Panama and India to accept Bitcoin?

High ranking officials in both Panama and India are saying that their governments should allow their citizens to pay for goods and services with Bitcoin. 

Panamanian congressman Gabriel Silva introduced a bill yesterday to regulate the use of crypto in the country. Both sides of the Panamanian congress appear willing to consider the bill. 

As El Salvador becomes the first country to officially make Bitcoin legal tender today, Panama could well be in the queue to be the second.  

The bill introduced by Silva posits that Panamanian citizens be allowed to transact in cryptocurrencies if they choose, as long as the transactions are not prohibited by law. 

The document also calls for new banking operability laws to be established so that the legacy banking system can be used alongside the new cryptocurrency one. According to Silva, this would be along the lines of a bank connecting with a cryptocurrency exchange. 

Additionally, the bill has the aim of providing “digital identities” of individuals and other entities, by using distributed ledger technology. With this technology in place, Panama would have the potential to be a digital technology provider globally. 

Meanwhile, on another continent, an Indian former senior central bank official has said that cryptocurrencies should be treated as a legitimate form of exchange by his government. 

The sentiment is in rather stark contrast to the view held by current officials of the bank. But the official, R. Gandhi, said that once crypto was accepted, then commodity exchange regulations would apply, and then cryptocurrencies would be able to be transacted and held freely by citizens. 

Despite the existing negative stance on cryptocurrencies by the RBI, Indian people have increased their trading of cryptocurrencies, with an increased total traded in May of $6.6 billion, compared to $923 million in April of last year, according to an article on Bloomberg today. 

Gandhi stated that Regulators would have access to the information on exchanges, and this would be used to tax individuals accordingly. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.