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Based on a yet to be confirmed report, the government of India has taken seriously its decision to place a ban on virtual currency, thereby passing the bill for the

“Banning of Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency”, and placing a jail sentence of between one to ten yyears on any individual caught been involved in the Bitcoin or cryptocurrency ecosystem. If this happens to be true, then anybody who directly or indirectly develops, keep, mine, sell, dispose of, transfer, issue or deal in virtual currencies will likely get jailed.

Culprits to Face Worse Fate Than Anyone With a Grade A Drug in their Possession

According to the report, those found guilty of the crime will receive fines three times higher than the profit earned on the virtual currency or three times the loss to the system which makes the 6- month jail sentence and/ or 10,000 Rupee fine for the possession of class-A drugs a better punishment. The gravity attached to the usage of bitcoin is almost similar to the one for human trafficking.

However, actual jail terms will be determined on four levels which are:
Actual and intended gain/ loss, harm to the system, culpability, and repetitive nature.

According to the report, the bill is similar to the ‘Bitcoin can break us’ by Brad Sherman but different in the sense that the Indian Rupee is not the world’s reserve denomination or even close to its and if it is passed, it will greatly affect the rate of tourism as most tourists would be scared of getting a 10 years jail term just for having wallet apps in their phones or having to delete them just for them to be able to go to India.

Further confirming the effect of such drastic measure from India, the CEO of Digital Currency Group, Barry Silbert tweeted that:

“India ain’t messing around. This will, of course, have the opposite of the desired effect on bitcoin awareness and interest in the country”

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