Iranian Authorities Seize Thousand Mining Machines of Bitcoin in Two Factories
The authorities of Iran seized about a thousand mining machines of Bitcoin from two factories. As per reports, the authorities warned them when they found a spike in electricity consumption. The machines used electricity which the Iranian government subsidized.
To this, an official in Yazd, the central Iranian province, came forward to talk. He says that they have identified two bitcoin firms consuming one-megawatt power.
As a matter of fact, Iran banned cryptocurrency producing machines. Further, it blamed such machines for increasing power consumption to about seven percent. Precisely, those machines tremendously increased such power consumption in this month alone up to 21st of June. Reports suggest this data which a spokesman from Energy Ministry of Iran quoted.
Iran banned banks from dealing with cryptocurrencies in 2018
For the record, the central bank of Iran banned the banks in the country to deal with cryptocurrencies. Interestingly, it includes bitcoin too. The country banned it in the year 2018 for concerns over situations of money laundering.
Recently, Iran also said that bitcoin and crypto mining surge hit the power grid of the country. The country blames miners of cryptocurrencies while warning them. Concisely, Iranian authorities warned the miners that they will cut off such operations from the grid.
Earlier in this week, the Energy Minister of Iran, Mostafa Rajabi said on the matter. According to him, an increase in the mining of cryptocurrencies causes instability in the power grid of Iran. Also, it creates lots of problems to the consumers as well, says Rajabi.
Power consumption for each bitcoin-mining equals to what 24 residential units utilize a year- Rajabi
Further, he says that they have not yet set the special price for crypto miners, consuming power. Although, the Iranian government reviews the proposal for similar pricing. Rajabi reveals that power consumption for each bitcoin-mining is the same as twenty-four residential units utilize in a year.
On the other hand, media reports suggest that crypto mining constantly increases in Iran. As electricity cost is relatively low in Iran, crypto mining increases.
Previously, the deputy energy minister of Iran suggested that crypto mining units are considerably increasing in the country. Surprisingly, such operations even happen in locations like schools, mosques, etc. to receive free electricity.
Interestingly, a report suggests that a crypto mining farm operates in forests located in the northern part of Iran. A 35 years old person says that he installed mining rigs for cryptocurrencies next to a greenhouse. With this, he took advantage of the subsidiary electricity that he receives to operate his farm.
Iran “hotspot” for Chinese miners due to cheap electricity
Similarly, a report locates a site for bitcoin mining in the desert. The desert is located outside of Tehran, the Iranian capital. Similarly, a Chinese site cited that Iran became a hotspot for crypto miners of China due to cheap electricity.
Moreover, reports from December 2018 says something regarding a blockchain researcher, Nima Dehqan. As a matter of fact, Dehqan is a researcher at Areatak, a crypto startup based in Tehran. Dehqan says that Areatak is meeting investors from foreign looking for opportunities of crypto mining in Iran. Such investors are from countries, for instance, Spain, France, Ukraine, and Armenia.
