Don't worry guys. I am here to your rescue. Before I tell you what you should be doing first let's understand what is happening right now. I will try my best to keep it short and simple as promised. Let's start:
WHY THE HELL DID RBI "BANNED" CRYPTOCURRENCY IN INDIA?
Since cryptocurrencies are not stable and extremely violent in nature they can't be treated as a legal tender right now in India. In case of INR, we have RBI as issuing authority, banks where we open accounts and park our money, and use these accounts for transactions. So it is responsibility of banks to ensure no unauthorised/fraud payment is done from our account. The transactions can be traced and reversed very easily but in cryptocurrency unfortunately it's not the case. Since no one right now is regulating cryptocurrencies in India we don't know for sure if our money is really safe or not. Although there are technological safeguards but that can be compromised anyday by higher version of similar technology by hackers.
So basically due to the following characteristics of cryptocurrencies RBI puts a ban on trading:
- Violent nature
- Can be used in Illegal activities
- No security & customer protection
- Can be used to convert black money into white
SO IS THERE ANY FUTURE FOR CRYPTOCURRENCY IN INDIA?
Yes..Yes..Yes...Yes........ I can't emphasise it more than that. Don't panic your money is not gonna fly away. RBI has constituted a committee to explore the possibility of issuing one digital currency. If it is done, than it will have legal backing and RBI will always be there to protect the interests of customers. RBI will put in place appropriate safeguards to make sure that this medium is not used for illegal activities by increasing transparency in flow of money. Till that time it is good that RBI has banned use of it. Till then we still have a way to buy and/or sell cryptocurrency. In the next section I will talk about that.
WHAT TO DO TO BUY /SELL CRYPTOCURRENCIES IN INDIA?
Two Indian crypto exchanges has launched P2P(Peer-to-Peer) trading services and saved us namely WazirX and Koinex. First let us understand what is this P2P method to "bypass RBI ban".
WHAT IS P2P TRADING?
‘Peer-to Peer’ (P2P) or ‘decentralized’ exchanges are operated and maintained exclusively by software.
P2P exchanges allow the participants of the market to trade directly with each other without any trusted third party to process all trades. ‘Regular’ cryptocurrency exchanges are companies, which serve as intermediaries between their customers and make a profit by collecting fees. Conversely, the interactions between counterparties on peer-to-peer exchanges are directed exclusively by pre-programmed software, with no requirement for human middlemen thus transaction fees will be cheap.
In simple words they will collect crypto deposits from the seller and escrows it for safekeeping during the transaction. The buyer makes a payment to the seller in Indian Rupees, following which the exchange releases the digital currencies to the buyer. Isn't it simple? Tell me in comment section.
This alternative approach has a number of comparative advantages, as well as downsides. Overall, the peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchanges are vivid examples of the decentralization philosophy. Due to the decentralization this method P2P exchanges are practically invulnerable to government interference.
ADVANTAGES:
- More secure
- Invulnerable to government interference
- Cheap operations
- No one can loose their money accidentally
DISADVANTAGES:
- Lower liquidity (can't buy/sell quickly)
- New system so there will be some unknown problems in future.
So far Advantages easily outweighs disadvantages in my opinion.
Until RBI withdraws its ban or we found any other better way, we can use P2P trading method to trade in cryptocurrencies.
Both WazirX and Koinex will start their P2P trading services in July 2018. They haven't given any fixed date.
Plz share this so that maximum people can enjoy benefit of this post.
In the comment section please tell me what's your opinion about P2P trading?
Have a good Day.