India Cautions Users On Risks Associated With Virtual Currencies

hypnosec writes "The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cautioned users of virtual currencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dogecoin on the risks associated with them and said that it is looking at the use and trading of these currencies. They noted that there are quite a few risks including: theft of digital wallets that are used to store the digital currency, absence of any frameworks to tackle customer problems, disputes and charge backs; exposure to potential losses because of high volatility in value of the virtual currencies, legal and financial risks, and breach of anti-money laundering laws because of lack of complete information on counterparts in a peer-to-peer anonymous / pseudonymous systems."

Comments

Meh banksters

[silviuc]

Don't use those nasty digital currencies because we have no control over them and make no money on your transactions.

Also because: terrorism, child porn. criminals, insert_scare_word here...

Re:Meh banksters

[Sarten-X]

Bitcoin is regulated. There are laws in place for all valuable assets, regardless of whether they're tangible or not. Of course, many folks who "invest" in Bitcoin don't actually understand those laws or even realize that they should try to. They often don't realize that large transfers (regardless of currency) require documentation, they don't know that capital gains often must be reported for taxes, and they often don't bother keeping the documentation that they'll need when the various government authorities start asking questions. The even-more-naive don't even realize that theft or abuse is just as possible with Bitcoin as with cash.

The point of this statement is to remind people that digital currencies are still currencies. You don't get to escape the rules and risks of reality by using quatloos instead of dollars.

Re:Meh banksters

[Joce640k]

Don't use those nasty digital currencies because we have no control over them and make no money on your transactions.

Just like cash, then.

Which has been around forever.

In other news, the Dutch warn about tulip mania

[DiamondGeezer]

Bitcoin et al are far too volatile to be used as a reserve of wealth, and have no intrinsic value.

Re:In other news, the Dutch warn about tulip mania

[wbr1]

Dollars, pounds, euros et al have no intrinsic value. And are also volatile (even if not as much as crap to currencies currently are).

cash...

[lkcl]

I note that there are quite a few risks associated with CASH including:

* theft of physical wallets that are used to store CASH
* absence of realistic application of frameworks to tackle customer problems, disputes and charge backs with CASH.
* exposure to potential losses because of high volatility in value of the CASH currencies
* legal and financial risks assocated with trusting strangers with your CASH,
* and breach of anti-money laundering laws where people can carry CASH because of lack of complete information on tracking of CASH between anonymous random strangers.

so. wonderful. india's announcing something random about bitcoin. great! let's watch the value go up again just like it did in china as it comes to more peoples' attention. yay!

In a parallel universe...

[Neo-Rio-101]

Mining for bitcoins actually donated processing time to Folding at home and SETI... so instead of getting virtual currency for wasting compute cycles, we'd probably cure cancer and contact aliens instead.