What is Bitcoin and how does it Function?

Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a digital currency that can be exchanged between two people without the involvement of intermediaries such as banks, or financial institutions.

In an unpublished whitepaper by the elusive creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin is “a purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash that would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution”.

To fully comprehend Bitcoin To understand Bitcoin, one must be aware of the structure that is behind it as well as the workings in the Bitcoin ecosystem and the level of use of it in India.

How does Bitcoin Work?

Bitcoin is able to eliminate intermediaries through its technology of base Blockchain.

If you need to transfer money to someone and you are unable to do so, one of the options is to offer cash, or using an intermediary who is trusted (example of banks). All of the methods that you can use, whether physically money (with an institution like the central bank in the country acting as the garantee) or electronic transfer will require the use of an intermediary (in the case of the latter it is a bank or other banking institution). When intermediaries are involved there are transaction fees.

The way that blockchain technology can help to eliminate intermediaries is by replacing the trust intermediaries provide to the table by introducing cryptographic evidence through the use of

CPU-based computing power.

The cryptographic trust is constructed into Bitcoin via a wallet an public key, and an individual key that is part of the Bitcoin program.

Anyone can set up an Bitcoin wallet at no cost when they download the Bitcoin software. Every wallet has two keys: a public and private key.

The public key acts as an an account number that anyone can be able to receive Bitcoins.

Private keys are digital signatures that an individual can send Bitcoins. The name implies that private keys are only accessible to the owner , while public keys are able to be shared with anyone who is interested in receiving Bitcoins. This is why you be hearing in the news about Bitcoins being lost because of a private key not being able to be accessed or stolen by hackers.

The owners of Bitcoin addresses aren’t explicitly identified, however every transaction on the blockchain are made public.

Since the introduction of Bitcoin in 2009, every transaction that occurs is recorded in a ledger. This is considered to be immutable, unalterable and irreversible.

Bitcoin transactions are validated by the telecommunication network’s nodes using cryptography, and then are stored in a distributed, decentralized ledger, known as blockchain. This is among the primary differences between Bitcoin in comparison to other crypto assets, which have a an exchange that is centralized (like an exchange like the Stock Exchange) where every transaction must be validated or routed.

What is the process behind Bitcoin Mining Work?

Within the Bitcoin ecosystem, there’s miners in the network who make use of their CPUs to handle transactions.

• When a person who wants to transfer Bitcoin inputs their public address and the amount of Bitcoins to be sent , and attaches the private key to generate a signature. The encrypted data is sent to miners’ network who have the responsibility to determine if there is sufficient funds to authenticate the transaction.
• The more powerful the CPU is of the mining machine, higher is the chance that they’ll verify the transaction and the miner will be rewarded with Bitcoins for helping to transfer funds.
• The miner’s task is to supply the CPU with power that automatically executes an automated Bitcoin program to verify Bitcoin transactions. No manual interventions are required from this Bitcoin miner.
• After the transaction has been processed by the Bitcoin miner, the number of transactions will be broadcast to miners’ networks who receive a duplicate or download of the block.
• The blocks that are created using a timestamp mechanism are recorded in chronological or sequential sequence, creating the blockchain. Each participant in the network must have the most current and complete ledger or blockchain for those who want to make the transfer of Bitcoins and earn.

The program is designed so that the ledger, or blockchain is updated automatically.

As stated in the original whitepaper about Bitcoin, the chance of hackers hacking into the blockchain is nearly zero due to the copies of the latest ledger that each miner has. If someone tries to hack or alter the ledger using any method to gain unfair advantage immediately the miner will be ineligible and is unable to perform transactions until they have a copy the ledger that is not altered.

Can Bitcoin be considered a genuine Currency?

It is debatable if Bitcoin is an actual currency and what makes a country like for it to be replaced with an current currency since Bitcoin is not a currency with any intrinsic value on its own.

A money can be described as “a system of money in general use in a particular country,” or “the fact or quality of being generally accepted or in use.” Presently there is some growth in the amount of businesses that are using Bitcoin as a means of payment, but not a single major economy or country has accepted Bitcoin as a form of currency generally used. One alternative could be El Salvador, which adopted Bitcoin as legal tender in September 2021 . It was the first nation to adopt it.

One of the main reason for the astonishing growth that has occurred with Bitcoin is the stricter enforcement of known your client (KYC) as well as the anti-money-laundering (AML) regulations of bank and other financial establishments. The present situation is a more extensive exchange of information between countries regarding transactions made through banks.

In the end, it is claimed that Bitcoins are used extensively to facilitate transactions that could be considered illegal in a number of countries.

Another aspect that is important is the acceptance that is the acceptance of Bitcoin as a

worldwide payment method, that is not tied to any specific currency of a particular country and, therefore, is not directly affected by changes within a specific country.

The regulation of Bitcoin in India

On the regulatory side, India saw two major developments in the last year:

In February 2022 in India the Indian government was planning to introduce taxation of virtual digital assets that would result in the creation of a tax system for cryptocurrency however there is no specifics on whether or not the Indian government considers cryptocurrencies to be legal or not “asset” or “currency”.

India’s Finance Minister has clarion declared since that time it is “taxing cryptocurrencies doesn’t mean legalizing them.” This suggests that the government is still looking at the entire range of factors that are associated with cryptocurrency and it’s going to be premature to make any assumption about their legality.

The taxation and regulation of Bitcoin in India

Although India hasn’t stated its position regarding the legality of investing in Bitcoin the newly released Budget 2022 vide Finance Bill 2022 proposes to establish the taxation framework for

digital assets that are virtual. After after the Finance Bill is ratified into an Act the framework will be in effect in the Financial Year 2022-2023 onwards.

The taxation proposed in proposal in Budget 2022 proposal would be taxation of gains at a rate of 30% on the transfer of Bitcoin.

The Government is proposing to include the new section 115BBH of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (‘the IT Act’) to tax the income derived from transfers of virtual digital assets. According to the

section, when the total income is comprised of earnings from the transfer of digital virtual assets, the income will be subject to an effective taxes of 30 percent and the rate would be increased by a surcharge percentage applicable in the event of a surcharge, as well as an education and health cess.

According to Section 2 (47) of the IT Act, virtual digital assets are any type of information that is coded, number that is a token (not necessarily Indian money or currency from abroad) created by digital means or any other method regardless of the name that provides the digital representation of value that is exchanged with and without any consideration and with the assurance or

representation of having intrinsic value, or serves as a value store or an account unit which

includes its use in any investment transaction or financial transaction however, it is not restricted to investment schemes and may be stored, transferred as well as traded online.

So the definition of digital assets is rather broad that it covers all forms of cryptocurrency including Bitcoin.

Thus, it is safe to know that any profits that result from trading Bitcoins will be subject to an income Tax rate that is 30 percent (plus the applicable surcharge rate as well as health and education tax) that could yield a tax rate that ranges from 31.2 percent to 42.7 percent.

Deductions that can be claimed w.r.t. the cost of acquiring Bitcoin

The new provisions specify that deductions in respect of expenses (other than the cost of acquisition) which the assessee has incurred with regard to these digital assets is not allowed when calculating the gains derived from transfer of these assets. Simply put just the costs of acquiring Digital assets i.e. Bitcoin can be claimed as an deduction.

If someone acquires an Bitcoin through mining, it could be considered self-generated capital assets. However, the rules in Section 55 of the IT Act that allows for the calculation of the cost of self-generated assets, does not specifically mention an algorithmic method of computation for cryptocurrency.

Therefore, clarification in relation to the calculation of the acquisition cost of Bitcoins in the case of mining is needed to be given.

Additionally, if someone acquires the Bitcoin as an offer of gift, the person who receives of the Bitcoin is liable for taxation in India and, consequently, what is considered “property” under Section 56(2)(x) has been amended to include digital assets in its scope. The law also prohibits the taxpayer as well as the investor from putting any loss caused by transfers of virtual digital assets against other income.

The tax can be applied to the rate of 1% in Section 194S.

Budget 2022 Budget 2022 also proposed to charge withholding tax on the transfer of digital assets that are virtual under section 194S under the IT Act. Therefore, starting July 1st, 2022, every person who is responsible for paying residents any amount as in exchange for the transfer of a virtual asset i.e. Bitcoin will be able to take deduction of tax at the rate of 1% when the crediting the amount on the bank account of the person who is resident the date of payment or the time of payment, whichever comes first.

The withholding of this kind would be restricted to these limits on monetary amounts:

Taxation is not clear on digital assets that are transferred in virtual form prior April 1st, 2022.

The taxation rules for virtual digital assets (except TDS) are proposed to become effective on April 1st 2022 i.e. the financial year 2022-23 and beyond. But, there isn’t any specifics regarding how to tax crypto assets that taxpayers may have sold, transferred or gifted prior to the fiscal year 2021-22.

A number of taxpayers have regarded Bitcoins as a form of asset, and have treated the capital gain as either short time or long term (with indexation benefits) according to the time of the holding and tax paid according to the tax concessional rate or standard slab rates, depending on what the situation could be.click here for more information,

What Happens If I Make An Investment in Bitcoin In India?

Although there remains a lot of uncertainty and uncertainty about the price that are associated with Bitcoin or its legality India however, there is no doubt that blockchain technology will bring lots of innovations and the way transactions are completed.

If you’re looking at investing in Bitcoin it is important be aware that only investors with a high-risk interest should be considering a percentage of their portfolio investing in Bitcoins. This is because of the downside risk of price, the taxes that are high on gains from the sale of Bitcoins in India and a possible good as well as services (GST) tax hazard and the uncertainty of the legality that Bitcoins have in India.

For investors who already own Bitcoins There is no reason to be concerned since in the event of a ban by a regulator it is probable that transitional sales provisions could be put in place. Anyone who has made investments in Bitcoins and then sold the same but didn’t report the gains on their tax returns have to make sure to declare their investment.

Sebastian

Sebastian was born and raised in the busy city of Abbottabad. As a journalist, Saad Mushtaq has contributed to many online publications including the PAK Today and the Huffing Post. In regards to academics, Saad Mushtaq earned a degree in business from the Abbottabad UST, Havelian. Saad Mushtaq follows the money and covers all aspects of emerging tech here at The Hear Up.Thanks