Bitcoin Forum

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-48799155

Can this confirmed that indeed Iran is already into bitcoin now as a hedge specially as fears of a total war with US?

read an article about iran being the new hotspot for crypto mining thanks to the low price for electricity, did not realy belive it sounded abit off in my eyes, now i guess it was true after all lol, also wonder how this will affect btc if usa goes to war with iran.

This is something I have been thinking about America push new sanctions on Iran but we live in a new world where blocking a country to things like finance services will push country's like Iran, Iraq, Turkey, ect towards bitcoin once they see the power it can yeild and no sanctions on earth can do anything to it.

D you think they will mine for there own now with the machines?

I am sure they will search the other way to continue to survive, and if they see that bitcoin can fill what they want, they will use bitcoin soon.
Yes, many countries have afraid about the war with the US because many of them are a small country which needed help from the other country.
Maybe Iran will mine bitcoin too like people in the other country, and I think they can get the benefits of mining bitcoin itself so they can use bitcoin for their finances.

It's highly unlikely for Iran to be the new "crypto mining paradise".Iran was never really bitcoin-friendly,due to the project of creating it's own cryptocurrency or due to the authoritarian nature of it's government.It's well known that authoritarian countries aren't crypto-friendly.
However,I'm surprised by the amount of mining hardware,that is currently used in Iran.

That's not always the case though, Belarus for example is very crypto-friendly and it's a dictatorship...
While some democratic countries can be completely against crypto.

In the case of Iran, I guess they have to do something to prevent their national currency to drop even more.
Not sure if they're already in the hyper-inflation stage, but things aren't going too well with their currency.

Does the Iranian government has a law regarding power consumption? because why would the authorities confiscated the 1,000 Bitcoin mining machines if those two factories are operating legally and paying the right amount to its electricity cost.

Not unless these miners are using Mosques to operate their activities because I've read that it has free electricity.

Did you read your own article? They sized 1000 miners, how is this a hedge if they are fighting against Bitcoin business? They've been putting obstacles in Bitcoin's way in the past, all this talk that Iran will use Bitcoin to bypass sanctions is just baseless speculation, because on practice we see that Iranian authorities are against Bitcoin, and also it doesn't make much sense how Bitcoin can help bypass sanctions - American and European companies aren't going to work with Iran, regardless of what currency Iran uses, period.

I think the confiscation or seizing of these 1,000 bitcoin is reasonable since it has to do something with electricity. I would say that electricity is a very important factor and if it is being consumed to much just because you want to earn a lot then there must be a problem I would say.

Probably true, if not to the extent, then definitely to the actual happening. I suppose you could somehow blame the coverage since last year, touting the cheap electricity, how you could use old mining rigs and still turn a profit, and then investors from Eastern Europe and the Caucasus (Armenia surprised me because it's actually state supported AND cheap there already).

Then last week's news that the ministry was going to crack down. About time it translated into seizures I guess.

That's exactly what those dictatorships tend to do.

The funny part is that if they are like the ones in Venezuela(Who are the others who did something like that before) then the corruption inside government agencies will lead them to use the confiscated machines to make money for some individuals, not even for the government itself, while the government itself pays for all the expenses of course.

Those kind of things happen too much with dictatorships. Not that relevant at all unless you're there.

I just have a question bothering my mind because of this news. Why is bitcoin mining to be blamed when power spikes? Why it should be it all the time whenever there is a power spike? I mean, 10 years ago, let's say that's when bitcoin mining also rises, why are they banning now?

The good news is that this means that indeed Crypto has got a good place, but it's also a pity just because of electricity consumption, mining is legally acted, actually if they pay for electricity usage properly, what is to blame? if bitcoin is used as a deviant storage, it is indeed unfortunate, obviously it is illegal in any country, once again do they act like that?



I doubt that Bitcoin is associated with a total war between Iran and US, not yet seen to point there and hopefully it doesn't happen.

Tough hit for foreign miners looking to set up shop in Iran as their main country of operations, before this I was reading a lot of news that Chinese miners are preparing to move out of China in favor of continuing their mining operations in Iran as electricity is much cheaper there. With this news I think they want to slash out Iran off their list as their next destination. Such a shame that everything is put on blame involving the crypto industry, its just like they are just putting lame excuses for the industry not to flourish in their side.

The real reason why government bans mining is because they are actually providing subsidy on the normal people using this , for the welfare of the society but instead of this they are using it for things that government doesn't approve of.

Instead if we could set up a personal renewable source of energy, this way one could avoid government confrontation and save environment too , it does need a lot of investment initially but for the long run it can help you set up even 10 mining machines.

That time they were ignoring bitcoin mining as they didn't expect a lot of people are attracted in bitcoin mining. Also, they didn't have knowledge about this. That's a big mistake they made.

Well this could be happening on many parts of the world that are not hitting the news yet, people in those kinds of countries like Hongkong, China and now Iran, because Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrency are a good stores of value compare to gold and dollar that are tangible.

I am not sure that this is confirmed.
Iran is already backed up by oil reserves if a war with the US will be escalated. I mean, they don't have any benefit of being into bitcoin as they won't make any harm to the US with that. It is positive news for our community if it is true thought, because it will bring more new investors and raise interest in bitcoin instantly.

Iran electricity is subsidised in many scenarios, and apparently even free for mosques. The government is considering mining as an abuse of the subsidiary system, and allegedly a threat to the stability of the power grid (see See http://www.iran-daily.com/News/254817.html).

What’s behind is really in the line of:
It is a bit of a contradiction though, since power grid stability is being used as an excuse, whilst setting a price for electricity used by miners seems to be the core element really (control over them even more likely).

Iran has less buyers of it's oil so oil is dirt cheap there. They produce electricity from petroleum products and bitcoin and crypto are not only a source of income but also a way to avoid embargo as embargo are monitored through bank transactions. Iran should further encourage it's citizen to use crypto than to restrict it.

Maybe someone inside Iran is preparing for the worst, and hearing bitcoin's ability to be a good store of value, they might have been been doing this for the last 6 months or so and heighten with the latest political turmoil with US of A.

Sadly, they've been caught, but I'm sure this will caught the attention of more Iranians to try to get their hands on bitcoin, just like what Venezuela and Zimbabwe did.

There is no restriction. There are only some controversies about the price of electricity that is being consumed for bitcoin mining and it is being discussed. Electricity price is very low in Iran and what is now going on is completely normal.

Well their electricity is virtually free isnt it? Or the government subsidizes it to some extent so to offer it very cheaply to its iranian citizens.

Keeping aside the political situation of the country, Iran has been sanctioned by the US and thier economy is not is good position. I don't know what can be the reason to stop people from mining the crypto but they should realize that if they want to survive, the only chance is to adopt bitcoins and boycott the US dollar.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/dominicdudley/2019/06/25/iran-electricity-grid-unstable-bitcoin/


The Iranian government is afraid the bitcoin miners are close to collapsing their power grid.
If this happens, then hospitals on the grid could lose power or traffic lights could go out and place people lifes in jeopardy.

Many here want to pretend like bitcoin energy waste is a non-issue.
Eventually the Governments will decide who has access to the electricity and it won't be in bitcoin's favor. (Like Iran & China)
Which is why energy efficient consensus designs are the future and PoW is a technological dead end.

 Iran probably also mine gold (and other precious metals). And many countries have large reserves in GOLD, should we then ban gold or destroy lands where gold is mined?

I honestly don't like the idea of large mining farms but what can we do? If mining is distributed like nodes, nobody will notice this things.

Proof of stake can never be an option. It one of the reasons why we have endless numbers of cryptocurrencies

Why are you talking about War with US? I think that this is not the question.

I find it very interesting that they are generally against the cryptocurrencies in their country although this is one of the rare ways to do any transactions because of the sanctions.

This source : https://cointelegraph.com/news/iran-bitcoin-miners-set-up-shop-in-mosques-amid-govt-crackdown

I stating that machines which were sized were locates in their mosques because they get free energy.

Proof of Stake is an option, and using rolling checkpoints can be more secure than a PoW without rolling checkpoints.

Blackcoin has proven to be a strong design, and unlike many PoW coin,
it does not waste energy and is very secure.

There are other consensus designs that are also energy efficient, but PoW mining will eventually be blocked.

The failure of the Bitcoin community is the refusal to admit the problem and then seek a solution.
Whether the solution is an old design or a brand new one.

I don't get it. Okay, I think it's fair to put some pressure on whichever companies or projects are using the most electricity that results in the minimum usefulness. But seizing miners seems to be an overreaction. Electricity consumption is growing, it's natural for civilization. What, is it a crime to use more power? Another thing is to set some official limitations on non-ecologically friendly electricity, thus leading to a greener future. The article is simply too short and a bit unorganized, and that makes it hard to understand what actually happened and on which grounds.

So they stole bitcoin miners from people who bought these machines and set them up to make money? What a great country to live in!

What are they going to do with them now? Start mining themselves? Or does Koran forbid them to speculate with fake money? :D

it just confirms there are some private bitcoin miners in iran large enough to get on the government's radar now. 2 farms with 1000 miners doesn't exactly constitute mainstream adoption or anything.

clearly, the government doesn't like what's going on either. :P


interesting thought. confiscate the machines, start mining bitcoin reserves for the government. why not? i've always thought this would eventually happen---governments holding bitcoin reserves. it still feels pretty early though.

it was 1 factory and it was practically stealing electricity because the electricity it was receiving was meant to be used in that factory for the thing that that factory was build to do not something else. and since they got electricity for something else with the discounts and then used it to mine bitcoin, that makes it illegal and leads to their closure not just mining bitcoin or using electricity. instability of grid,... are just side products.

Not very surprising. The Iranian Rial has lost more than 30% of its value during the last three to four years and the central bank is trying very hard to prevent any further devaluation by burning what is left of the forex storage. They are trying quite hard to prevent the capital flows out of the country and it is getting hard to obtain foreign currency in Iran. Gold is also getting hard to find. And Bitcoin is one of the few avenues left for ordinary Iranians to store their wealth.

I wonder if when they publish this type of news the journalists try a little to investigate if it really is true or not. according to the news, then saying they seizes 1,000 Bitcoin mining machines.

- what is the location of two abandoned factories?

- Who are the people behind this mining? (because 1000 machines and a big investment)

Why the journalists not asking those questions?

The Iranian energy minister has just done the wrong thing by raising the false alarm about bitcoin miners. If there is a spike in energy demand, then improve on the supply to meet up with the increasing demand as this means more money to the pocket of the government, and I hope their energy program is not free? Instead of threatening nuclear war with the US and Israel, they should channel their strength to developing their nation.

I have also seen news that some of these miners are situated in temples and that these temples are exempted from paying for electricity. So if there are a increase in power consumption and a higher need for electricity, then you could understand why the government would target the mining farms first.

A more sinister theory would be that the government is looking for coins to pay "anonymously" for weapons on the black market and that these mining farms were a easy target. <The US has already strengthen it's economic and military sanctions against Iran, after it shot down a US drone.>

It's been affecting the supply of their power grid, so it makes sense to sound the alarm here. Even here during the summer, we also have this kind of color warning and advising people about saving energy. Unfortunately, in the case of Iran miners, they've been caught as per the report. We don't want to assume that an imminent war could happen though, it's far-fetched.

The problem with mining is just having cheap electricity isn't favourble for mining. You need take into consideration several factors like the initial investment for hardware, BTC price, mining pool to join. You can try an online tool like cryptocompare to find how much profit you can actually make with BTC. If you are open to alts, there are many alt coins which will be more profitable

It is clear that Iran citizens are preparing for the probability of what might happen since there is tension between them and the United States of America(USA). Bitcoin is the best form of money anyone can carry in case of war and that is why mining activities increase in Iran. On the other hands, this should influence the market positively as it might reduce the supply to bearable mining. But for the government, the best thing to do could have increased the power stations so the citizens and their economies will less depend on dollars or foreign currency for international trade.

Yeah, it's "virtually" free, just like gas in Venezuela.
The problems start when the government runs out of money to keep things free.


Who to ask in Iran?
Do you think they will allow police or whatever organization was in charge of the raid to talk to a western journalist?
They release a statement and we will have to be happy with that unless some guy that was working with those miners comes on this forum or Reddit or TW and gives some extra info, thing which I highly doubt.


Makes zero sense.
First, you have to buy mining gear and since none is produced in Iran you have to import those, so leaving a trace.
Not only is this stupid but think again

They paid foreigners to get the gear!!!
If you look to get your money out of the country since you have already done this paying bitmain or canaan or whatever, what's the point of getting bitcoin for it?

Then, you have to ROI to get that money back, what will happen if the war breaks tomorrow?
You're going to flee the country with a 9.5kg miner in your backpack?

I have interacted with many players from Iran in the gambling sites a couple of years back and from what i know from their perceptive is that there is an interest for bitcoin for a long time, majority of the people i interacted are not active in this forum but they are very much active in the trading and spend some time gambling and it is going on for a long time and some have accumulated huge amount of profits. So what i am trying to tell basically is that it is not a new thing, the people from Iran are active in the market for years and now we might see more people coming into the market like the rest of the world.
Not sure why these machines are seizes, whether they broke any rule by using huge amount of electricity or is it illegal to mine in Iran ?.

:D :D :D That was a good response. :-*

Yeah I found that quite amusing too.
Can you imagine those miners being smuggled back out of iran?
They would probably think they are weapons of mass destruction and destroy them all on site. ::)

The complete picture obviously matters, but cheap electricity grants you an edge over the miners that don't have cheap electricity and therefore need to stop mining the moment it has become unprofitable.

This is about Bitcoin miners. There aren't all that many altcoins with the same algorithm you can use SHA256 ASICS for. The alternative is Bcash or BSV. The few other SHA256 coins are almost worthless and not worth mining.

As for altcoins being more profitable to mine, I don't think so. Try to build an altcoin mining rig and mine Ethereum, Litecoin or Dash, I wish you good luck with that. Mining as a whole has exploded in the last years. It's no longer a niche.

It looks like Iran was rather invested in crypto - something, I only just learnt. However, the BBC report about the authorities seizing the hardware does seem to indicate to me that Iran is at leat trying to catch the new wave of technology and I hope other developing countries will follow the example set out by Iran.

They also use mosque as a place to put these miners to work and the perfect cover up as they only just recently detected them being there.

interesting news, but that's not surprising, because the latest conditions there are rather worrying. I have also seen some news that for crypto world affairs it will be tightened even can be deactivated from the country, so that it can make it difficult for bitcoin hunters in that country, hopefully the turmoil that exists in that country will soon be finished and can return to normal.

They are not good at hiding it though...I am curious what is the take of their religion towards bitcoin mining? Sometimes they have irrational point of views on technological advancement. This news really surprised me. More than likely, the mosque permitted it because they are getting good amount of money from it.  :P

No, because it is a business like any other, and shouldn't be penalized beyond any other when its not interfering with any other of your laws.
You are simply running computers for others to rent and getting foreign currency from it, and that is all. If your farm is in an industrial area paying industrial rates it should be respected like any other industrial activity. You could be wasting a lot of electricity welding metals, for example.

What some governments don't like is when the farmers mess with, say, controls to exchange of foreign currency. But if all you do is bring foreign currency tot the country, you are in fact acting like a sort of exporter. You need to buy local currency to keep operations running, this foreign currency wouldn't come should you not be there in the first place. Your constant buying of the local fiat is pushing a little in favor of this currency, just like the central banks in these borked economies tend to do. You are actually the ally of the government, not the other way around.

Of course crypto can bypass sanctions, its meant to separate money from State, and that includes State wanting to stop money flow from/to other States or individuals.

Iran would be wise to embrace Bitcoin rather than fight it. It is to their best interests...

As long as they can cope with electricity consumption and compared to the profits that can be obtained, I don't think this is a problem. but what if they can stand with it ?

Opportunelly when iran going to mining bitcoin on their country. I thing it;s personally person not by goverment. we don't know when iran have rules to control another payment like bitcoin, when this true, then iran will be big minner on the world,

Yeah I found that quite amusing too.
Can you imagine those miners being smuggled back out of iran?
They would probably think they are weapons of mass destruction and destroy them all on site. ::)
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Yeah, the new generation of targets for predator drones, forget oil fields, go after bitcoin mining farms.


Think of the guys that were installing the miners in the mosque, what would a policeman think seeing some guys at night unloading boxes from a truck and stashing them near the mosque?  Probably he would start calling for the antitero units.
While the situation is pretty serious is also a bit funny, dealing with bitcoin and bitcoin equipment is starting to look like a drug operation in some countries.

But seriously, that article is pretty weird.
They say first they've got 260k with 100 miners, that would be 2600 a year, not even an s9j would be able to do it with free electricity, and the new gear wasn't out for a year. If we put the number to 1000 and drive the income to 260 per unit is too little, they haven't even made roi on it.


Yeah, they try to catch up, by seizing the gear and throwing miners in prison.
Nice way of catching up.

The transition to more organized mining agrees that this is possible, but not its disappearance. After the start of Bitcoin growth again, China began to sell its mining equipment abroad.

The demand for mining equipment is growing, so the activity will require a serious settlement for many more years. Because it will deal with many people. And the main thing for the government or the obligation is to license mining companies or establish good high tariffs so that mining doesn’t benefit only miners to the state. Because the activity can be banned, and you can use it for the benefit of the country

Yes electricity it is free until it's abused. The funds do come from somewhere, probably built into taxation.

This article is strange and I do not understand it. How much of this is true?