No proposal to recognise bitcoin as currency, finance ministry says in Lok Sabha
The government is expected to bring a bill to regulate cryptocurrency in the winter session of Parliament, which began today. Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin work on blockchain technology - a decentralised ledger of transactions. The Union finance minister said in Parliament on Monday that central government does not collect any data on bitcoin transactions. It also said that there is no proposal to recognise bitcoin as a currency in the country. The response was given the form of a written reply in the Lok Sabha on a question on cryptocurrency. A legislation seeking regulation of cryptocurrency will be discussed in the winter session of Parliament, which began on Monday. The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021, seeks to create a framework to regulate digital to be currency issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). According to the Lok Sabha website, the bill will also seek to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India, barring certain excepti...