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India IT training school offers Bitcoin course

Koenig Solutions introduces a four-day programme that encompasses skillsets and areas such as the fundamentals of Bitcoin, mining, secure trading, and Bitcoin protocol specifications.
Written by Eileen Yu, Senior Contributing Editor

An Indian IT training school has hopped on the Bitcoin frenzy and is offering a new course to teach students how to mine the digital currency. 

Koenig Solutions introduced a four-day programme that encompasses skillsets and focus areas such as the basics of Bitcoin, Bitcoin mining, secure trading with Bitcoin, and Bitcoin protocol specifications, according to the company's CEO and founder, Rohit Aggarwal. 

The course is currently available at its Delhi training center, and will be offered to its other branches in India and overseas, reported The Times of India

"The latest rage in the online world, Bitcoin is the new financial language of netizens who prefer paying online for goods and services," Aggarwal said. He noted that course participants will be taught how Bitcoin works, as well as the mining process and how the virtual currency is generated.

It is estimated that India houses 30,000 Bitcoin owners who hold about 1 percent of the global circulation of some 12 million Bitcoins. The currency, however, faced some uncertainty in recent weeks after India's central bank issued a public advisory highlighting the risks of virtual currencies, such as money laundering and terrorist funding. This prompted local trading exchanges to suspend their operations, including BuySellBitCo.in and INRBTC, but some operators such as Unocoin resumed their services last week.  

Exchanges in China have also come up with ways to stay in business after the People's Bank of China outlawed Bitcoin transactions among local banks and financial institutions, forbidding all third-party payment provides from handling the virtual currency. The Chinese central bank shared similar concerns with its Indian counterpart related to the risks of money laundering, its lack of legal status, and Bitcoin's association with illegal activities. 

The virtual currency, though, appears to be accepted in Singapore where the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore last week outlined tax requirements for transactions involving the currency. Under its advisory, Singaporean businesses that offer the buying and selling of the virtual currency will be subject to taxation on the gains made on the sale. However, if the Bitcoins form part of the business' investment portfolio, the tax authority considers the gains from any sale to be capital in nature and not subject to taxation.

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