Nobody knows what’s in the cryptocurrency bill

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Editor's note: To create a facilitative framework for creation of the official digital currency to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India. The Bill also seeks to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India, however, it allows for certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses.” This one paragraph threw India’s crypto industry into an existential crisis, for the second time in three years. On 29 January, the government listed “The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021” in the legislative order of business for the budget session of the Lok Sabha. The bill is slated for introduction, consideration and passing. Here is what has been discussed in parliament so far (on 9 February): Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on whether the Centre was planning to issue guidelines on cryptocurrency, said: “A high-level Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) was constituted under the Chairmanship of Secretary (Economic Affairs) to study the issues related to virtual currencies and propose specific actions to be taken in the matter recommended in its report that …