India's "Budget 2018" did not change anything about Cryptocurrency in India.
Today India's Budget came out and in the long speech of FM Arun Jaitely there was barely 2-3 sentences he said about Crypto. Well, if you have noticed he has said nothing new about Crypto in the Budget speech.
What he said is this
"The government does not recognise cryptocurrency as legal tender or coin and will take all measures to eliminate the use of these cryptoassets in financing illegitimate activities or as part of the payments system"
This is the same thing Indian Government said many times before. I think people get scared by some words such as not a legal tender or financing illegitimate activities.
Not a legal tender -It means you can not use it for payments or buy something with Bitcoin/Cryptoassets. So, unfortunately right now with Bitcoin's new Lightning Network you can't buy coffee or chai or anything in India.
One more thing he also mentioned that Government wants to use Blockchain technology to eliminate intermediary. This might be something new for someone who do not follow crypto news, but if you are regularly following crypto news then its not new. They have already given green signal for Blockchain technology. Here is the news from last month "How andhra government wants to use blockchain for land records.". I have mentioned about SBI's Bankchain in my previous article here.
All mainstream media outlets are trying to create FUD among Indians over the issues of nothing new. If you look at the headlines of theses articles they are completely ridiculous/clickbait. When these article get shared on Social Media, people share it without reading the article and it helps them to create more FUD. 59 percent of people on Social Media share article/news without reading it.
Look at these headlines.
So just don't panic, Govt hasn't said anything like holding Cryptoassets is punishable offence as Bangladesh said it.
FUD created by mainstream media is not new and not limited to India, it happens everywhere. That's their main weapon against Crypto. KEEP THAT IN MIND.
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Read my previous article "What happens, if Bitcoin/cryptocurrencies are banned in India?
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