Bitcoin crypto miners found in Iran are seeing a horror story after the government cracked down on them. The objective? Increase the income that the State receives from crypto mining.
Energy shortage
Iran has been heavily affected by international sanctions both in terms of income and energy in the country. In fact, according to the Aljazeera, Tehran’s Hamshahri newspaper on Wednesday published the headline “20 days living in smoke” over a photo of the capital covered in smog.
Therefore, it has been reported that power plants have been forced to switch to burning low-quality fuel oil to generate electricity, which has resulted in a deterioration in the quality of the environment.
However, this was apparently denied by the parties belonging to the government of Iran and they targeted crypto mining.
The situation has even led to some power plants closing their doors and, of course, an increase in the number of power outages.
Meanwhile, government officials seem to claim that blackouts and electricity shortages have been exacerbated by crypto mining of Bitcoin.
Now, we must bear in mind that, indeed, in the face of international sanctions, crypto mining could be a revenue solution for the government of Iran.
The relationship between crypto mining and Iran is complicated to say the least
Thus the government of Iran has blamed crypto miners for the recent power outages the country has been experiencing.
So much so that, in January alone, the authorities closed 1,620 unregistered crypto mining farms and, with it, confiscated 45,000 mining machines.
According to an investigation carried out by CoinDesk, reports from the country suggest that, despite the strategy against the miners, the country’s electricity situation has not improved. Therefore, this could indicate to us that, indeed, crypto mining is not the culprit.
Also, according to Aljazeera, Iran’s crypto mining community thinks they are just being scapegoats.
In fact, interestingly enough, Iran’s Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian contradicts the discourse against crypto mining. Specifically, it ensures that, according to Aljazeera, the country’s electricity consumption reaches a maximum of 38,000 MW per day, but crypto mining barely consumes just over 300 MW.
Thus, the situation for crypto mining farms in Iran is only getting complicated as disinformation seems to rule.
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