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This Week in Web3—How the crypto tax affects Indian investors, the web3 alternative for college degrees and more!

GM people of web3!

Kabl3 is here to deliver your weekly news update of the ever-bustling web3 land. You get every important update with a side of food for thought.

In today’s issue we cover:

  • How the crypto tax bill affects Indian investors?

  • Web3 Weekly Wrap

  • Learn with Kable Recap

  • On-chain credentials might replace College Degrees

This week in crypto 📈

Weekly web3 wrap 🗞

When the whole world was realising the effectiveness of cryptocurrencies and diving deeper into the market, in 2018, The Reserve Bank of India effectively banned crypto transactions. Even though the Supreme Court annulled the restriction last year, crypto still isn’t legal in the country. The 1.4 billion bullish Indians and the government have been in fundamental strife.

Among the mixed signals the government has been sending regarding their stand on digital assets, Lok Sabha approved a financial bill imposing taxation on the same on March 25. Here are the details of the bill effective from April 1, 2022:

  • Any income from the transfer of virtual assets will be taxed at 30%.

  • Any losses from the transfer of virtual assets will not be set off against the income arising from the transfer of another virtual asset.

  • 1% TDS on payments towards virtual currencies over ₹10,000 in a year and taxation of such gifts in the hands of the recipient.

  • The threshold limit for TDS would be ₹50,000 a year for specified persons, including individuals and HUFs who are needed to get their accounts audited under the Income Tax Act. The provisions relating to 1 per cent TDS will be effective from July 1, 2022.

What does it mean for the common population?

  • The proposed 30% tax, irrespective of whether crypto-assets are capital assets, will be detrimental to the investor growth that the industry has witnessed.

  • Traders may become incapable of saving on taxes even if they are not currently in the income tax brackets.

  • Also, not allowing investors to offset losses from one crypto trading pair by gains from another type will further deter crypto participation and obstruct the industry growth.

The leaders of opposition parties, including Congress, BJD and BSP, highlighted the confusion the government’s policies are creating. Ritesh Pandey (BSP) said, “This bill highlights red-tapism and will work to stifle the asset class of young investors.” He also mentioned how this would strangle the Indian emerging Web3 unicorns.

Pinaki Misra (BJD) clearly stated, “Today, to ban cryptocurrency is equivalent to banning the internet.” He also mentioned the need for an expert task force to draft the bill and implement necessary measures to track the transactions without discouraging the masses.

The Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, defended the bill by stating the need to track transactions through TDS amidst millions of unreported transactions every day. To clear the allegations mentioning the mixed signals by the government, she said, “There are no confusing signals, we are very clear that consultations are going on as to whether we want to regulate it, whether we want to regulate it to some extent, or to ban it totally.” Once the consultation is over, the matter will come out, she cleared.

While everyone has their take on this bill, this thread sums up the consensus of the people:

More web3 news you should know about:

As the first known case of the Department of Justice (US) charging NFT creators with alleged conspiracy to defraud buyers, two 20-year-olds were charged for allegedly defrauding buyers of Frosties.

Ethan Nguyen (“Frostie”) and Andre Llacuna (“heyandre”) are the alleged creators of Frosties and held its mint in January. The project sold 8,888 NFTs and made about $1.1 M in ETH, after which they closed their Discord and disappeared.

Major traditional video game makers are beginning to explore the Web3 gaming space, NFTs and cryptocurrency-based economies in the process.

PUBG game maker Krafton has decided to develop games on the Solana blockchain. Krafton and Solana Labs will collaborate to develop & market games and make investments together.

Hackers breached HubSpot this week in an attempt to target large crypto stakeholders. Around 30 clients were impacted, including NYDIG, Circle & BlockFi. The customer funds were reported to be safe & secure (including passwords), while user info was leaked. “Targets were customers in the crypto industry”, HubSpot said.

Learn with Kable 👩‍🏫

This Tools Tuesday, we discovered an amazing tool for you to create, own & sell your videos as an NFT. And it's easier than you think! Take a look at Glass 📹

Tools Tuesday

ETHDubai is flagging off next week. Everyone's curious about the announcements, community, job opportunities & of course, the big shots coming. We curated everything you need to know about the event. Check it out here 👇

All about ETHDubai 2022

Could on-chain credentials replace College Degrees? 🎓

For most of us who are out of college and already thrown into the real world with zero real-life skills, our college degree is something we hold up high to justify the massive debt, very few friendships and metamorphic experiences. But is it worth it?

Twitter user Clavis, who contributes to many web3 projects, explains how it's easier for you to get a job if you go to a top-tier college in the current system. It is not always because they offer high-quality education but:

  • They have limited spots

  • Rigorous entrance tests

  • Very high tuition rates

This ultimately signals how smart and competent the students are. Moreover, top colleges have a broad network of companies and people that you can leverage to get into the industry. Ultimately, if you're graduating from a regular, lesser-known college, the probability of getting a good job lowers. A recruiter's job also becomes easier skimming through 1000s of resumes and shortlisting elite-college applicants as their targets.

This is where DAOs, NFTs and POAPs turn the idea of elite college degree=elite job on its head. How?

DAOs

👉 Enable people to become contributors without joining full-time.

👉 The tokens you earn for your contribution can be leveraged to get gated job postings in the future.

👉 This solves job hunting for students with the necessary skill set but is burdened by their "average-college" degree.

NFTs

👉 Easier to prove that someone is good at a particular skill by digitising that skill in an ERC-721 token.

👉 An NFT can be issued to them based on how good they are.

👉 Your contributions to an open-source project like code or documentation can be reflected through the NFT.

👉 Limited tokens means no false claims over the work that someone didn't do, making it easier to hire qualified candidates.

POAPs

👉 A Proof of Attendance Protocol (POAP) is a unique NFT to commemorate and prove that you attended an event (virtual or physical).

👉 You can accrue a collection of POAPs to document your experiences and activity through cyberspace.

👉 People will know what workshops, events or lectures you've attended, adding credibility to your knowledge and skill-set.

In a graduation ceremony, Hoseo University issued certificates to graduates of 2021 as NFTs in hopes to pivot from the paper-based system, which is susceptible to forging, degree alteration, and other manipulation practices. The idea is still early, and in no way are we advising you to drop out of college.

But as more transactions and interactions move on-chain and people focus more on building an on-chain reputation, do you believe these credentials and NFT Certificates will potentially replace college degrees? 👀

Interesting reads from this week 🤓

Over the past few months, there’s been a meaningful shift in the talent marketplace toward Web3 companies. Highly capable people from Web2 tech, traditional finance, and big law firms are

In 1962, Daniel Boorstin crystallized a notion that had been around since at least the 1890s, writing of the new kind of celebrities: “Their chief claim to fame is their fame itself. They are notorious for their notoriety.” The same might be said of cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and meme stocks: They are valuable for being valuable.

That’s a wrap for This Week In Web3!

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wagmi 🚀