Cryptocurrencies should be banned because regulating them is too difficult, says Indian economic expert

India should ban cryptocurrencies like bitcoin outright rather than even attempt to regulate them, one of the country's most influential financial experts has argued. The business of policing the ever-changing virtual currency market - now comprised of over 1,500 varieties of coin - and monitoring private and anonymous transactions is so fraught with complications that India would be better off prohibiting them altogether, ex-Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das has said. "Let us accept that it would not be possible to regulate it effectively. Because they will do transactions from their houses," he said in an interview with Quartz. "You cannot enter every home to check what transactions are going on. So, I think this is a serious challenge, and should not be allowed at all."