Iran confiscates BTC mining farms
2 min readLast week, Iran confiscated about three thousand BTC mining machines.
In fact, a few weeks ago, the country had issued a temporary total ban on BTC mining, due to high energy consumption in the summer.
The country does not have a variable cost of electricity, which would make mining unprofitable in the event of a shortage, so it is compelled to intervene in another way, namely by force, to avoid problems.
Therefore, after the temporary ban at the end of May, the country’s law enforcement agencies had to start searching for clandestine mining farms, and they found several.
The Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (Tavanir) announced that in just one week, they confiscated about 3,000 cryptocurrency mining machines, while in one year, they forcibly closed down more than 180 farms in the province of Tehran alone.
In addition, another 600 farms were found in the province of Kerman, said the Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (Tavanir) quoted by the Financial Tribune. According to the Iranian business daily, illegal mining has also been located in the provinces of Khuzestan, Mazandaran, Qom and Bushehr.
Tavanir itself had even warned miners last week that its patience was running out, warning those mining cryptocurrencies at home that their equipment would be confiscated, and their electricity cut off, if they did not turn off their mining equipment.
BTC mining in Iran
These problems do not exist in states where the price of electricity fluctuates freely on the market according to supply and demand ratios, because in case of supply shortages, the price goes up too much making crypto mining unprofitable. In the absence of such self-regulation, however, the authorities have no choice but to intervene with threats and force.
However, it is worth noting that in Iran, cryptocurrency mining is only allowed legally after obtaining a license, which illegal miners do not have. This means that they are in fact mining illegally in Iran.
They have been promised a discount on the cost of applying for a licence from the Ministry of Industry for the next four months.
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