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India seeks to block most cryptocurrencies in new bill, government says

reuters.com

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Re: India seeks to block most cryptocurrencies in new bill, government says

#21

Post by ngokevin »

betwixthewires wrote: post #5

Well, they can try, but even with centralized exchanges, a VPN will do. And then there are decentralized protocols. Once you have some of your money in cryptocurrency there's no real way for anyone to stop you from moving your money around however you like. The only points that can be controlled are interfaces with banks.

How are you supposed to turn the coins into FIAT where it's actually usable?

At that point, you cannot move your money around however you like, you can only move the tokens around on the blockchain.

Re: India seeks to block most cryptocurrencies in new bill, government says

#23

Post by joe_the_user »

sombremesa wrote: post #4
endisneigh wrote: post #3

Easiest way would be to block exchanges. Though one could go to another country and withdraw and convert the money, the more countries that block exchanges, the more targeted one could be towards the remainder for money transfers.

Wouldn’t that just lead to a black market? Especially in a country that loves its informal economy like India?

If bitcoin is illegal, the only reason to engage in a black market transaction to obtain would be if it gave you access to material thing you could not otherwise get - unless there active hyper-inflation going on, no one would want to illegally obtain bitcoin just so they could turn around and buy some good they'd be able to obtain with normal, legal transaction.

Re: India seeks to block most cryptocurrencies in new bill, government says

#24

Post by jazzyjackson »

betwixthewires wrote: post #5

Well, they can try, but even with centralized exchanges, a VPN will do. And then there are decentralized protocols. Once you have some of your money in cryptocurrency there's no real way for anyone to stop you from moving your money around however you like. The only points that can be controlled are interfaces with banks.

not just banks, but everywhere you can spend it in country. fine you can move money between virtual accounts and buy NFTs all day, but government can control whether local business are allowed to accept your crypto as payment, so you’ll need to liquidate crypto into local currency - which kind of sucks to do if the banks aren’t there to help.

Re: India seeks to block most cryptocurrencies in new bill, government says

#25

Post by givemeethekeys »

shubhank19 wrote: post #16

The article seems a little misguided. The news was "private cryptos", not all cryptos.

Would this would apply to a coin that a company would issue outside of the controls of a regulatory body vs. bitcoin, which is decentralized?

Re: India seeks to block most cryptocurrencies in new bill, government says

#26

Post by rollcat »

TekMol wrote: post #15

Tokens like Bitcoin, Eth, NFTs etc are the only thing one can own in the digital space. So if a country makes the possession of cryptocurrencies illegal, it makes their people digitally possessionless. This would cut them off from the next version of the web. Similar to how North Korea cuts of their people from the current web. So far it seems no country that cuts of their people from the internet has been able to fl…

All ownership (digital or not) is nothing but a social contract. The cryptocurrency (or normal currency) exists because enough people agree to recognise it.

You can buy and own a domain name. If trust in DNS is violated, we'll have much bigger problems.

Re: India seeks to block most cryptocurrencies in new bill, government says

#27

Post by santiagobasulto »

joe_the_user wrote: post #14
betwixthewires wrote: post #5

Well, they can try, but even with centralized exchanges, a VPN will do. And then there are decentralized protocols. Once you have some of your money in cryptocurrency there's no real way for anyone to stop you from moving your money around however you like. The only points that can be controlled are interfaces with banks.

If it's illegal to exchange goods or official currency for cryptocurrency in the nation you are in, the usefulness of cryptocurrency is going to be considerably constrained. This depends on how thorough or draconian the state is but a lot of people just shy away from illegal activity without enforcement being that strong. After all, if buy a tangible good, I want legal title to it and having engaged in an illegal tra…

That is why drugs and other illegal things are so cheap, right?

Re: India seeks to block most cryptocurrencies in new bill, government says

#28

Post by tiborsaas »

ngokevin wrote: post #21
betwixthewires wrote: post #5

Well, they can try, but even with centralized exchanges, a VPN will do. And then there are decentralized protocols. Once you have some of your money in cryptocurrency there's no real way for anyone to stop you from moving your money around however you like. The only points that can be controlled are interfaces with banks.

How are you supposed to turn the coins into FIAT where it's actually usable? At that point, you cannot move your money around however you like, you can only move the tokens around on the blockchain.

Worst case is to buy some physical goods and sell it. A bit cumbersome, but not impossible.

Re: India seeks to block most cryptocurrencies in new bill, government says

#29

Post by TekMol »

joe_the_user wrote: post #18
TekMol wrote: post #15

Tokens like Bitcoin, Eth, NFTs etc are the only thing one can own in the digital space. So if a country makes the possession of cryptocurrencies illegal, it makes their people digitally possessionless. This would cut them off from the next version of the web. Similar to how North Korea cuts of their people from the current web. So far it seems no country that cuts of their people from the internet has been able to fl…

Why is that a problem? I "possess" nothing in digital space but get much value from it and I posses various things in meat-space that I also get value from. Moreover, I can spend my conventional money in digital space and get further use from. A "digital possess" seems a thing that doesn't improve the world in a good way.

In the 90s many people said the same thing about "being online" and "having email". Writing letters and meeting in person works just fine, they said.

Crypto makes so many things so much more efficient that not having access to it will be like not having access to the internet today.

Re: India seeks to block most cryptocurrencies in new bill, government says

#30

Post by joshgrib »

joe_the_user wrote: post #14
betwixthewires wrote: post #5

Well, they can try, but even with centralized exchanges, a VPN will do. And then there are decentralized protocols. Once you have some of your money in cryptocurrency there's no real way for anyone to stop you from moving your money around however you like. The only points that can be controlled are interfaces with banks.

If it's illegal to exchange goods or official currency for cryptocurrency in the nation you are in, the usefulness of cryptocurrency is going to be considerably constrained. This depends on how thorough or draconian the state is but a lot of people just shy away from illegal activity without enforcement being that strong. After all, if buy a tangible good, I want legal title to it and having engaged in an illegal tra…

This is an important point - I think a lot of us tech people like to think "no it only exists on the internet the govt can't touch it! It's like international waters!", but then you have countries that can completely restrict or shut down the internet. As long as the infrastructure exists in the real world and is controlled by a govt, then the "imaginary online stuff" is still ultimately under their control. Even in "the matrix" someone was still running all those computers and could turn them off if they wanted.
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