Backed up at home, people are experimenting everything digitally. Traditional currency is maintained in paper or metal form, such as notes and coins, or in electronic form in account entries made by banks. Crypto currency is also a form of electronic money. The difference is that the record of crypto currency is maintained simultaneously by thousands of computers instead of a centralized entity such as a bank. Some of those who are investors found refuge in virtual currencies and the lockdown has pushed up trading volumes in popular crypto currencies such as bitcoins. A marketplace for bitcoin and other currencies packs fully reported a whopping 883% growth in crypto trading between January to May 2020 from around $2million to $22million.
Crypto exchanges got a second wind after the Supreme Court on March 4th struck down the virtual ban on trading announced by the Reserve bank of India in April 2011. RBI had prohibited banks and financial institutions from providing services supporting digital currencies like bitcoin. Soon after crypto currency exchanges filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court and won the case in March 202. Even after the ban has been scrapped large banks have not supported crypto currency completely. But in a blow to estimated 1.7million Indian digital traders the government is planning to bring in a law to ban trading in crypto currency. The government had set up a panel in 2017 to study the ecosystem of crypto currencies. The panel proposed a ban on all of the private virtual currencies in its report. However it also suggested to look at the possibility of an official virtual currency. Insiders expect that the government might choose to encourage the use of block chain but it’s not keen on allowing crypto currency trading. Blockchain is the technology that supports crypto currencies. The technology can land record pharmaceuticals supply chain or records of educational certificates insurance and many other functions without the need for central authority
The framework for the introduction of an official digital currency to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India which becomes a terror to Cryptocurrency entrepreneurs and industry leaders. Private digital currencies like bitcoin ether ripple have gained popularity in recent years. The government is ready to introduce a bill “The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill”, 2021 to ban, with exceptions, the trading in crypto currencies in India and also put in place the move is likely to end ambivalence on cryptocurrency which is neither banned nor legalized in India. This is also being passed to reduce the fraudulent cases.
The profit of bitcoin has gradually turned over.Bitcoin price had dropped cautiously in India on Sunday compared to global counterparts, the price of one bitcoin in a 24-hour period had seen a fall of 8%, at Rs 23, 96,030.
Earlier government bills to ban cryptocurrency were introduced. However it did not reach the parliament. The bill, if passed, will prohibit the use of cryptocurrency as legal tender and currency. Additionally, cryptocurrency will be kept out of the payments system. Nonetheless there are differences between national digital currencies and private cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are decentralized, while national digital currencies are typically centralized.
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