Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s Minister of Finance, delivered the Annual Budget presentation for the next fiscal year on February 1, 2022. Although a thorough and ambitious plan to raise government expenditure was included in the budget, the current tax system was not significantly altered with the exception of a huge declaration to begin taxing digital currencies . With these new regulations in place, all gains made from the sale of digital assets will be subject to a 30% tax rate. Moreover, any transactions involving the exchange of digital currency will be subject to a 1% tax (tax withheld at source). Moreover, it is recommended that the receiver be subject to taxation on the value of the virtualized asset received as a gift. The budget release is great crypto news by IB  for India’s burgeoning crypto ecosystem, despite the fact that the 30% taxation is one of the highest in the country and that some of the measures may be difficult to apply (for the government, customers, and exchanges)

The budget also gives a definition of “virtual digital assets,” which is a first for any policy or law in India. It also wants to release a Digital Rupee, which will be made by the central bank of the country. People see these steps as the first steps towards crypto assets being recognised in India.

Since November 2021, when news reports said that a bill to ban these assets might be in the works, the future of the crypto ecosystem has been uncertain. Even though crypto laws are still likely to be brought up in parliament this year, they are now more likely to focus on rules than a complete ban. Even though there is less uncertainty now that the budget has been released, India’s crypto ecosystem still has a lot of work to do.

I was at a stakeholder consultation on cryptocurrency in November 2021, where a senior Indian government representative involved with the country’s monetary policy said, “I don’t see any value in society in cryptocurrencies, so what’s the point of talking about and debating them?” This official speaks for a large group of people around the world, especially policymakers, who see digital currencies as a bubble caused by investors’ “irrational exuberance,” as all bubbles are.

Even though the crypto ecosystem hasn’t been outright banned yet, it’s important to change the story about what this new ecosystem means for India’s technological and economic goals in the future.

The meeting in November The group I was in had a lot of different kinds of people. Only two of the 25 or so participants represented companies that are part of the crypto ecosphere, and only one of them had experience making and developing technology. This is not strange, since most businesses, and especially technology firms, want lawyers, industry groups, and advocacy organizations to look out for their interests. It is helpful in a way because it shows how a government should not regulate a certain sector. But it often makes it hard for the company to show how the underlying technology could change the world. Then, the debate is about how to reduce the harms instead of how to help a technology grow and be supported. In the particular instance of crypto, this mistake could kill the industry, the expansion of the technology involved, and even the country.

For India’s (and the world’s) tech developers, crypto assets signal a moment that could change the way the internet works around the world. For them, crypto is a way to get to Web 3.0, which is a decentralized online world constructed on blockchain technology. To keep things simple, the term “Web 1.0” usually refers to the beginnings of the internet, from when computer networks were first connected to when the first browsers and websites came out in the 1990s. In the next step, Web 2.0, applications were made by middlemen, and a lot of them were based on content made by users. In the Web 2.0 age, Google, Facebook, Amazon, and other middlemen had a lot of power (and continue to do so). The goal of Web 3.0 is to make software and platforms that don’t depend on established businesses and Web 2.0 business strategies like advertising. For example, users could use tokens to pay directly for services. In an ideal world, communities of users would run, own, and make improvements to Web 3.0 services.

This doesn’t mean India shouldn’t take steps to protect its economy from the possible harms of cryptocurrencies. The government should set up ways to protect investors’ interests by keeping an eye on exchanges and wallets, making sure that transactions can be tracked by putting Know Your Customer (KYC) rules in place for both customers and exchanges, and making sure that crypto doesn’t threaten India’s economy as a whole. The recent announcements in the Annual Budget are a step in the right direction, but there is still a lot to do. India’s tech community should make sure that all the noise doesn’t drown out the fact that this technology has the power to change the world. India has all the pieces it needs to become a global leader in blockchain and Web 3.0. And this is not a big deal.

How To Buy Crypto In India

Since the beginning of the calendar year, it has gone up by more than 120%. Even though the asset class has had some setbacks, virtual money has stayed popular around the world. In fact, digital currency is so popular that the central banks of the world are now researching and thinking about ways to bring it into the mainstream. One of the main reasons why Btc has grown so quickly is that institutions are starting to use it. Due to the fact that inflation is happening all over the world, Bitcoin is seen as a safe asset. The recent debut of the Bitcoin ETF (Exchange Traded Financing) on the NY Stock Exchange caused the price of Bitcoin to go up, and October was a record-setting month for the stock market as a whole. Also, a big part of Bitcoin’s rise came after PayPal, which has 350 million users, decided to let people pay with cryptocurrencies. Because of these things, the price of Bitcoin hit an all-time jump of $68,641.57 on November 9, 2021.

Choosing A Crypto Exchange

Your journey as an investor could go a lot more smoothly if you do research on the platform you would use for trading cryptocurrencies. You should think about how easy it is to use, how smooth the interface is, and whether or not it supports trading pairs. Aside from these must-haves, you should also look for a platform that has a low trading fee. If you don’t, you won’t be able to make as much money when you trade bitcoins.

One should also think about whether or not the exchange has made its order book public. This makes sure that everything is clear. An order book is basically a list of all the buy and sell orders on the exchange platform. A strong order book is just another way to verify the exchange and shows that it has enough liquidity for investors to get out of the cryptocurrency when they want to. Another important thing to think about before choosing a platform is how safe it is. If a platform doesn’t have a KYC protocol, you might want to stay away from it. A Know Your Customer (KYC) system helps make sure that financial crimes can be stopped or punished.