Here is how Iran plans to use cryptocurrencies to evade economic sanctions

[OGEOS]

A short while ago the US placed sanctions on Iran, but the Iranian government is not just lying down and taking it. The lastest is from Saeed Muhammad is a proposition that will see Iran use cryptocurrencies to evade economic sanctions.

Here is how it could work: https://e-cryptonews.com/iranian-general-has-made-big-call-on-crypto/

Do you think that Cryptocurrency could be a solution to the economic sanctions imposed on Iran?

[Harlot]

Can't see that this news has a single ounce of truth in it. The way how they wrote both sides for the US and Iran it feels like they will go to war against each other again just because of Iran scheming to avoid sanctions. The U.S. already announced peace with Iran and they admit that killing their top general was necessary for them, so believing that this news is real will actually be senseless to think that U.S. is here again having reasons just to have a confrontation against Iran. I won't really believe this news especially if it is coming from a crypto news website, I would rather wait what the CNN and BBC news will have to say about this one.

[avikz]

A short while ago the US placed sanctions on Iran, but the Iranian government is not just lying down and taking it. The lastest is from Saeed Muhammad is a proposition that will see Iran use cryptocurrencies to evade economic sanctions.

Here is how it could work: https://e-cryptonews.com/iranian-general-has-made-big-call-on-crypto/

Do you think that Cryptocurrency could be a solution to the economic sanctions imposed on Iran?

A short while ago? I was under impression that US placed sanctions on Iran in 2019. The article also cited the same old tweet. I don't think anything new has been added to that. Please check.

Iran is now taking a big step in order to save their economic position, it's a gamble too! Because no one know how it will work in this case. We have an example of Petro in front of us which didn't work as envisaged for Venezuela. Let's just hope that Iran get it right this time. Instead of creating a new national crypto, they must rely on the market listed cryptoa if they want to make something useful out of it. It will be interesting to see how things unfold here!

[stompix]

Do you think that Cryptocurrency could be a solution to the economic sanctions imposed on Iran?

Again, a lot of people don't understand how sanctions work.
The US is not stopping the money flow, the US is stopping the people that want to deal with Iran of conducting business.

If someone wants to deal with Iran, they are free to do it, if a bank wants to deal with Iran they can do wire transfers for Iranian companies, the problem is that once they do that they can kiss goodbye to any other business in the western world.
That's why China keeps on buying oil and sells the stuff because they do it through companies that have no other business relations in other countries.

Just because you pay something secretly with bitcoin doesn't mean that they will want to deal with you in the first place, they could have paid in gold, oil silver or sheep, their problem is that nobody wants to sell or buy stuff from them as long as the sanctions are in place.

[davis196]

A short while ago the US placed sanctions on Iran, but the Iranian government is not just lying down and taking it. The lastest is from Saeed Muhammad is a proposition that will see Iran use cryptocurrencies to evade economic sanctions.

Here is how it could work: https://e-cryptonews.com/iranian-general-has-made-big-call-on-crypto/

Do you think that Cryptocurrency could be a solution to the economic sanctions imposed on Iran?

I've seen such articles and forum threads like this in the Bitcointalk for the last couple of years.
"Iran is planning to use cryptocurrencies,in order to avoid sanctions.","Iran is planning to launch it's own cryptocurrency.",Blah,blah,blah...How come Iran is always failing with this plan?How come there's still no evidence that Iran is really using cryptocurrencies to avoid US sanctions?
The Iranian plans of a government-backed,oil-backed crypto coin are still plans.Nothing more.
Why don't they use offshore banks and companies,in order to avoid the sanctions?Maybe CIA is spying all offshore companies in the world?

[Darker45]

A short while ago the US placed sanctions on Iran, but the Iranian government is not just lying down and taking it. The lastest is from Saeed Muhammad is a proposition that will see Iran use cryptocurrencies to evade economic sanctions.

Here is how it could work: https://e-cryptonews.com/iranian-general-has-made-big-call-on-crypto/

Do you think that Cryptocurrency could be a solution to the economic sanctions imposed on Iran?

I've seen such articles and forum threads like this in the Bitcointalk for the last couple of years.
"Iran is planning to use cryptocurrencies,in order to avoid sanctions.","Iran is planning to launch it's own cryptocurrency.",Blah,blah,blah...How come Iran is always failing with this plan?How come there's still no evidence that Iran is really using cryptocurrencies to avoid US sanctions?
The Iranian plans of a government-backed,oil-backed crypto coin are still plans.Nothing more.
Why don't they use offshore banks and companies,in order to avoid the sanctions?Maybe CIA is spying all offshore companies in the world?

Because what you have read for the last couple of years are nothing but silly attempts by some people who seem to think that they need to create unnecessary hype around cryptocurrency and Bitcoin. Online cryptocurrency publications have so much of this kind of articles. Not to mention freelancers claiming to be crypto or Bitcoin enthusiasts and evangelists who are writing articles out of their fertile imaginations. For all we know, the top leaders of Iran may not even care about Bitcoin at all.

[hatshepsut93]

Sanctioned countries like Russia, Venezuela and Iran were talking for years about how they will use crypto to evade sanctions, but it's all just talk. Venezuela is actually the country that tried the most, with their government-owned shitcoin, and they still got nowhere. Despite what you might believe, those countries aren't cut off from international payment systems, so crypto actually is not needed. So there's no way crypto is a solution to sanctions.

[FanatMonet]

I am absolutely sure that countries such as Iran, North Korea and the like actively use cryptocurrencies to circumvent sanctions and embargoes in various industries. And this is a rather negative factor that can arrange a confrontation between the government and cryptocurrencies.

[TrevorS]

Personally, I really dislike the situation regarding US sanctions. Iran’s economy is ruined, the country just wants to live and trade in the global economic space, but they are not allowed to do this.
I don’t understand how cryptocurrency will help them. They want an exchange of goods with other countries, and not an exchange of cryptocurrency with them.
In addition, the United States may impose additional sanctions by saying that through cryptocurrency Iran finances terrorists and so on.

[whyrqa]

Personally, I really dislike the situation regarding US sanctions. Iran’s economy is ruined, the country just wants to live and trade in the global economic space, but they are not allowed to do this.
I don’t understand how cryptocurrency will help them. They want an exchange of goods with other countries, and not an exchange of cryptocurrency with them.
In addition, the United States may impose additional sanctions by saying that through cryptocurrency Iran finances terrorists and so on.

It seems to me that all the sanctions of the United States in America are more connected with the US dollar, because it is in this currency that all international financial transactions take place.  In practice, the same question was already discussed regarding the oil industry of Venezuela, as many companies considered the possibility of using Bitcoin and Ethereum for their financial transactions between their business partners.  Thus, they will bypass the sanctions and stop using the American currency, which will harm the US economy to a greater extent.  Iran could do the same.  But no one will be blamed for the financing of terrorism, since such a charge requires strong evidence or reasons.  If someone wants to accuse Iran of financing terrorism, then nothing prevents this even by tying the dollar, not cryptocurrency, to this crime.

[Hydrogen]

News of iran utilizing cryptocurrencies to launder money are a spam smokescreen.

What really happens behind the scenes are banks laundering money for iran. The same way they launder money for nations currently under economic sanctions, such as russia.

Examples of this in practice.

The Banks That Helped Danske Bank Estonia Launder Russian Money

Money laundering is a multi-bank phenomenon. Danske Bank Estonia has been revealed as the hub of a $234bn money laundering scheme involving Russian and Eastern European customers. But Danske Bank Estonia couldn’t do this by itself. Much of the money was paid in U.S. dollars, and for that, it needed help from other banks. Banks that had access to Fedwire, the Federal Reserve's electronic settlement system. Big banks, in other words.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/francescoppola/2018/09/30/the-banks-that-helped-danske-bank-estonia-launder-russian-money/

 This article is more than 3 years old
British banks handled vast sums of laundered Russian money

Britain’s high street banks processed nearly $740m from a vast money-laundering operation run by Russian criminals with links to the Russian government and the KGB, the Guardian can reveal.

HSBC, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds, Barclays and Coutts are among 17 banks based in the UK, or with branches here, that are facing questions over what they knew about the international scheme and why they did not turn away suspicious money transfers.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/20/british-banks-handled-vast-sums-of-laundered-russian-money

How iran really launders money:

Halkbank accused of scheme to circumvent Iran sanctions

The U.S. brought a criminal case against one of Turkey’s largest banks for aiding a scheme to evade sanctions against Iran, a move that carries political overtones as tensions build over Turkey’s military offensive in Syria.

In an indictment filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, prosecutors accused government-owned Halkbank of participating in a wide-ranging plot to violate prohibitions on Iran’s access to the U.S. financial system. The conspiracy involved high-ranking government officials in Iran and Turkey, the U.S. said.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-15/halkbank-charged-in-six-count-indictment-with-fraud-laundering

....

It should be mentioned banks appear to exchange money laundering for political favors on top of their profits.

Russia appeared to adjust its foreign and political policy after it began relying upon banks to money laundering services.

All the talk about iran using crypto to launder money would appear to be nothing but a diversion from what really happens.

[Meowth05]

That is a very bold move to go with against another country. I think that this is a very strategic move and these kind of plans are not new and they are proved to be drastic when executed. One example is the Germans try replicating a perfect copy of British notes to crash their economy during WW2.

[palle11]

Op, in my view I don't think economic sanction has to do with bitcoin but to stop economic support, relationship and trade.

Can't see that this news has a single ounce of truth in it. The way how they wrote both sides for the US and Iran it feels like they will go to war against each other again just because of Iran scheming to avoid sanctions. The U.S. already announced peace with Iran and they admit that killing their top general was necessary for them, so believing that this news is real will actually be senseless to think that U.S. is here again having reasons just to have a confrontation against Iran. I won't really believe this news especially if it is coming from a crypto news website, I would rather wait what the CNN and BBC news will have to say about this one.

Moreover, this thread would have gained more importance and response if it came at the heat of the issue of both country's confrontation.

[abhiseshakana]

A short while ago the US placed sanctions on Iran, but the Iranian government is not just lying down and taking it. The lastest is from Saeed Muhammad is a proposition that will see Iran use cryptocurrencies to evade economic sanctions.

Here is how it could work: https://e-cryptonews.com/iranian-general-has-made-big-call-on-crypto/

Do you think that Cryptocurrency could be a solution to the economic sanctions imposed on Iran?

I am among those who do business with Iran, and many other countries that do business with Iran. I export ribbon fish from Iran to China and Asia. The fishing companies in Iran are an Italian company, they have 17 fishing vessels operating in the Iranian sea. For transfers to Italy, but all shipping documents are from Iran.

There may be a series of rules imposed by the United States and European countries to Iran due to its nuclear program, but many entrepreneurs can still transact, indeed for money transfers using swift, we must confirm with our bank for receiving money or transferring money. It is possible that the data we got from the IMF and other international institutions is inaccurate data due to trade transactions conducted by Iran in secret.

So the use of cryptocurrency (bitcoin) in Iran can be an alternative payment across countries but not as a solution to overcome the embargo.

[hugeblack]

Do you think that Cryptocurrency could be a solution to the economic sanctions imposed on Iran?

No. The Iranian economy is mainly based on the export of petroleum products^[1], which can be avoided by secretly exporting part of the oil to neighboring countries and from there to all parts of the world.
Iran can think of many alternatives to circumvent US sanctions, but using cryptos will not change a lot of things.
It is like saying that Iran depends on the US dollar or another currency as the official currency of the country.

Therefore, the answer to all similar questions: Yes, cryptocurrencies can benefit people in these countries, not governments.

[1] https://en.radiofarda.com/a/iran-crude-oil-exports-drop-to-less-than-250-000-bpd-in-february/30464729.html

[fiulpro]

Unfortunately cryptocurrencies are now well known , too well known that one can hire engineers and can reverse engineer it and can track people down too , we all are already aware of the fact that Bitcoins is not something that will hide your identity 100% .
I don't think the people will rely on it for long , if the US knows something is going on they will just try and hire more people who are able to do what they expect to be done. 
Therefore I do think they will have the most luck in the black market with exporting the products where the government can not track .
But I do think after a while they will accept the peace , since now everyone is affected by the Corona virus and it is high time they stop thinking about these things and take care of their people .

[NotATether]

Do you think that Cryptocurrency could be a solution to the economic sanctions imposed on Iran?

No, and for a simple reason. From a service point point of view, many web services block Iranian ISPs. I'm projecting here, but since you can't even download Google Chrome from its official website where I live, I assume it's the same situation for Iranian IP addresses too. Also in addition to blocked downloads there are also subscription-based sites which block them too, so to put this in concrete terms, you can't buy most of the Amazon, Adobe, Netflix services among others if you live there. I'm sure there are hundreds more that I can't remember off the top of my head.

If they suddenly plan to use cryptocurrencies to evade these sanctions, which means a prohibition of doing business with the country's residents, they would need a lot of third-parties to resell these items for them, in cryptocurrency instead of paper money. And the reselling part by itself is hard enough because such third parties would have to provide a lot of proxies not based in Iran to interface between the sanctioned services and devices located in Iran.

And clearly sanctioned governments like Iran aren't interested in doing something like this because they mostly perform activities that benefit their own government, not the general public. Same reason why most sanctioned countries do some of their own internet censorship on their own people, a double-sanction as I like to call it.

[abhiseshakana]

No, and for a simple reason. From a service point point of view, many web services block Iranian ISPs. I'm projecting here, but since you can't even download Google Chrome from its official website where I live, I assume it's the same situation for Iranian IP addresses too. Also in addition to blocked downloads there are also subscription-based sites which block them too, so to put this in concrete terms, you can't buy most of the Amazon, Adobe, Netflix services among others if you live there. I'm sure there are hundreds more that I can't remember off the top of my head.

If they suddenly plan to use cryptocurrencies to evade these sanctions, which means a prohibition of doing business with the country's residents, they would need a lot of third-parties to resell these items for them, in cryptocurrency instead of paper money. And the reselling part by itself is hard enough because such third parties would have to provide a lot of proxies not based in Iran to interface between the sanctioned services and devices located in Iran.

And clearly sanctioned governments like Iran aren't interested in doing something like this because they mostly perform activities that benefit their own government, not the general public. Same reason why most sanctioned countries do some of their own internet censorship on their own people, a double-sanction as I like to call it.

The Iranian government indeed limits internet access especially when it is felt that internal conditions in Iran can cause instability, ease of internet access can incite coordination of riots by citizens as happened in November 2019. While for sanctions, experts and policymakers doubt the ability of sanctions to achieve political change in Iran, by conducting a cost-benefit analysis of possible economic sanctions by exploring in more detail the commercial climate and the commercial relations that govern it.

Iran's economy revolves around energy namely natural gas and crude oil. Since 1996, when the US government unilaterally issued sanctions on Iran and Libya (ISLA), Iran has expanded its commercial relations with certain partners namely the European Union and the People's Republic of China as well as Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, and India. Economic sanctions 2018 Russia and China, have intervened in a fundamental political role, ensuring closer economic relations. Russia and Iran have the largest natural gas reserves in the world and have developed strong economic relations in an effort to utilize their endowments.

Although it supports sanctions by the UN security council, Russia also continues to actively cooperate with Iran in the military sector such as air missile defense systems, to incentivize the safety net it needs to seek uranium enrichment. the two countries are also active in the exchange of scientific knowledge, for years, Iran has allowed Russian and Ukrainian scientists to freely enter Iran so as to achieve self-sufficiency in ballistic missile production.

[Kemarit]

A short while ago the US placed sanctions on Iran, but the Iranian government is not just lying down and taking it. The lastest is from Saeed Muhammad is a proposition that will see Iran use cryptocurrencies to evade economic sanctions.

Here is how it could work: https://e-cryptonews.com/iranian-general-has-made-big-call-on-crypto/

Do you think that Cryptocurrency could be a solution to the economic sanctions imposed on Iran?

Sanctions against Iran has been imposed by previous US Presidents, trade, scientific and military since the 80's. Don't put it like it was just Trump who placed the embargo on them. This countries were at odds as far as I can remember.

As far as crypto being used by Iran, I'm pretty sure that US is following some footprints in blockchain. We all know that it is visible in the ledger and if they think they are smart and out manuever US then they are all wrong. US has all the means necessarily (if they want to) to track everyone even in blockchain technology with all the chain analysis investigators.

[silversurfer1958]

I don't think there is a country that can ban cryptocurrency trading. Because the core technology of cryptocurrencies is blockchain technology. This is extremely high security technology and transparency. You can look up the transaction history of cryptocurrency exchanges but you don't know where the sender and the receiver are from and in which country. Transactions through BTC are many underground organizations dealing with each other without worrying about being discovered by others.