Bitcoin in stages. )ndia’s Bitcoin industry
welcomes these changes knowing that government acceptance will give the cryptocurrency the
backing it needs. )n fact, )ndia’s Bitcoin industry has long tried to popularize Bitcoin with
strategies that include conducting security checks, requesting identification from users, such as
government-verified address documents, Permanent Account Numbers (PAN) or Aadhaar IDs,
and sometimes even checking bank details. Private Bitcoin companies have also launched an
association, called the Digital Assets and Blockchain Foundation India (BFI), to educate lay people
on Bitcoin benefits and usage. Government intervention credits their efforts. In terms of creation,
Bitcoins are definitely one of The greatest innovations of man. Most banks these days are trying
to use the block chain technology and since the government has not authorized Bitcoins, it has
decided to introduce its own cryptocurrency named Lakshmi . This information was revealed by
RB)‟s executive chairman Sudarshan Sen who also mentioned that the committee that proposed
this idea is in its process of research. On the other hand, experts wonder whether some of these
intended regulations will harm Bitcoin in that government interference contradicts Bitcoin’s
allure, while other rules may hamper the blockchain innovation and development
http://www.iamwire.com/2017/12/the-future-of-cryptocurrencies-in-india/169365
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mic/2017-03-08/2018-03-08