Ernst and Young recently published a survey on “Responding to Cyber Crime Incidents in India”. Some interesting insights are reported in the survey.
One of the insights which is important from the point of view of the Supreme Court hearing on legalization of Bitcoins requires to be taken note of.
The survey speaking on “Crypto Currency” as an emerging area of risk, states
“The challenges in using virtual currency is that these systems are capable of facilitating tax evasion or illegal activities because of the anonymity factor which is built into the system. As a result, Bitcoin is a preferred mode by hackers for ransomware. …. The rise in usage can lead to a surge in cyber-attacks, raids and fraud. “
The Government of India and the Supreme Court which are under tremendous pressure from the Bitcoin industry and the supporting media should take note that “If Bitcoin is legalized in India, the country’s economy would be doomed”.
The Bitcoin being the “Currency of the Criminals” and “Currency of the Terrorists”, the easy movement of crime money across the entire economy and across borders would provide an easy channel for rewards to be distributed for different forms of crimes. Once the tracking of crime money becomes fuzzy, financial crimes will become difficult to be prosecuted since Courts would demand “Evidence of Money Trail” which will go dark with the use of Bitcoins.
The Supreme Court has to ask itself the question,
Is the Court able to understand the adverse impact of Bitcoin on the Country and be honest and bold enough to ban Bitcoins? or
Will the Court hide behind the technicalities and try to give breathing space for Bitcoins?.. which all the corrupt elements of our society worship…
Citizens of this country will draw their own conclusions on who is on the side of Corruption and who is not based on the arguments that will follow in the Supreme Court.
At present it appears that Naavi is a lone warrior in the social media fighting against Bitcoins.
Traditional media including the CNBC TV, Bloomberg, Business Standard, Economic Times, Republic TV, Times Now are all either in direct support of Bitcoin or exercising restraint on passing any adverse comment on Bitcoins.
There is an organized PR team working at planting favourable stories in the media to influence the Government to come up with a favourable view under which the Supreme Court can pass a favourable decision.
Mr Modi appears to be too distracted with the politics around him to be able to respond decisively. I am reminded of the Mahabharata war where Arjuna is dragged out of the main battle scene when the Kaurava’s planned a Chakra Vyuha which consumed Abhimanyu. Similarly, the election politics is dragging Mr Modi out of the Bitcoin scenario leaving the decision entirely to Mr Arun Jaitely.
Will Mr Arun Jaitely be able to stand up to a commitment of eliminating the Digital Black Money called Bitcoin?…So far he has not shown any indications of the same. Hope this time, it will be different.
However, I hope there are many silent supporters who may not be vocal but their silent voices would reach the Supreme Court.
Naavi
