Daily Roundup: 27th July 2018 – Libertarians no Majority in Crypto, Indian Commission recognizes Crypto as Payment

Indian Commission recognized cryptocurrencies as legitimate payment method

Indians use cryptocurrencies in many use-cases although trading digital currencies is at the moment forbidden. One of the many innumerable use cases is gambling and sports betting. The report by an Indian law commission is 145 pages long and discusses whether gambling and sports betting should be forbidden in the South Asian country. However, the report has a reasonable approach towards prohibition. According to the commission, it is counterproductive and leads to a “rampant increase in illegal gambling”. It concludes that “effectively regulating [it] remains the only viable option.”

News websites have cited the report enthusiastically. However, the report mentions cryptocurrencies only in a side note. The report juxtaposes “[v]irtual currencies” next to other “electronic means of payment such as credit cards, debit cards [and] net-banking”. The Indian government will decide the fate of cyptocurrencies in the country in September.

South Africa to exempt cryptocurrencies from VAT tax?

The South African treasury has proposed to exempt cryptocurrency trades from VAT tax. The country ranks highest in Google trends for the key word “Bitcoin”. Traders, analysts and statisticians rely a lot on this strong indicator. If the treasury succeeds with its amendments cryptocurrencies would come a big step closer to being accepted as currencies. Recently, the white-only town Orania announced that it will test its own cryptocurrency soon.

Study by Coindesk finds that Libertarians are now a minority in the cryptospace

The first users of Bitcoin were hackers, computer geeks, libertarians and anarcho-capitalists. People who have strong privacy concerns when it comes to public surveillance, the NSA and their own financials. A minority of people who condemn the states ability to manipulate and control money, the markets and through that the people. But the nobody – that Satoshi Nakamoto is for the public – created Bitcoin for everybody. Therefore, the findings by Coindesk come as no surprise. Though, it makes you wonder what socialists, the ultimate advocates for centralization, have to do in the crypto space? Maybe they secretly want to become capitalists.

Read Coindesk’s charts here.