Indian media reported, that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) suspended its plan to issue the own national digital currency.
India’s Central Bank Cryptocurrency Plans
The Bank of India initially intended to launch the Central Bank cryptocurrency (CBDC) in April this year, when an inter-departmental group was formed to study the potential advantages and feasibility of the central bank’s cryptocurrency.
In August 2018, the Bank of India confirmed that it had set up a special team that was studying a rupee-based central bank cryptocurrency (based on factors such as the cost of printing paper money and the increasing popularity of digital tokens).
Nowadays, the Delhi authorities suddenly changed their minds after reviewing the research team’s findings.
India Keeps Bitcoin in a «Gray Area»
The hesitation of the Indian government is exactly the same as last week’s performance on cryptocurrency regulation. A minister of state also pointed out to the National Assembly that in the foreseeable future, non-central cryptocurrency assets such as Bitcoin will remain in a gray area, so the government should be cautious about the issue of CBDC.
It was originally expected that the Indian government would establish some form of the regulatory framework in 2018 as the central bank continues to issue various bans on encryption (which prohibits banks from providing services for encrypted transactions). However, the result is not the case.
“It is too early for the Reserve Bank of India to introduce the encryption rupee because institutions still need to know more about the encryption economy.”
Praveen Kumar, the founder of Belfrics (Indian crypto exchange)
In the meantime, the Indian government is also looking for solutions that reduce cash use, while also linking transactions to consumer biometric data through the Aadhaar system. (Aadhaar is reported to be the world’s largest biometric system, containing biometric data for 1 billion people.)