Episode 184 - Future of blockchain in India with Varun Sethi

In India, the government is ready to implement or give leverage blockchain technology but alarmed of cryptocurrencies. India always being known for it's growing IT industries. Even when we talk about blockchain, Blockchain projects are creating new job categories, leading to hiring more full-stack, front-end, and back-end engineers but due to lack of regulations over 80% of blockchain developers in India will be forced to move abroad or work only on foreign projects. One more thing Reserve Bank of India released a statement directing all regulated entities, including banks, to stop dealing with individuals and businesses dabbling in virtual currencies. This amounts to a ban on banks in dealing with companies or individuals that trade in cryptocurrencies. So you can now understand how hard these regulations are! Listen to this episode CryptoKnights Podcast where Varun Sethi is explaining how he is fighting against the legality of the ban on blockchain and cryptos. Who is Varun Sethi? On professional front, I am Lawyer, Chartered Accountant, Company Secretary and Delhi University Graduate with 7 years experience of working with startups in India and abroad, consulting on matters from international fund raise, global structuring solutions, corporate taxation, valuations and cloud accounting. During my startup journey, have also found myself on the other side of the table, i.e. investor side of things and have conducted due diligence, valuations, FEMA Compliances, and India Entry Strategy designing. On Personal front - I am Sunday cyclist, reluctant poet, level 3 ethical hacker and a legal researcher on policy matters of the Indian Government. It was during one such research that we stumbled upon Blockchain Technology, which lead to one research after another and upon multiple communications with the Indian government to get their perspective on Blockchains. We have consulted more than 55 Blockchain projects in India and abroad in the past one year on ICOs / Blockchain products / International Structuring on one hand and dealt with governments on the other hand. It was one such application to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that revealed that RBI has not done any research or constituted any internal committee or consulted any international central bank before implementing ring fencing restriction disallowing banking entities to offer banking services to all crypto entities in India, which is currently being questioned in Supreme Court as a violation of Constitutional right of freedom of speech. Company - I am the founder of www.blockchainlawyer.in which is a legal consulting firm for crypto advisory, taxation, blockchain entity structuring globally based in New Delhi, India.