Should Crypto Bill 2021 Put You in the State of Panic?

A lot of traders, investors, industry leaders, as well as cryptocurrency entrepreneurs, are hitting the panic button, just after the Centre announced that it will introduce the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021, in the ongoing budget session last Friday.

A lot of things have been said and even tweeted since Friday. But, is it something that you should be worried about? Is the Government of India really stopping the growth of this innovative technology or set our country back by 10 years by banning cryptocurrency in India? Are they going to close the door for millions of people to take advantage of the world’s fastest-growing industry?

A lot of hush-hush is going around cryptocurrencies but nothing is clear so far. As for now, all we know is that it is just a bill that is going to be presented in the upcoming parliament session. Depending on the nature of the bill, we can expect three possible outcomes.

• The bill will not be presented during the parliament session.
• The bill will be presented and passed to the standing committee to work upon.
• The bill be presented and passed with new trading guidelines

In my opinion, the government of India cannot just wipe out billions of dollars of assets belonging to millions of Indians just overnight, especially when this market has helped a lot of people during the tough COVID-19 pandemic to survive by offering them a new source of income.

In 2019, the draft bill was going by the name of “Banning of Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency”. However, if you have read the news, you will find that this time there is no mention of a ban in the bill name. It is not mentioned even a single time that cryptocurrency is going to be banned in India. The first part says that there will be a regulation to help RBI create its own CBDC (central bank digital currency) if needed. Instead of being in a state of panic, let’s look at its positive aspect. It is a sign that the government is accepting the power of digital currencies and has shown interest for a CBDC. In fact, the government should introduce the digital version of INR as how other developed countries like the United States of America, China, etc are trying for their own currencies.

In December, the government authority body CEIB (Central Economic Intelligence Bureau) put forward a proposal to the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) suggesting that the government should impose 18% GST on Bitcoin transactions. By doing this, the government could potentially receive Rs.7,200 crore revenue annually.

The second part of the bill is indeed about banning private cryptocurrencies with some exceptions. However, cryptocurrencies are not private. Currencies like Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, etc are public crypto built on public blockchains. The use of terms like “private cryptocurrency” is not clear or the fact that there’s a thought process that says RBI creating its own crypto removes the need for other cryptocurrencies is a misnomer that we need to clear. However, popular cryptocurrencies like BTC and ETH have their own use cases and no other currencies can replace them.

A bill related to banning of cryptocurrencies has been declined in more than 5 countries so far. Our traders and business partners have nothing to be worried about even if the bill will be passed in the parliament. Our exchange PCEX is licensed from Estonia so you can assure that you can smoothly trade on our platform.

In the end, I just want to convey my message to the government of India that before passing the bill it is important to keep in mind that the cryptocurrency market has the potential to make India Atmanirbhar by offering millions of people a new source of income and investment.

Sandeep Phogat

CEO/Founder of PCEX Member