Iranians feeling the squeeze from U.S. sanctions are increasingly turning to digital currencies like Bitcoin to make money.
This undated photo provided by the Police News Agency, shows boxes of machinery used in Bitcoin "mining" operations that were confiscated by police in Nazarabad, Iran. Squeezed by sanctions and fueled by subsidized electricity, Iranians and others lured to the country increasingly are turning to Bitcoin and other digital cryptocurrencies. Some mine for the currency.
The Bitcoin craze has made the front pages of Iranian newspapers and been discussed by some of the country’s top ayatollahs, and there have been televised police raids on hidden computer farms set up to bring in money by “mining” the currency. To work, the expensive specialized computers require a lot of electricity to power their processors and to keep them cool. In Iran, “miners” have an edge because electricity is cheap thanks to longtime government subsidies. “Miners” also buy cheaper Chinese ready-made computers to do the work.
“It is clear that here has turned into a heaven for ‘miners,‘” Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, Iran’s minister for information and communications technology, recently told AP in an interview. “The business of ‘mining’ is not forbidden in law but the government and the Central Bank have ordered the Customs Bureau to ban the import of until new regulations are introduced.”
Tabnak, a hard-line news website associated with a former commander of the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, quoted three ayatollahs describing Bitcoin as either problematic or “haram,” meaning forbidden. Islam prescribes strict rules about finance.
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