Crypto regulations in India

Backdrop

India is gearing up towards regulation of cryptocurrency. The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill 2021' is expected to be placed in Parliament during the ongoing Winter Session. The buzz around the Crypto Bill till now has been both positive and negative ranging from complete ban to regulating crypti investment. The Crypto industry is awaiting a positive regulation that may permit investing and trading in crypto with certain restrictions.

The legislation is in its early stages and this proposal intents to lay the groundwork for lobbying as the situation evolves. Community starts efforts to sensitize the stakeholder should begin as early as possible. The perception about cryptocurrencies as such is divided among the society and so its pertinent that Cardano is recognised for the value that it brings in the cryptocurrency space and the merits of its technology. As was seen with the Infrastructure Bill in the US, legislations can be detrimental to the industry as such if the lawmakers are not aware of all the facts, especially when it is related to how technology works.

Scope of work

• Prepare a memorandum to lobby for Cardano highlighting the technology it offers and its potential to generate jobs in the IT sector.
• Engage with the local tech community (also see: https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Cardano-Builders-Hub-India/382247-48088 ) to raise awareness about the technology offered by Cardano and encourage them to reach out to their local legislators to sensitise them about the merits of Cardano and its potential to generate jobs in the IT sector. Creation of jobs is significant since India's IT sector employs close to 5 million people.
• Build partnerships with teams that work on educational initiatives in the Catalyst ecosystem, such as Gimbalabs and Catalyst School.
• Reach out to Blockchain & Crypto Assets Council (BACC) ( https://www.bacc.co.in/ ), a not-for-profit association in India working actively to create a positive narrative for crypto existence in India and ensuring the industry stakeholders comply with the self-regulatory code of conduct. Offer to act as liaison to BACC to collect and communicate information regarding Cardano.

Publish a report on the activities and outcomes each month.

Roadmap

Q1 2022

• Prepare a report on the status of legislation in India from the outcomes of the winter parliamentary session.
• Engage with Gimbalabs, Catalyst School and other partners to prepare the memorandum on Cardano.
• Engage with the local tech community to spread awareness about Cardano. Leverage activities like that of Cardano Builders' Hub India ( https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Cardano-Builders-Hub-India/382247-48088 )
• Prepare monthly reports

Q2 2022

• Reach out to BACC and liaise with the Cardano community
• Prepare monthly reports.
• Publish a compiled report on the regulatory environment and possible next steps and share with stakeholders and the community.

Success measures

• Cohsive report in regulation and next steps.
• Stakeholder awareness.

Team

The proposing team works closely with other educational initiatives in the Catalyst ecosystem, such as Gimbalabs and Catalyst School.

We are a team of Plutus Pioneers and experienced web developers. We won 3 prizes in the Cardano Summit hackathon, and won 3rd place in the CardStarter hackathon, both in 2021. We have been funded through Catalyst in Fund 6 for some of our proposals.

Matthias Sieber

• Professional Software Engineer for over 20 years
• Worked on Liqwid through MLabs internship
• Conflict Resolution Specialist (Mediator, Facilitator, Peacekeeper, Educator)
• BA in Negotiation, Conflict Resolution, and Peacebuilding
• Master of Dispute Resolution
• Community-elected Moderator on Cardano Stack Exchange
• Plutus and Prism Pioneer (1st cohorts)
• Project Catalyst Community Advisor and Veteran Community Advisor
• Catalyst Circle member representing the Cardano Foundation
• Cardano Ambassador
• Built successful marketplaces, startups, SMBs, and mission-driven teams
• Gimbalabs PPBL Team Member

Eli Selkin, L.C.S.W., M.S

• Professional Software Engineer for over 5 years
• Plutus Pioneer
• Gimbalabs PPBL Team Member
• MS in Computer Science, specializing in Machine Learning
• ML architect
• B.A. in Psychology

Victor Corcino

• Energy Industry Engineer for 6 years
• Gimbalabs PPBL Team Member
• Member of the 1st Catalyst Circle as Community Advisors representative
• Catalyst Veteran Community Advisor and Proposal Mentor
• Co-creator of AIM Community Tools (CA/vCA Tools, Voter Tool)
• BSc Chemical Engineering and MSc Chemical Engineering and Software Development
• Specialization in Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
• PhD candidate, researching the field of Machine Learning applied to Computational Fluid Dynamics

Ganesh N

• Professional Software Engineer for over 8 years
• Plutus Pioneer (1st cohort)
• Gimbalabs PPBL Team Member
• BTech in Electronics and Communication Engineering
• Has lead development of large scale applications
• Experience in the financial services industry

Budget

• Legal services = $3000
• Misc expenses for preparation of reports = $1000
• Team compensation = $5000

Total = $9000