Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, speaks during the virtual United Nations General Assembly on Saturday, September 26, 2020.
Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The Indian government plans to introduce a bill in the country’s lower house that would ban private cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and create a national cryptocurrency.
The so-called “digital currency and regulation of the official digital currency law” is moving “to create a facilitating framework for the creation of the official digital currency to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India”.
In addition, “the bill also seeks to ban all private cryptocurrencies in India, but allows certain exceptions to promote the underlying cryptocurrency technology and its uses.”
The value of Bitcoin jumped more than 20% to $ 38,566 on Friday after Elon Musk changed his personal Twitter biography for # bitcoin.
It is not the first time that Indian lawmakers have taken such a strong stance on cryptocurrencies. In 2018, an Indian government group recommended a ban on all private cryptocurrencies and proposed up to ten years in prison for violators.
That same year, then-Finance Minister of India Arun Jaitley said, “The government does not recognize cryptocurrency as legal tender or currency and will take all measures to eliminate the use of these cryptocurrencies in the financing of illegitimate activities or as part of the payment system. “
Many countries (including the United States, China, Japan, Canada, Venezuela, Estonia, Sweden, and Uruguay) have explored the development of their own digital currencies.
However, there are significant differences between national digital currencies and private cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are decentralized, while national digital currencies are usually centralized.