Bitcoin and Starting a Blockchain Startup in India

From what I see, the general understanding of Bitcoin and Blockchain in India is really low. It's frustrating to watch so many folks here lose money on Crypto and NFTs, and then they end up trashing Bitcoin and spreading wrong info in their circles. Plus, the crypto exchanges in India aren’t making things easy for their users right now. Only those who actually dig into Blockchain or have some decent knowledge about Bitcoin are managing to stay afloat. The situation in the Indian crypto scene is pretty grim. A lot of my friends think that if the government decides to ban Bitcoin, that's it. I just don’t get how they could actually pull off a ban. Anyone got thoughts on this "BAN" situation?

I agree that most of the "users" from India are basically just people looking to make a quick buck with zero effort like sharing a twitter or facebook post that goes like, "Great option friends..chuuta-patta-some-shitty coin is the next Bitcoin. They have no qualms about fooling others. The trend of marketing MLMs also has people believing that this "add more people under you" stuff is somehow legal and a valid method to earn money. The ignorance can indeed be bewildering. This does not mean that there isn't potential for blockchain applications to gain usage and ground. The reality is that the serious developers and investors are yet to rise up and take the space seriously. We are at the stage where a few early people have made exchanges and then just copy stuff. A lot of people like WazirX but it has been the leader in copy-pasting. There NFT market is filled with profiteers who buy artist pieces at 12 WRX and immediately relist them at 1200. The folks at the exchange couldn't care less about the artists as long as they are getting their fee. There is a lot of space for genuine, smart and well-intentioned people to use the blockchain tech for mutual benefit. But that intent has to be there. Good things happen only if somebody does good things. Otherwise, shit is what you get like the current market. As far as the BAN is concerned, the govt has always maintained that they will ban "private" cryptocurrencies. Whether they will provide clarification on what is private and whether DAO can be considered a public good, is something we have to wait for. The indian "think-tanks" are probably just waiting for the US to make up its mind and then copy there model with slight changes. I would be shocked if they make an effort to come up with something original themselves. Its not really an important issue for them except when it is named with a link to terrorism and the Govt gets active to earn the "security" brownie points from its core constituency.

Agree that's the basic standard in India. India needs to figure out how can it see Cryptos beyond just another monetary profit source.

The legal status of bitcoin is still unknown in India. That's the reason why there is no investor education program available yet. Even though we have a number of crypto exchanges available, they are still unaware about their legal status and will move out of the country if government decides to ban bitcoin. Just like Zebpay did. But that's not the basic problem here. Since there is no formal legislation available for crypto in India, crypto exchanges are advertising bitcoin as the greatest investment of the decade. They are completely ignoring the technical aspects of it and never trying to educate the customers. However, I believe a friendly regulatory framework will allow us to come out of this situation where crypto education will be made mandatory for each of the investors. I still doubt India will go ahead with a blanket ban, but given the nature of the current government, it may also become a reality.