056. Bitcoin vs The Banks with Sunny Ray

Speaking of Crypto podcast

Sunny Ray’s company Unocoin, along with the Internet + Mobile Association of India, is in a legal battle with the Reserve Bank of India. The RBI is India’s national central bank. Almost a year ago, the RBI banned all banks in the country from working with crypto or with crypto companies.

What does this lawsuit mean for India? What does it mean for the banks andthe crypto companies? And, what does it mean for crypto around the world?

This case will set a precedent.

Sunny shares a few details on how the law suit’s going and that their expecting a decision in the next few days.

Sunny is a veteran in this space, having been in Bitcoin for around 6 years, and I asked him what it’s like to run a company that based on Bitcoin in a volatile market where the value of Bticoin itself has changed so dramatically. His response was that not only do the highs and lows come in cycles, he also believes that they’re highly predictable. He explains the predictability and his thoughts around where the value of Bticoin is headed in our conversation.

Bitcoin changed his life and he shares what hit him right from the beginning.

“I chose Bitcoin. It wasn't chosen me, right, I consciously understood the white paper and said, Oh, my God, this is going to change the world. Changing the world, I never thought it was going to be easy. And I also knew that there was a very high chance of failure. Right? But I also knew that if I didn't try, I would regret it when I my grandmother's age.”

This is the second time I’ve chatted with Sunny for Speaking of Crypto, so for more background, here’s our first podcast together from June 2018, Episode #8.

https://speakingofcrypto.com/sunnyray/

We also talk about remittances and the fact that India is the largest inbound remitter in the world. There’s around $100 billion that flows into the country through remittances, but we discuss the ridiculously high percentages in fees that traditional banks take on those remittances.

Does that have anything to do with why the RBI is banning banks from working with crypto or crypto companies?

We also touch on double taxation and why Sunny decided to move Unocoin’s headquarters and where.

And we briefly talk about Quadriga and what regulation in Canada might look like going forward as a result of the unfortunate circumstances around this exchange.

Sunny mention’s Nishith Desai’s article on potential framework for crypto regulation in India.

http://www.nishithdesai.com/fileadmin/user_upload/pdfs/Research_Papers/Building-a-Successful-Blockchain-Ecosystem-for-India.pdf

IAMAI

https://www.iamai.in

Unocoin

https://www.unocoin.com

Sunny Ray

https://twitter.com/SunnyRayShow