LEGALITY OF BITCOINS – INDIAN AND INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Bitcoin is a crypto currency and digital payment system developed by an anonymous programmer or group of programmers known as Satoshi Nakamoto. It was made available as open-source software in 2009.The system is peer-to-peer, and transactions take place directly between users, without the involvement of an intermediary. These transactions are validated by network nodes and recorded in a block chain, which is a public distributed ledger. Bit coin is known as the first decentralized digital money since it operates without a central repository or a single administrator.

Bit coin, in addition to being created as a reward for mining, can be exchanged for other currencies, products, and services in both legal and illegal marketplaces. Over 100,000 retailers and vendors accepted bit currency as payment as of February 2015. According to Cambridge University research from 2017, there are 2.9 to 5.8 million unique users utilizing a crypto currency wallet, with the majority of them using bit coin.

Bitcoin (BTC -0.02%) has been a revolutionary digital currency since its inception in 2009. Because it allows peer-to-peer payments without the assistance of a third party (like as a bank), it has triggered a flood of additional cryptocurrencies and digital assets that employ blockchain technology.

Blockchain is a digital public ledger in which each transaction is assigned a unique "hash" (or identity) and is appended to the ledger's end. The success of Bitcoin has put blockchain on the map, putting its potential to decentralise and strengthen the digital economy on a collision course with the current quo.