Representatives of the government virtual currency study group in India said that by the end of the year, citizens may not expect to make any final rules regarding the use of digital assets.

Note that India is by no means the first country that tried to define cryptocurrencies, in terms of money, goods or securities. A particular problem for the Ministry of Finance was the study of digital assets as a means by which it is possible to separate the encryption technology and the blockchain system.

The inability to achieve any significant progress in the discussions, caused a lot of talk in the cryptocurrency community. It is expected that the group will present its findings in July 2018. At the same time, available data indicate that the committee won't be ready to make a report before the end of this year.

One of the government officials, who wished to remain anonymous, stated the following:

"There are lots of issues that need understanding and lots of studying needs to be done. Blockchain is an interesting thing. We definitely want to milk it effectively for financial transactions. So, all officials are really trying hard to understand how to separately use blockchain, without cryptocurrency. And understanding a new software takes time."

Apparently, the blockchain technology has almost universal recognition as a legitimate technology concept that includes global business processes. Nevertheless, many devotees of this technology prefer to avoid talking about digital assets.

Thus, the interested parties of the market are trying to lobby the government in understanding the potential of the cryptocurrencies. For them, the exclusion of virtual currencies becomes particularly problematic. Commenting on this issue, the head of the Indian group of lobbyists of Bitcoin, Adjet Khurana said:

"We had one meeting specifically on this topic. A public blockchain needs to have a token, and you can’t have it by excluding cryptocurrencies. Moreover, a public blockchain is analogous to the internet, and no one can control it."

While discussions continue on this topic, the country's cryptocurrency market continues to face the RBI ban, which prohibits local banks from facilitating transactions with digital currencies. Many interested parties dispute the legality of the ban. To date, the claim is pending before the Supreme Court. In July, after a preliminary hearing on this process, the court postponed the meeting until September 11. Most likely, then the final decision will be made.