Iran seizes 7,000 cryptocurrency computer miners
23 June, 2021
Iranian police have seized 7,000 computer miners at an against the law cryptocurrency farm, their major haul to date of the energy-guzzling machines which have exacerbated power outages in Iran, state media reported on Tuesday.
In late May, Iran banned the mining of cryptocurrencies such as for example Bitcoin for nearly four months within efforts to lessen the incidence of power blackouts blamed by officials on surging electricity demand through the hot and dry summer.
Tehran police chief General Hossein Rahimi said the 7,000 computer miners were seized within an abandoned factory in the west of the administrative centre, the state news agency IRNA reported.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are manufactured through a process referred to as mining, where powerful computers contend with each other to resolve complex mathematical problems. The procedure is highly energy-intensive, often counting on electricity generated by fossil fuels, which are loaded in Iran.
According to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, around 4.5 % of most Bitcoin mining occurs in Iran, giving it a huge selection of million dollars in income from cryptocurrencies that can be utilised to reduce the impact of US sanctions.
Iran’s economy has been hit hard since 2018, when then-President Donald Trump exited Tehran’s 2015 nuclear manage six powers and re-imposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
US President Joe Biden’s administration and other global powers are pursuing talks with Iran to regenerate the deal.
Iran has accepted cryptocurrency mining in recent years, offering cheap power and requiring miners to market their Bitcoins to the central bank. Tehran allows cryptocurrencies mined in Iran to be used to pay for imports of authorised goods.
The chance of cheap state-subsidised power has attracted miners, particularly from China, to Iran. Generating the electricity they use requires the same as around 10 million barrels of crude oil a year, or 4 % of total Iranian oil exports in 2020, according to Elliptic.
Source: www.thenationalnews.com
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