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Comment by deepGem | Hacker News Reader

The situation is very similar in India. You can't just convert INR to USD freely. There's a limit of $250,000 per person per year. I don't know if anyone mines bitcoins in India (because of horrendously expensive power), but if they did, they'll be subject to similar scrutiny.

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Solar power is really cheap though, I run a smallish scale operation near my hometown and solar is abundant with rare clouds and rain.

Hey bitcoin miner! Power is one cost but I've always wondered about other costs at scale like hardware and labor. Devices tend to wear out after a while, bitcion mining seems quite intensive, how does this kind of issue effect your buisness / profits?

Just pointing it out... you don't need to mine the coins in the country to assist Indians (or anyone) in converting their currency to USD beyond the normal limits. So the price of power to mine the coins doesn't really have much to do with it.

How do you mean. So how can I buy bitcoins that aren't mined in India using INR. I probably will have to convert INR to USD by buying USD in India and then buy BTC using USD. No ? Some Indian BTC exchanges might be wrapping these transactions under the hood. No ?

You can buy bitcion offline. You meet in person with someone and hand them cash and they give you an address. wouldn't do it for huge sums because of the risk, but it is a common thing in the US at least.

Buying BTC using INR is as hard as buying USD using INR since you need to show the paper trail.

You can however buy computers and power using INR quite easily. The government won't know what you are doing with your computers and power.

> Buying BTC using INR is as hard as buying USD using INR since you need to show the paper trail.

What do you mean? To whom are you showing a paper trail? Do you have to account for cash withdrawals from a bank?

Do you have to show a paper trail if you take out some money from the bank, and use it to buy a motorcycle, or twenty barrels of grain, or ten iPhones?

As a business, yes. As an individual, yes if you are audited. Also those examples are relatively small amounts.

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