With the Indian government tightening the screws on its regulation of cryptocurrencies, bitcoin enthusiasts are now tapping into own non-resident Indian network to make purchases from United States exchanges.
The Indian government has of late, raised the bar in its campaign to bolster the country’s regulations on cryptocurrencies, vowing a regulatory framework would be made public very soon.
Earlier this month, the Indian tax authority gave out notices to 100,000 crypto traders compelling them to pay taxes.
The Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Committee (BACC), an industry group the members of which include seven cryptocurrency exchanges, is thinking of several endeavors, such as the making of a database of crypto users and transactions, to comply with the government’s mandates.
According to a report that was published by the Times of India:
“With Indian exchanges like Unocoin, Zebpay, Coinsecure, keen on increasing regulation and scrutiny into transactions, bitcoin aficionados say buying from US exchanges is a more popular alternative for purchases.”
L R Dinesh, a bitcoiner, was quoted as saying:
“For the online tech community, there are some who receive bitcoins as payment for gadget and video game reviews. But for regular purchases, one has to get a relative or friend with an overseas account to send over bitcoins.”
Dana L Coe, the CEO of bitcoin hardware wallet Bitlox, thinks that one of the main allures of bitcoin is its privacy.
He explained:
“If you are purchasing a particular medicine and someone collects the data and sells it to a pharmaceutical company — these companies can use sets of such demographic information to increase prices.” Furthermore, he noted, “Differential pricing, blanket invasion of privacy cannot happen if one uses anonymous and private payments.
“People would want to shield their payments from the government, corporates or even their own families. With big data and consumer tracking websites, the need for privacy is heightened”
The extra security on purchases made with bitcoin is another major attraction for Indians.
“The requirement of Aadhaar is a dampener,” Dinesh added, referring to the 12-digit unique identity number given to all Indian residents based on their biometric and demographic data.
“The community of techies, bloggers and geeks are quite antipathic to the continuous stem of leaks and insecurities reported with Aadhaar,” he stressed, adding that, “To try and unite bitcoins with compliance is going to keep real bitcoin miners away from Indian exchanges.”
