Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, will speak at 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 such as bitcoin and create a national cryptocurrency.
The so-called “Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill” moves “to create a facilitating framework for creating the official digital currency to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India.”
In addition, “the bill also aims to ban all private cryptocurrencies in India, but allows certain exceptions to promote the underlying cryptocurrency technology and its use.”
Bitcoin’s value rose more than 20% to $ 38,566 on Friday after Elon Musk changed his personal Twitter bio to #bitcoin.
This isn’t the first time Indian lawmakers have taken such a strong position in cryptocurrencies. In 2018, a Government of India panel recommended banning all private cryptocurrencies and proposed up to 10 years in prison for offenders.
That same year, the then Finance Minister of India, Arun Jaitley said, 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 such as bitcoin are decentralized, while national digital currencies are typically centralized.