Mohith AgadiIn a move that has garnered huge attention, The Supreme Court of India has asked the government to respond to the plea that calls for regulation of Bitcoin in India. The plea to regulate bitcoin was filed by P. N. Razdan to ensure that Bitcoin, the virtual currency should be made accountable to the exchequer. It needs to be understood that cryptocurrency is the new age currency for carrying out transactions all across the world. It is a peer to peer kind of transaction that does not involve the intervention of a third party. It does not involve the government, banks, credit card agencies and all the transactions can be carried out anonymously.
The petitioner advocate Dwaipayan Bhowmick has come out with the argument that the Bitcoin from foreign location can be bought with money that is completely untraceable and this would definitely be used for trading and other kind of financial transactions without any sort of actual accountability on the part of the users.
The cryptocurrency Bitcoin was introduced by an Individual or group of unidentified programmers in the year 2008 to carry out digital transactions. The currency can be used to make payments, carry out transactions from one region to another without any sort of regulation. Since, it is anonymous in nature, many are using it for transactions, trading activities and investments. The plea says:
The coins are created by users who ‘mine’ them by lending computing power to verify other users’ transactions.
The Bitcoin can be sold or brought in the trade market in US dollars and other currencies.
In order to bring order to the whole aspect of cryptocurrency, the plea asks for a clear cut structure and regulation to Bitcoin and its usage. Apart from the government, the plea also seeks response from The Income Tax department and the Enforcement Directorate.
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