Iranian Bitcoin Mining Ban Lifted after four Months

[Davidvictorson]

Good news from Iran . In may of this year, the Iranian government placed a ban on crypto mining over concerns of huge electricity consumption and the constant blackouts experienced by the country.

“The authorised mining of cryptocurrencies does not consume much electricity and needs just around 300 megawatts. However, it is the unauthorised crypto miners that consume a lot of electricity; they consume about 2,000 megawatts," President Rouhana said, according to a local publication Iran Front Page.


“As of today, it will be forbidden even for authorised miners to mine cryptocurrencies until late September,”

https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/bitcoin-and-other-crypto-mining-banned-in-iran-because-its-high-power-use-makes-it-dirty-money-1807308-2021-05-26

True to their word, the ban has been lifted and only licensed miners are allowed to come back online. Unlike China, Iran has embraced crypto mining and since 2020, the crypto mining sector has issued out over 1,000 crypto mining licenses. It is a highly regulated sector. With a projection of providing $1 billion in annual revenue for the country.

Iran began a process of nationalizing its crypto mining sector back in 2020 after months of dealing with illegal crypto mining activities. In January 2020, the country issued about 1,000 licenses for cryptocurrency mining in the country.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-mining-banned-in-iran-until-september

I believe in no time the country would make it legal for local merchants to accept payments in bitcoin since it is already being use for import payments.

[Vaskiy]

Iran made ban on bitcoin mining after gathering information of mining farms around the country. According to the data it is clear that more than 90% miners were using illegal electricity and without proper licensing. Only 5-10% were doing it in a legal way with proper licensing from the respective authorities. This illegal usage of electricity resulted on the deficit of day to day needs around the country. Now the government might've made required changes and lifted the ban.

[Fortify]

Good news from Iran . In may of this year, the Iranian government placed a ban on crypto mining over concerns of huge electricity consumption and the constant blackouts experienced by the country.

“The authorised mining of cryptocurrencies does not consume much electricity and needs just around 300 megawatts. However, it is the unauthorised crypto miners that consume a lot of electricity; they consume about 2,000 megawatts," President Rouhana said, according to a local publication Iran Front Page.


“As of today, it will be forbidden even for authorised miners to mine cryptocurrencies until late September,”

https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/bitcoin-and-other-crypto-mining-banned-in-iran-because-its-high-power-use-makes-it-dirty-money-1807308-2021-05-26

True to their word, the ban has been lifted and only licensed miners are allowed to come back online. Unlike China, Iran has embraced crypto mining and since 2020, the crypto mining sector has issued out over 1,000 crypto mining licenses. It is a highly regulated sector. With a projection of providing $1 billion in annual revenue for the country.

Iran began a process of nationalizing its crypto mining sector back in 2020 after months of dealing with illegal crypto mining activities. In January 2020, the country issued about 1,000 licenses for cryptocurrency mining in the country.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-mining-banned-in-iran-until-september

I believe in no time the country would make it legal for local merchants to accept payments in bitcoin since it is already being use for import payments.

Bitcoin is actually really useful for Iran right now, because their own currency is essentially worthless on the world markets due to the sanctions against them. It seems like the Iranian leadership is torn between people using cryptocurrency which helps them ignore internal pressure/repression and their citizens being able to send money back home via the blockchain which will boost the countries overall funds. Iran did actually used to be quite a big player when it came to Bitcoin mining, but I guess it might have picked up a bad reputation within a country that is struggling to keep the power on for average citizens - however it is yet another source of money for the regime.

[Fesatmas]

Besides the pretty good news about Bitcoin adoption, of course it can't be separated from the involvement of supportive government policies. However, I want to know more about how the government in Iran is often associated with Crypto payment transactions for illegal activities such as weapons payments to fund terrorists. I hope that the government can minimize this in the future if mining activities will reopen in the near future.

[iTradeChips]

Well for one it is understandable that the reason why they ban it in the first place is because of the illegal activities miners were doing in the past. Now that they have settled it and possibly made some laws about mining activities then they lifted the ban and made sure that the miners this time should comply with the rules or else they will not be allowed to operate. Iran was just careful about its resources especially it is being antagonized in the west.

[bittraffic]

Besides the pretty good news about Bitcoin adoption, of course it can't be separated from the involvement of supportive government policies. However, I want to know more about how the government in Iran is often associated with Crypto payment transactions for illegal activities such as weapons payments to fund terrorists. I hope that the government can minimize this in the future if mining activities will reopen in the near future.

There is got to have something they have done or do before lifting the ban. So the government is going to regulate Bitcoin Mining or will the government also join in mining just like El Salvador?

Either, it will be good for the country that is so much affected by sanctions and the recent political disputes. It's time to reclaim back Iran's glory, this country was once very rich. My father use to tell stories about the country when he was there in the 50s.

[Artemis3]

This ban did not affect the miners who produce their own electricity and are not connected to the grid...

[bitgov]

Iran made ban on bitcoin mining after gathering information of mining farms around the country. According to the data it is clear that more than 90% miners were using illegal electricity and without proper licensing. Only 5-10% were doing it in a legal way with proper licensing from the respective authorities. This illegal usage of electricity resulted on the deficit of day to day needs around the country. Now the government might've made required changes and lifted the ban.

Iran is one the biggest producer of oil in the world and there annual revenue of oil sales is 60 billion USD, I don't know why are they facing shortage of electricity. One possible reason for BTC mining ban may be that Iran government want BTC miners to pay electricity bill of commercial user (like payed by shops and industrial users) not as a domestic user.

[Congyang]

this is in accordance with Iran's initial statement which indeed banned bitcoin mining for 4 months because it was constrained by electricity problems and maybe now the electricity problem in Iran can be maximized so it is very natural for people to re-legalize bitcoin mining there.
this is good news again for bitcoin and for iran itself because if you look at crypto, including bitcoin in it, it is very influential and can bring good things to iran at this time, this is not without reason because the currency they use is currently weak and even tend to be less valuable for the global economy because the sanctions imposed on Iran are still in effect.
then indirectly with this will help bring them a little to the good in the economy.

[haidil]

Iran is a middle eastern country that does have a big influence on economic growth. In line with the pretty good things, they are starting to lift the ban and will start operating indicating that there is an arrangement to re-take over the position as a sovereign country over the economic industry, especially adding crypto in it.

As with my current opinion, we still find that there is a ban on every exchange allowing Iran to transact crypto. To complete the country blocking, confirmation from the government is needed so that it can also lift Iran's restrictions on exchange.

[dkbit98]

Iran never meant to ban Bitcoin mining permanently, especially knowing that they use Bitcoin as one of the assets for trading around sanctions imposed by many countries around the world.
They use energy mostly from Oil and Natural Gas, and they usually have increased electricity spending during summer months, and one more interesting thing is that most miners in Iran are actually coming from China.

[Fatunad]

Well for one it is understandable that the reason why they ban it in the first place is because of the illegal activities miners were doing in the past. Now that they have settled it and possibly made some laws about mining activities then they lifted the ban and made sure that the miners this time should comply with the rules or else they will not be allowed to operate. Iran was just careful about its resources especially it is being antagonized in the west.

Any government would definitely do the same which it is understandable that they would really be making out such step whenever there are illegal activities or something that violates out.
Government could impose such ban and its no surprise that Bitcoin mining was included into it but for sure they had already realized something on thats why they had lifted out the ban.
This would be a good example in showing off that there would be specific consequences when you do violate something but well this is just  those typical government
kind of decision making.

[Ausgewielt]

I will be waiting for export-import transactions using cryptocurrency I think it will cost less than bank service. Many countries ban Bitcoin but usually it is just temporary, even china maybe the government will lift the ban after electricity crisis end. I heard china have a problem with electricity. I think I can expect Iran become good environment for cryptocurrency users.

[pooya87]

I don't know why are they facing shortage of electricity.

Reduced rain (reduced hydroelectric production), Sanctions (preventing maintenance of some fossil fuel power plants), Increase in electricity export to neighbor countries such as Iraq, and finally a couple of incidents that caused sudden drop in production including some cases of sabotage and terrorist attack against Iranian infrastructure which shifted focus on the power grid.

I should add that the electricity issues began in 2020 for a short duration and the biggest issue was about 2 months in 2021 during summer and they have all been resolved already.

One possible reason for BTC mining ban

It wasn't exactly a ban, it was more like a "pause" to reduce the electricity usage as the production dropped and natural usage during summer increased. I also believe that the evidence suggest that most mining farms didn't stop mining and the news about the ban was mainly a show.

[TheNineClub]

I kinda sense that this might not be due to electricity, that's just an excuse. The Iranian government saw that crypto could be a good option for them to, in some sense, bypass the almighty dollar, and took this opportunity to get some control over what's going on. It might not seem much, but these all are steps towards a more centralized crypto ecosystem.

[dansus021]

to be honest is better that crypto is taxed/good regulated, why? because when miner or crypto trader taxed there's income to government and ban most likely will be lifted or crypto become legal

but this just my opinion tho

[traderethereum]

to be honest is better that crypto is taxed/good regulated, why? because when miner or crypto trader taxed there's income to government and ban most likely will be lifted or crypto become legal

but this just my opinion tho

I agree with this because at least, that can be a win-win solution for both sides.
The miner can still mine any coins while the government can get tax from the miners.
When both sides feel satisfied and have no complaint from the miner about the tax, the crypto can grow in that country and more miners will start mining.
People who use crypto will not have to be afraid to use crypto as their government accepts crypto, which is good progress for their country.

[kryptqnick]

It's good that the ban was lifted, but what does it mean that only licensed miners can come back to their activities? I mean, what are the tax implications, does the license cost anything and what other requirements they must go through? I think it's important to know the details because if the regulations are tough, it might be that mining is effectively out of reach, but only formally allowed to come back. Paying the electricity bills and some reasonable taxes is one thing, but obtaining a license, establishing headquarters and reporting regularly to the authorities would be very different.

[worle1bm]

I should add that the electricity issues began in 2020 for a short duration and the biggest issue was about 2 months in 2021 during summer and they have all been resolved already.

There was complete blackout in some major cities for few days back in that time due to shortage of electricity due to the reasons you have mentioned and they have said that it will be temporary ban of approximately 90 days and still the legal miners were banned to mine bitcoin as they were using excessive electricity but those who were not under the radar keep on mining illegally or say at hidden places.But now all the mining works are back to work as the ban is lifted now.

[dupee419]

Iran made ban on bitcoin mining after gathering information of mining farms around the country. According to the data it is clear that more than 90% miners were using illegal electricity and without proper licensing. Only 5-10% were doing it in a legal way with proper licensing from the respective authorities. This illegal usage of electricity resulted on the deficit of day to day needs around the country. Now the government might've made required changes and lifted the ban.

In the span of 4 months, the Government of Iran might've probably made several changes, due to shortage of electricity, they had to implement the ban even on those miners who are legally operating, but since the ban is now lifted, I think that everything will be back to normal and these illegal miners cannot operate anymore.