Hardware Wallets banned in India?!

[dkbit98]

We know India wants to ban Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies but latest information are telling us that they are also banning hardware wallets and their customs is not even allowing importing them in India.
This has been reported by several Indian crypto influencers, like you can see bellow how they marked them as BITCOIN WALLETS:


https://twitter.com/ThatNaimish/status/1365580174108946433

What can people in India do now if they want to buy hardware wallets?

1. They can still buy them from official retailer shops located in their country.

For Ledger, Trezor, Coldcard, Coolwallet, Safepal and other hardware wallets you can use:
- Esolvify Solutions LLP
- Etherbit Private Limited
 -Evyune

2. You can buy hardware wallet in neighboring country that is more crypto friendly like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China or any other country in the world.

3. Making your own DIY hardware wallets like Trezor, Jade or Bowser is not that hard but you need to have some skills for that.

4. You can always use paper wallet for free or other open source wallets like Electrum with offline storage.



Watch out for scammers who will surely try to take advantage of this situation with selling fake or tampered wallets!

[Charles-Tim]

If I am an Indian, I will just read about this and laugh and not panic when I can make use of a phone as an hardware wallet when electrum can help me do that. All I need are two phones, one as watch-only and the other as the cold wallet which will be my hardware wallet. Nothing can disturb me on how to store bitcoin with private key offline when there are still more options like paper wallet, wallet on hard drive and the likes. But, using electrum will make the use of bitcoin for me much more simplier. Even computers can be used, but phones are cheaper. And, with this, I do not need to be panic if a hardware seller is a scammer or not, but if scammed in this case, no authority to report to if cryptocurrencies are banned in India.

[AB de Royse777]

I remmeber few weeks ago I read about banning crypto in India. Do they even understand how Bitcoin works? A peer to peer trade is very hard to stop and with a little knowlegae about securrity and privacy control - one can easily hide their deals. The recent moves from Indian authority will not help the government much because those who are already in crypto they will just hide and will not contribute to country related affiers. As a result the governent will lose tax from regular people.

And banning or forbidding not to use hardware wallet is just some nonsense move. Anyone can bring a hardware wallet and can easily tell that it's a USB stick. I have done this once when I was crossing a boarder. I had my ledger on my neck. In the security pass they asked about it and I said it's a USB stick. From their impression I knew that they had no idea about the device.

You just need to be a little smarter than panicking. Those who are in crypto they are already smarter than the average joes,

[sheenshane]

1. They can still buy them from official retailer shops located in their country.

For Ledger, Trezor, Coldcard, Coolwallet, Safepal and other hardware wallets you can use:
- Esolvify Solutions LLP
- Etherbit Private Limited
 -Evyune

The thing that I didn't understand, you mean that they banned Bitcoin Hardware Wallet and their customs didn't allow to import HW in India but they had a local official retailer shop that you can purchase Hardware Wallet right?  So, how these merchants got a Hardware Wallet bringing inside their country?

I presumably think that it's all about business purpose.  I have heard a rumor that the bill was imposed by RBI was aiming to make their own official digital currency and kick out those private digital currencies.

However, they are totally noobs on how Bitcoin or the entire cryptocurrencies how it works, we had many alternatives where to store our crypto-asset safe even our own gadget with the help of a free open-source Bitcoin wallet and use P2P exchange.  If I'm an Indian citizen, I will laugh at them of what they'd imposed.

[bL4nkcode]

1. They can still buy them from official retailer shops located in their country.

For Ledger, Trezor, Coldcard, Coolwallet, Safepal and other hardware wallets you can use:
- Esolvify Solutions LLP
- Etherbit Private Limited
 -Evyune

The thing that I didn't understand, you mean that they banned Bitcoin Hardware Wallet and their customs didn't allow to import HW in India but they had a local official retailer shop that you can purchase Hardware Wallet right?  So, how these merchants got a Hardware Wallet bringing inside their country?

The news and regulation is just recent (just this month), if these retailers have enough stocks ordered before the implementation of this regulation, then it's okay to say and recommend buying HW from these stores but that won't last long.

Alternatives and using desktop wallets are the most recommended one, worst india's ISP restricted bitcoin/crypto related websites and etc.

[khaled0111]

If India banned bitcoin then it makes sense if they prohibit importing hardware wallets or even mining gears such as Asics and Indians should've expected it to happen.
However, I am not sure if custom officers there know enough about bitcoin to differentiate between a hardware wallet and an USB stick. In most countries they don't!
In any case, no one should buy a used device unless he is 100% sure he knows how to check if it's genuine and knows how to reset it properly.

[dkbit98]

And banning or forbidding not to use hardware wallet is just some nonsense move. Anyone can bring a hardware wallet and can easily tell that it's a USB stick. I have done this once when I was crossing a boarder. I had my ledger on my neck. In the security pass they asked about it and I said it's a USB stick. From their impression I knew that they had no idea about the device.

It's not the same as ordering something online for yourself but I guess people will always find a way to have what they want.
It's a shame their customs and government are treating simple tech device the same like some gun, bomb or a dangerous weapon, but I understand they scared because their 'ship' is sinking.

I presumably think that it's all about business purpose.  I have heard a rumor that the bill was imposed by RBI was aiming to make their own official digital currency and kick out those private digital currencies.

Maybe.
We saw that government in China was testing their own hardware wallet for their centralized digital currency, that has nothing to do with Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.

[Lucius]

The thing that I didn't understand, you mean that they banned Bitcoin Hardware Wallet and their customs didn't allow to import HW in India but they had a local official retailer shop that you can purchase Hardware Wallet right?  So, how these merchants got a Hardware Wallet bringing inside their country?

If the import of hardware wallets is banned, then it probably applies to ordinary people and to importers - does it make any sense to allow the sale through intermediaries, and to ban the import?

This whole situation is actually still completely unconfirmed, there is no official announcement of Indian customs. In the end, all this can only be the result of some rumor, and there has been too much of that in India in recent years.

Here, it must be stressed that the veracity of this claim was still in question at press time, especially since no customers had actually come forward to claim anything of this sort. In fact, no official notification or circular from any government agency asserting a ban on Bitcoin wallet imports had been found either.

[Pmalek]

The official Ledger and Trezor boxes the devices are shipped in declare that the content is a cryptocurrency hardware wallet. I am certain that customs officers have no idea what a Trezor or Ledger is unless they have received strict orders to be on the lookout for those terms. This, I doubt. Indian citizens who have friends or family abroad can simply ship the products to them and have them repackage it in a USB box and ship that to India. Pathetic governmental dipshits.  

[sheenshane]

~ Pathetic governmental dipshits.  

It's totally it is.  I can't imagine how long they tend to ban cryptocurrency and especially the most very common currency, Bitcoin.  Since 2013 when the first announced that the RBI forewarned their citizen regarding investing in crypto and then followed by the year 2018 when RBI again banning all crypto activities regarding crypto dealing such as trading and mining.  And then again, in 2019 when the  Finance Ministry committee recommended a ban on all cryptocurrencies and the last is this year 2021 a full blast of imposing a ban, how long they'd struggle of banning Bitcoin or in crypto in general?

Probably it has more effective if people were strictly prohibited from using Bitcoin and also from using a Hardware wallet if they will impose punishment and a large value of fines to those who will be caught upon using it, but as said above, it seems to they treated this as drugs or heavily powered weapon that has a threat to their country which is a very pathetic mindset.

[Darker45]

While this is sad news to a lot of Indians, there is something a little funny in it. This is like a boxing match between Bitcoin and the Indian government, which other governments should watch more closely if they want to learn something from it. India may give her strongest blows against Bitcoin; ban Bitcoin, ban crypto exchanges, ban the financial facilitation of anything related to crypto, ban hardware wallets, and so on. India only ends up totally exhausted without even hitting or wearing down Bitcoin. Are Bitcoin supporters in the country quitting because of all this? I doubt.

[hugeblack]

What is the point of banning device wallets, or more precisely, how will they detect it?
In my country, personal belongings and devices are not searched or subjected to customs. Therefore, many employees believe that such devices are memories.

Legislation in India is volatile but I don't think cryptocurrencies will be banned in India. At least after all the damage that happened because of COVID-19.