A petition was filed on Change.org on April 5 for "Making India at the forefront of Blockchain Applications Revolution" in response the directions of RBI to stop providing services to those involved in cryptocurrencies. It has gained over twenty two thousand signature ever since. The petition requests Indian government to support the Blockchain and crypto sphere as it has opened doors to employment in the country.
"There are tens of thousands of youth that have gotten jobs or employment with blockchain and relating companies. This is massive for a government which has not been able to improve the employment rate."
According to the petition, the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) ban - which technology tycoon Tim Draper had recently called "a huge mistake" - could boost irregular cash trading of cryptocurrencies in India. Furthermore, the ban would derogate potential revenue to the government from crypto exchanges, and provoke a crypto market price drop "due to the knee jerk reaction in which prices got impacted."
The petition calls on the Indian government to remain competitive with other countries on the issue so as to not be left behind,
"Crypto and blockchain as a concept can't be stopped. You can just decide whether you want to participate with full throttle or get left behind. The current stance from government shows they would want to remain left behind after missing the internet revolution first, AI revolution next and now blockchain revolution."
Along with the petition, individuals also came forward and appealed the government to revoke the regulation. CEO of Indian crypto exchange Zebpay, Ajeet Khurana opened up,
"No way I am stopping. We will continue to do what is best for our customers, and what is best for our country. Am studying the present situation and will react shortly. and we will emerge stronger."
The CEO of another Indian crypto exchange WazirX, Nischal Shetty directly asked RBI to reconsider the decision,
"US, Japan, South Korea go towards regulating Cryptos so that their country progresses while RBI decides to block Indians from getting involved in the crypto revolution. We need to think progressively, @RBI please reconsider this and let's take a positive step forward."
The petition also points at RBI's interest in building their own cryptocurrency as ironical that, "RBI here wants to stop others and at the same time explore blockchain tech themselves." Unocoin, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges on the country revealed that none of the banks have confined relationships with local trading platforms, and RBI's recent statement does not change the legal status of cryptocurrencies in India.
