Iran mullahs systematically mining digital currencies

Iran mullahs systematically mining digital currencies

Bitcoin farm (File Photo)

Analysis by PMOI/MEK

Iran, July 8, 2019 - Facing an increasingly dysfunctional economy, political and economic isolation and the inability to sell crude oil, Iranian mullahs and their cronies are resorting to mining digital currencies to compensate for the financial means they have lost.

Late in June, first reports about the new phenomenon appeared in Iranian media but on July 4, the news became more concrete.

“Managing director of Varamin County’s electricity company broke the news of discovering 14 bitcoin mining farms across different regions of the county,” the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

Bitcoin is the most famous digital currency. Miners lend their computing power to bitcoin’s global network and help to calculate the next block in its digital ledger. This is done through a series of complicated mathematical operations that require a large amount of electricity to solve.

IRNA further quoted Moslem Haji Mazandarani, Managing director of Varamin County’s electricity company saying, “Employees of Varamin County’s electric company investigated the power consumption pattern in different regions of the county and succeeded in discovering digital currency mining farms.”

“The largest farms have been discovered in Tehran province, belonging to an active industrial center in the town of Salarieh and more than one thousand and 134 mining rigs have been discovered there,” the managing director further said.

“The center was consuming 800 kilowatts of electricity every day paid based on industrial tariffs. Comparatively, this amount of electricity is equal to the consumption of 1,200 households.”

Cheap electricity is vital for mining digital currencies to be profitable. Iran’s subsidized electricity distribution incentivizes higher energy consumption and its misuse.

In other news, Iranian media report that 500 bitcoin mining farms have also been discovered in Alborz province of northern Iran.

After the proliferation of bitcoin mining, it appears that the Iranian regime doesn’t tolerate it anymore and intends to monopolize it in the hands of its own cronies.

On July 5, Tabnak website reported that some leading Iranian mullahs have issued fatwas that make bitcoin mining “Haram” (forbidden under religious regulations), effectively paving the path for the regime’s forces to shut down mining farms and seizing the rigs.