Iran legalizes mining

[squatter]

I imagine the US government will take this as cause to further clamp down on exchanges and other Bitcoin services. They'll push for stricter regulations and enforcement under the guise of concerns over sanctions.

if they do it they will only use it as an excuse but the real reasons would be different. these sanctions didn't start yesterday, they have been there for years and no Iranian could ever use any of the bitcoin exchanges since none of them ever accepted them anyways!

The sanctions didn't start yesterday, but the Treasury Department has been slowly ramping up its pressure on exchanges ever since 2017. A formal endorsement of mining by Iran suggests there will be increased Iranian capital flow into mining. Between that and the fact that Iranian officials have repeatedly said cryptocurrencies can be used to thwart sanctions, it makes sense that US officials are watching closely. The fact is that P2P markets, DEXs, and non-KYC exchanges could theoretically allow circumvention of sanctions.

[1Referee]

I think that we are about to see more exciting things with regards to the cryptocurrency industry.

There is no shortage of news outlets hyping up countries and refer to them as crypto hot spots, while in reality there aren't any metrics actually pointing out that there is much happening over there. I haven't seen anything aside from a few local individuals in Venezuela who shared with the world they like crypto, haven't seen anything about Zimbabwe while it was praised for its Bitcoin adoption, etc.

This global 'adoption' that we're reading about seems to be as much of a buzz hype as the blockchain buzz hype itself is. Lots of talk and promises, but next to nothing that actually delivers something.

[Artemis3]

Imagine if all of the US citizens and US Companies all sold all Bitcoin in 2 weeks and did not buy back in,
Bitcoin will be back at $50 and the miners will end up shutting down as they can't maintain the network now because of their excessive energy waste.

Hardly, you are giving too much weight to American holders. It is known that in this world the most holders live in China. If all Americans sold their Bitcoin, it would temporarily go down as you say, but never nowhere near $50. I doubt an American dump is able to manipulate the price beyond a few thousand.

If Trump does the same to Bitcoin, the net would route around it, exactly as designed. We are here in this very forum telling people in India how things would work in that case, USA is no different, same thing would apply: Use Tor, and be proud its an US Navy project, God Bless America.

[salty]

Just think what a great decision Iran made. Having legalized mining, the country has created best conditions for large miners, because now it is safe for them. Perhaps the electricity fee will not be the most profitable but the police will never break your home to arrest mining farm

What is your opinion about that?

I always have a positive attitude to those countries that do not limit their residents in their rights.Now the crypto currency is really developing rapidly and it is very stupid to give up the advantages that it provides.Iran well done!Perhaps and-for this positive news mining in this country will be a very popular activity.

[Chikito]

I always have a positive attitude to those countries that do not limit their residents in their rights.Now the crypto currency is really developing rapidly and it is very stupid to give up the advantages that it provides.Iran well done!Perhaps and-for this positive news mining in this country will be a very popular activity.

Iran have good goverment and become to familiar country by cryptocurrency community around the world, when electrical cost there are low and have fasility for outside community to joining, then iran will be crypto currency country friend.

[timerland]

I just read the coindesk article that was posted, and I think this line is very interesting.

Similarly, deputy minister energy for electricity and energy Homayun Haeri said government ministers will vote on a measure to approve an electricity rate for mining farms.

I was just made aware of how cheap electricity in Iran is, it is currently around 0.05$ per kilowatt-hour, while china's cost is around 0.075$ per kilowatt-hour and America's is 0.12$ per kilowatt-hour. I wonder if this quote is hinting that the price is going to rise, or there's going to be extra taxes on miners?

Other then that, there's nothing much in the article, pretty sure the government just wants to cash in the people taking advantage of their cheap electricity.

[squatter]

I just read the coindesk article that was posted, and I think this line is very interesting.

Similarly, deputy minister energy for electricity and energy Homayun Haeri said government ministers will vote on a measure to approve an electricity rate for mining farms.

I was just made aware of how cheap electricity in Iran is, it is currently around 0.05$ per kilowatt-hour, while china's cost is around 0.075$ per kilowatt-hour and America's is 0.12$ per kilowatt-hour. I wonder if this quote is hinting that the price is going to rise, or there's going to be extra taxes on miners?

Iran's electricity sector is heavily subsidized by the state. Officials have made the point that they don't want to subsidize private miners. I imagine they want to establish regulations that jack up the rates miners pay.

[Herros]

I think the heck is very good, but there is no clarity whether the officials will change their attitude about the use of cryptocurrency domestic payments or as an official payment instrument, because the central bank of Iran itself commanded Use of crypto for domestic payments at the end of January 2019 yesterday

[Red-Apple]

I imagine the US government will take this as cause to further clamp down on exchanges and other Bitcoin services. They'll push for stricter regulations and enforcement under the guise of concerns over sanctions.

if they do it they will only use it as an excuse but the real reasons would be different. these sanctions didn't start yesterday, they have been there for years and no Iranian could ever use any of the bitcoin exchanges since none of them ever accepted them anyways!

The sanctions didn't start yesterday, but the Treasury Department has been slowly ramping up its pressure on exchanges ever since 2017. A formal endorsement of mining by Iran suggests there will be increased Iranian capital flow into mining. Between that and the fact that Iranian officials have repeatedly said cryptocurrencies can be used to thwart sanctions, it makes sense that US officials are watching closely. The fact is that P2P markets, DEXs, and non-KYC exchanges could theoretically allow circumvention of sanctions.

the sanctions didn't start in 2017 either they started back in 1979 just as the revolution occurred in Iran and have been only increasing ever since. my point was that if US decided to do anything to exchanges in the name of Iran and sanctions,... they would be lying their asses off since Iranians never used any of these exchanges they have access to put pressure on in first place.
any other method they were using (DEX, P2P, certain exchanges,...) have been and will remain out of their jurisdiction and reach.

[roosbit]

This is quite a bold move and not only beneficial to the crypto community.

If all goes well in the long run they will be inviting more and more investors to relocate to that place and also give other industries like the energy sector an opportunity to open up as a result of this development, just hope electricity tarriffs are competitive.

[darklus123]

Sounds weird, They are now allowing bitcoin miners but they did not clear their stands with regards to bitcoin trading. As we can remember that trading from other countries are not allowed.

So how can the miners prioritize the benefits if they can't sell it out. Is the government planning to buy all the mined coins?

[inechain_original]

In essence, this is the placement of Chinese mining farms in Iran. A good form of investment attracting.

[Parkie]

I am sorry to ask, but why is so much electricity used when mining?

[squatter]

The sanctions didn't start yesterday, but the Treasury Department has been slowly ramping up its pressure on exchanges ever since 2017. A formal endorsement of mining by Iran suggests there will be increased Iranian capital flow into mining. Between that and the fact that Iranian officials have repeatedly said cryptocurrencies can be used to thwart sanctions, it makes sense that US officials are watching closely. The fact is that P2P markets, DEXs, and non-KYC exchanges could theoretically allow circumvention of sanctions.

the sanctions didn't start in 2017 either they started back in 1979 just as the revolution occurred in Iran and have been only increasing ever since. my point was that if US decided to do anything to exchanges in the name of Iran and sanctions,... they would be lying their asses off since Iranians never used any of these exchanges they have access to put pressure on in first place.
any other method they were using (DEX, P2P, certain exchanges,...) have been and will remain out of their jurisdiction and reach.

Before 2017, in the eyes of the Treasury Department, cryptocurrency wasn't relevant to sanctions enforcement because the market was so tiny. That is obviously changing as Bitcoin becomes more and more valuable. And Iranians were allowed on most exchanges before that time. That's why there was a big scandal when Bittrex disabled the accounts of all Iranians and confiscated their funds. See these threads:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2342458.0;all
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2279516.0;all

From 2017 on, we've seen many exchanges add TOS prohibiting regions based on OFAC sanctions. This is because OFAC wasn't applying any pressure before then. Now they are.

[akela11]

Do you think China will follow the example of Iran? This week, the Chinese court recognized Bitcoin as a digital property and also reduced the tax for business. Will mining be the next question to be discussed by the Chinese government? If China legalizes mining it would probably be a good punch to the US

[Nhebu]

And what is the price of electricity in Iran? It is not profitable? And in General, any legalization is a small victory for the crypto community.

It is good that Iran already joined the growing industry of cryptocurrency. It is a good start for our brothers in east asia to use the bitcoin as well as to mine cryptos. Iran is a resourceful country and its electricity can be dependent in its own natural resources like oil. Its not a problem anymore.

[Artemis3]

You might as well drive yourself to jail , if you think tor is going to protect you.  
https://web.archive.org/web/20190105002252/https://www.deepdotweb.com/2018/01/31/leak-shows-us-army-nsa-compromised-tor-i2p-vpns-wants-track-monero/

Thankfully you don't seem to understand that article, or how this "leak" could work to de-anonymize Monero and the like, which isn't what was being talked about. Tracking transactions is not an issue, it is identifying you to be somehow related to certain transaction, or address for that matter.

Since we were actually talking Bitcoin, transactions are already in the clear. You may think in your mind Tor is useless, but you are wrong, but it is because you fail to understand the technology. Perhaps you are the type they target, please citizen obey the law, thank you.

Point of Tor is hiding your IP, and therefore your geo-location at a given time. This works and is not broken. Your alleged NSA tool fulfills another role, which is AFTER they have confirmed an identity to be tied with an address/transaction. This may* be needed in those coins, but not Bitcoin which is already in the clear.

As for your other article, i won't even bother. Chinese are not supposed to be dealing with Bitcoin, use your imagination...

*Hilariously most Monero wallets don't anonymize the transactions in the first place...

In the end, if you know what you are doing, you are safe using Tor.

[Hallmader]

Just think what a great decision Iran made. Having legalized mining, the country has created best conditions for large miners, because now it is safe for them. Perhaps the electricity fee will not be the most profitable but the police will never break your home to arrest mining farm

What is your opinion about that?

This is a big news. It only took a few weeks for Iran to take a u-turn regarding cryptocurrency mining in the country. I have just read recently that Iran authorities have made massive raids on crypto mining homes and then all of a sudden this positive turn of events. Somebody reliable and close to the authorities must have enlightened them about crypto mining and its potentials. The nuclear facilities of Iran must be enough to cater the energy needs of these miners.

[Msworld83]

Blockchain technology will surely come to main stream, no matter what except those that are selfish about themselves, I really wish every other country could gonin to this as the technology is still very young and has attain the level of billions in $ and soon we are aiming at trillion by next bull.

[womanwrappa]

This is an impressive move from the Middle Eastern nation. With the ever straining relationship with the United States, Iran has sought to outdo US by legalizing mining. This is a giant stride in my opinion cryptocurrency. More nations with strained relationships with the United States are very likely to follow suit and implement further policies that will be beneficial to the cryptocurrency markets.

Apt....

I just wish the Chinese government will follow suit.