Iranian Bitcoin Mining Ban Lifted after four Months

[SFR10]

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.

Just to be clear, Iran never imposed those restrictions, uncle Sam did + there are still a few foreign exchanges out there that allow Iranians to use their platforms.

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.

I have to respectfully disagree ^{[to an extent]} with the latter part. Although they've significantly lowered the power outages in some places, there are still some places that experience it regularly.

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.

This! Those with close ties with the government never stopped ^{[regardless of what the media says]}.

does the license cost anything and what other requirements they must go through?

I'm not sure about its exact cost & requirements, but those with licenses have to pay a slightly higher electricity rate than what normal consumers pay.

[qwertyup23]

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.

This makes much more sense on their move to prohibit mining in Iran. I was surprised by this move especially that mining brings revenue to the government in return.

With the reason that 90% of the miners get their energy/electricity illegally, it is obvious that the government would have to pass an prohibitive suspension on mining. But with its move in lifting the ban, this may attract more miners in return which would contribute to the overall price of BTC in the market.

[Leviathan.007]

There were already lots of topics here on the forum where people were talking about the electricity consumption of bitcoin mining, not in Iran but in other countries all over the world, the whole point regarding electricity consumption is miners are not consuming more electrical power than the banks when they print the useless paper money. However, I was really trending especially during the last weeks and in my own idea, the miners can replace the traditional electricity power with solars cells. But still, this can be normal to see the increase in power consumption in the middle of summer and miners are not guilty of this story.

[Congyang]

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.

I think the iranian government hasn't accepted  Bitcoin mining, but have deliberated about the ban they placed and how it has made them looked in the face of a changing digital world, I think the next thing is to remove the ban and place a requirement to mining of Bitcoin, I really wonder how hard it would be to actually get the said license to be allowed to mine Bitcoin in iran, many miners won't really buy the idea of getting licensed some want to remain an anonymous Miner, so the numbers of bitcoin miners in Iran are cut.

it probably goes back to the main problem iran faced a few months ago which is their electricity supply is running low and when this is implemented actually i don't think it will be difficult to get a license like you said.
but the problem is that electricity supply remains an obstacle when many miners both in individuals and groups make Iran think hard about this.
but this becomes like an overlap between one another, apart from that, I think there are consequences that cannot be changed when making a policy.

[Kittygalore]

Knew that this was going to be gone someday, the ban back then was abrupt and like any other bans before that's against bitcoin, this one isn't any different than that other than their durations. It's not big of a deal though that Iran lifted the ban, not many talks about it.

[Assface16678]

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.
[/quote]

Exactly, they do not want the operators to gain profit without paying the right amount. Addition, I think that they don't face electricity shortage rather they want to maximize the production of electricity without loss. So in order to do that they regulate and studied the electricity consumption of miners and the result is clear that they are just normal consumers at all.

[AicecreaME]

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.

This is indeed a piece of nice news most especially to the users of bitcoin in Iran.

The unauthorized mining is what pushed their government to ban mining because of high electricity consumption. I can't blame them though because unauthorized mining even consumes way lot more power than those legal ones permitted by the state making the state's natural resources suffer. It's understandable in my opinion because the Iranian government just thinks of what is best for their country's welfare. I really just hope there would be no more people abusing it now that the ban has been lifted so that the authorized ones can return to be fully operational.

This ban lifting is timely because I think bitcoin can help their economy to bounce back now that their local currency is on a rough patch. Hopefully, they'll soon adopt it as one of their legal tenders as well like what El Salvador did. And hopefully, they have found alternative ways (eco-friendly) to generate power to make electricity. This can help them minimize the energy consumption that comes from their non-renewable resources making it more cost efficient in the long run.

[Shenzou]

The reason behind the ban was to force the people that were using it illegibly by exploiting electricity and making huge amounts of money and not paying any taxes, and this lift came with some laws by making sure that the government can get in on this and make some profit from this industry as well, since it has a huge revenue by imposing taxes and issuing licensees, and i believe that every country is going to be doing the same because it is clearly that they are not able to stop the crypto progress so they will be joining it.

[bixiiMaphi321]

Iran legalized crypto mining in 2019 and started taxing the sector, thereby helping to offset the country's huge electricity subsidy. A year later, the country asked crypto miners to sell their Bitcoin rewards to the Central Bank of Iran. Iran has suspended BTC mining for four months. Due to high temperatures and energy shortages, the country's electricity grid was on fire, and President Hassan Rouhani issued a temporary ban.
Although Iran ranks in the top 5 for cheap electricity due to its large oil and natural gas reserves, this year's power outages only show that the country's national grid is not suitable for high electricity demand.

[zobazoba]

Cryptocurrency has come to stay. As other countries are not adopting, the remaining nations will be forced to do so. They are not the only nation that banned it but later reverse it. Cryptocurrency is the future of finance.

[virasog]

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.

That is always expected. Never understand why would any country put a ban on mining. I am sure china will unban crypto soon. When you start to hear all types of good news from every where it is a sign the bitcoin is going to rally up. Bitcoin final bull run is just around the corner.  

[Renampun]

...

Iran surely be aware that ban bitcoin will only waste opportunities...

iran is not like china which has a strong economy, if they want to get big tax money then giving rules to miners is a good thing. not impossible in the next few years they will make bitcoin as a legal tender too. I am very positive about the potential of cryptocurrencies in the future.

[7788bitcoin]

~
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.

It is strange to hear that you need to take a license to mine Bitcoin and the projected revenue is really attractive and what i would like to know is how much money you need to pay to get the mining license and how much percentage you have to give the government for every block you mine. I cannot find these details anywhere, so if we could know those details then it would be great.

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.

I wont be surprised if Iran starts accepting Bitcoin as a legal tender because they are giving out licenses and they needs to encourage everyone to start using them and they will be looking to overcome the trade sanctions imposed upon by US and other countries, so i wont be surprised if they starts accepting Bitcoin.

[SirLancelot]

Iran surely be aware that ban bitcoin will only waste opportunities...

iran is not like china which has a strong economy, if they want to get big tax money then giving rules to miners is a good thing. not impossible in the next few years they will make bitcoin as a legal tender too. I am very positive about the potential of cryptocurrencies in the future.

Lifting ban from mining is very good decision from Iranian authorities because after having all assessments now they are feeling it's okay for them currently they are under sanction's so most chances in near future we will have some good news from here as they are also working on bitcoin and crypto and allowing their peoples for use this and adopt this because recently as few countries already having good benefits from this now it's time for them try and have good benefits.

Even Iranian economy is not strong as China but still they are one of big countries in fuel industry and this change can bring them some good revenue.

[redsun114]

When the government decides to start working with cryptocurrency companies such as mining companies, they are going to be benefiting from it and it will help the country’s economy really well. But, some countries don’t look at the bright side at all, they just rush and banned Bitcoin without even looking at how It is going to benefit the country and its economy.

Countries like China are one of those countries that are always pushing against Bitcoin and not considering how good it can be for them. Although I do understand that they now have their own central bank distributed digital currency, so they’ll be doing anything possible to make their own cryptocurrency to stay at the top and have more usage in the country.

[romero121]

When the government decides to start working with cryptocurrency companies such as mining companies, they are going to be benefiting from it and it will help the country’s economy really well. But, some countries don’t look at the bright side at all, they just rush and banned Bitcoin without even looking at how It is going to benefit the country and its economy.

Countries like China are one of those countries that are always pushing against Bitcoin and not considering how good it can be for them. Although I do understand that they now have their own central bank distributed digital currency, so they’ll be doing anything possible to make their own cryptocurrency to stay at the top and have more usage in the country.

China is a country that have everything of their own. They always stand away from the rest of the world. Starting from the search engine to the payment gateways, they prefer everything developed specifically for them. From the beginning there is opposition from China, but to some extent it is the country that helped with the growth of bitcoin.

Without any plan China won't make such a decision to ban bitcoin. There should be something positive and highly benefiting them than bitcoin mining and usage. Until now the restrictions weren't made big as few countries that imposed imprisonment over persons using bitcoin.

[ene1980]

When the government decides to start working with cryptocurrency companies such as mining companies, they are going to be benefiting from it and it will help the country’s economy really well. But, some countries don’t look at the bright side at all, they just rush and banned Bitcoin without even looking at how It is going to benefit the country and its economy.

The reason why some countries come out with outright ban is because they think that cryptocurrencies will be a direct competitor with their fiat currency and the government usually controls its citizen by controlling the financial sector and Bitcoin being a decentralized currency they will not be having complete control over their citizens and so is the reason they implement a complete ban.

Countries like China are one of those countries that are always pushing against Bitcoin and not considering how good it can be for them. Although I do understand that they now have their own central bank distributed digital currency, so they’ll be doing anything possible to make their own cryptocurrency to stay at the top and have more usage in the country.

As mentioned above, China wants to control their citizen and hence they are banning other cryptocurrencies and coming out with their centralized coin. The difference with centralized coin is that they will have more control over the transactions.

[pooya87]

i would like to know is how much money you need to pay to get the mining license and how much percentage you have to give the government for every block you mine.

I said it in previous page, it costs about $3.5 to get the license.
As for the other point, I haven't found anything in the law saying you have to give what you mine to the government. There is just a predefined tax which is a percentage of what you earn.

There is also another thing to know about foreign investors which is to prevent abuse and currency exiting country. I'm not sure about the details but basically it prevents a foreign investor to build a mining farm in Iran, use the cheap electricity and then take all the bitcoins they mine out of the country. Which is something that used to happen before they cracked down on miners, and some of the seized miners were due to this abuse.

China is a country that have everything of their own. They always stand away from the rest of the world. Starting from the search engine to the payment gateways, they prefer everything developed specifically for them. From the beginning there is opposition from China, but to some extent it is the country that helped with the growth of bitcoin.

China is making bitcoin usage as hard as they can simply because they want to force people to use their bankster coin (a centralized cryptocurrency). Otherwise Iran also has its own everything, from different industries to search engines, social media and even a domestic internet known as National Internet (can function using all domestic infrastructure and provide nationwide connectivity), ... but none of it has ever been a reason to prevent bitcoin growth in Iran.

[rodskee]

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.

That may be the main reason why the ban was being lifted because the government sees the opportunity that they now tracking and knowing what illegal can make in this mining activities .
and they are on top of it.

Cryptocurrency has come to stay. As other countries are not adopting, the remaining nations will be forced to do so. They are not the only nation that banned it but later reverse it. Cryptocurrency is the future of finance.

Nope there are nothing can force other country to adopt crypto , instead they will lead being behind if they don't follow the trend .

[TheGreatPython]

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.

Basically it seems that I have missed the news about when they placed a ban on the bitcoin mining. But what was the cause of the blackouts they were experiencing, was it because of bitcoin mining? Or they just believed that it must have contributed to whatever the case may be that resulted to them having black out? Alright it is quite good that they have now decided to consider bitcoin mining again and allow companies to get back to their mining business.

Imagine a lot of businesses that would have been affected after they placed a ban on the mining of cryptocurrency. I think other countries that banned crypto mining should consider doing the same in the case of cryptocurrency mining, it’s going to be good if they work with these companies and maybe regulate in a way so that it wouldn’t affect the country.