One of India’s top cyber security agencies, the country’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), has been designated as India’s central agency for managing cybersecurity, including cryptocurrency.
To ensure adequate cyber and financial security in the country while protecting data and ensuring fundamental rights because of the economic growth of virtual assets, the move requires crypto businesses such as virtual asset service providers to keep KYC information and records of financial transactions for five years.
The sector sees the news as a plan to regulate cryptocurrency in the country. However, the government has not indicated that the measure is a step toward regulation. Before crypto-specific legislation, the regulation to tax crypto enterprises was revealed in February, and it was similar but considerably tougher. “Just because it’s taxed doesn’t make it legitimate,” a top finance ministry official remarked.
Crypto law in India remains in limbo as the government seeks worldwide agreement and Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman notes the promise of crypto, blockchain, and safety issues. Blockchain technology is bursting at the seams because it has so much potential in so many different areas. Last week, she stated that “this (cryptocurrency or blockchain) is not harmed by our actions. However, “It may also be abused to achieve less desired goals, such as money laundering or funding terrorism.”
Until now, the government has not made it very clear that the data must be kept for five years. After that, the Reserve Bank Of India (RBI), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), and the Department of Telecom (DoT) would all have to approve KYC processes and data (DoT).
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s CERT agency, responsible for enforcing these new regulations, requires crypto companies to designate a point of contact. On Friday, Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Sitharaman called for “joint global action” to regulate this rapidly evolving technology.
“Impatience may be heard worldwide, asking, ‘What are you doing about cryptocurrency?’ I understand your frustration, but I’m afraid that’s going to be the case,” she stated in a recent Stanford University fireside chat. “It will take some time for us all to be confident that we are making a reasoned decision based on the available knowledge. You can’t rush it.”