I've long said the biggest enemy of main stream crypto adoption will be tough governmental regulation and one of the best case examples of this is India's new stance in this regard. A proposed "anti-crypto" bill looks to be imminently enacted that would criminalize mining, trading, holding or transferring any crypto currency in their country. The sentence? An unconditional 10 year jail term to anyone found partaking in any of these activities. OUCH! Harsh or what, right? This is the latest in a string of regulation attempts to introduce a blanket ban of crypto in India, no questions asked. Sad though, because this might actually prove easier said than done.
The citizens solution to the above quandary? Use privacy coins, such as Dash, Monero or Zcash. Employing these means of transacting, all information required by the government to make a case against an alleged "crypto" perpetrator, will be almost impossible to obtain. Addresses, amounts, accounts. Everything will be encrytped. It reminded me of that ridiculous law Trump thought to enforce not too long ago, whereby any crypto holdings had to be declared before entering the USA. Really? That goes to show how blind these authoritarian bodies are to the technology itself.
I do see a future where a middle ground is agreed upon between crypto currency usage and governmental regulation. Until then, you'll keep on hearing of these half-hearted attempts at trying to subvert the power of the people in this way. Just as the Internet itself was a veritable "Pandora's Box" when first unleashed to a sleeping world, so will be the financial digitization and tokenisation of the web and, therefore, global transacting in general. Even now at this early stage, it cannot be stopped. Blockchain technology has already seen to that.
I give it about a decade or so, before the crypto climate settles down and matures to a point where everybody can sensibly discuss possible guidelines for users to follow. Until then, expect more of this type of debacle. If anything, just have fun watching the show unfold and the powers-that-be squirming to eradicate this new "Devil's tech"!
