What is holding back ?

[ Source : https://qz.com/1148052/beware-of-bitcoin-the-reserve-bank-of-india-warns-again/ ]

After China, India’s central bank warns: Beware of bitcoin

Over the weekend, it was China’s central bank. Then, on Tuesday (Dec. 05), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) warned investors against betting on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

The Indian central bank, however, was more straightforward, “…cautioning users, holders and traders of virtual currencies (VCs), including Bitcoins regarding the potential economic, financial, operational, legal, customer protection, and security-related risks associated in dealing with such VCs.”

The RBI’s Dec. 05 release reiterated the concerns it had raised twice before in December 2013 and February 2017.

In India, besides the RBI, the government, too, has made public its discomfort with bitcoin.

On Nov. 30, finance minister Arun Jaitley said India does not recognise virtual currency as legal tender.

Earlier this year, a committee set up by his ministry had reportedly recommended banning crypto-currencies over fears that they could be used to launder money and perpetuate frauds.

Other opponents of Bitcoin are :

·         The central banks of Indonesia and Bangladesh

·         China shut down bitcoin exchanges and banned initial coin offerings.

·         European Central Bank 

·         Bank of France

·         Russian president Vladimir Putin 

·         Germany’s central bank.

Meanwhile, rallying past all warning signs, bitcoin is at a record high, having crossed the $12,000 mark today (Dec. 06).

Yet, crypto-currency exchange operators remain unfazed.

“If India had to ban virtual currencies, they would have done that by now. In the last three years, the RBI’s statement has been the same: They are uncomfortable with it and people should invest at their own risk,” Vivek Steve Francis, CEO of Coinome, a crypto-currency-trading exchange, told Quartz late last month.

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But , I am sure that if Shri Jaitleyji knew the following fact about the “ process of mining “ of bitcoins , he would rush to President Kovind , with an ordinance to ban bitcoin mining / trading , in India :

[  Source : http://grist.org/article/bitcoin-could-cost-us-our-clean-energy-future/  ]

“Today, each bitcoin transaction requires the same amount of energy used to power nine homes in the U.S. for one day.

And miners are constantly installing more and faster computers.

Already, the aggregate computing power of the bitcoin network is nearly 100,000 times larger than the world’s 500 fastest supercomputers combined.

The total energy use of this web of hardware is huge — an estimated 31 terawatt-hours per year.

More than 150 individual countries in the world consume less energy annually.

And that power-hungry network is currently increasing its energy use every day by about 450 gigawatt-hours, roughly the same amount of electricity the entire country of Haiti uses in a year “ .

If India does not ban Bitcoin – and fast - , it would consume all of that 100 GW of Solar Power that we are targeting to commission by 2022  !

100 GW, just to satisfy the GREED of some ( holders of BLACK MONEY ? ), who want to multiply their illegal wealth , a 1,000 times by 2022 !

For an over-simplified explanation of  Bitcoin, read :

https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2017/08/in-eyes-of-beholder.html

07  Dec  2017

www.hemenparekh.in  /  blogs