The Reserve Bank of India has stated that they will no longer provide services to any crypto-related personal or business accounts as of the 5th of April.

At the very start of this year, on January, India‘s Finance Ministry has criticised Bitcoin, and cryptocurrencies overall, for their “lack of intrinsic value“, resulting in several large Indian banks closing or limiting the functionality of crypto exchange accounts. Furthermore, false media reports of an upcoming country-wide crypto ban led to a drop in the crypto markets in early February.

Now, India‘s central bank refusing to deal with any accounts related to cryptocurrency may once again cause harm to many, thus people chose to stand up to this decision.

The petition to revise the RBI‘s (Reserve Bank of India) ban on cryptocurrency has gone online since the day of the ban, and currently has almost 20‘000 signatures collected. The petition requests the Indian government to support the blockchain and crypto industry, specifically because it provides thousands of working places for the youth. The government has received some criticism regarding this topic, stating that “the government fails to improve the employment rate“ and still limits the spheres in which the youth is interested.

The petition notes the inevitability of the blockchain development globally and calls on the Indian government to stay competitive in this industry and not be left behind:

“Crypto and blockchain as a concept can’t be stopped. You can just decide whether you want to participate with full throttle or get left behind. The current stance from the government shows they would want to remain left behind after missing the internet revolution first, AI revolution next and now blockchain revolution.”

In addition to the petition, several big names are joining the movement, stating that they will fight back. Ajeet Khurana, CEO of Indian crypto exchange Zebpay has tweeted:

“No way I am stopping. We will continue to do what is best for our customers, and what is best for our country. Am studying the present situation and will react shortly. And we will emerge stronger.“

In addition to Ajeet Khurana taking a public stance, Tim Draper from Draper Venture Network states that if India makes cryptocurrency illegal, other countries will profit from the ban. Being asked what are his thoughts about India‘s crypto ban he answered:

“That’s the stupidest thing. When China said bitcoins are illegal, all those entrepreneurs and engineers working on this new technology went to Japan. Japan is open to cryptocurrency… It is as if America says the internet is illegal. They were talking about doing that. It was the luddites and the idiots, not someone who understood economics or business.“

Later on adding that “Bitcoin and blockchain are the best things to have happened for business“, as well as making a prediction that if India makes cryptos illegal, other countries will surely grab all of the cryptocurrency entrepreneurs from India.

The CEO of Indian crypto exchange WazirX, Nischal Shetty, tweeted directly to RBI suggesting they reconsider the limitations saying:

“US, Japan, South Korea go towards regulating Cryptos so that their country progresses while RBI decides to block Indians from getting involved in the crypto revolution. We need to think progressively, @RBI please reconsider this and let’s take a positive step forward“

The movement is still ongoing and the petition has not completed the collection of the required signatures. If you believe RBI is making a mistake and would like to share your signature as well, you can find the petition here.

Image Source: “Flickr”