• Three to five times the penalties for unlawful use of subsidized electricity
• Iran shut down 6,914 unlicensed crypto farms in the last two years
• All 118 authorized miners have been offline since June 22nd
Higher penalties for using subsidized electricity
Back in April, the Tehran Times, citing the country’s largest electricity provider, reported that Iran wants to introduce higher penalties for miners who use subsidized electricity to mine cryptocurrencies. Mohammad Khodadadi Bohlouli, spokesman for the electricity provider, stated: “Any use of subsidized electricity – intended for private households, manufacturing industry, agriculture and service providers – for mining cryptocurrencies is prohibited.” In the event of a violation of this ban, the penalties should now be three to five times higher than before. If there are repeated violations, this can lead to the withdrawal of the operating license or even imprisonment. As the spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Energy explained back in 2021, the unlawful use of subsidized electricity for crypto mining is responsible for the fact that additional problems arise in the electricity supply to the population of Iran.
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Iran shuts down nearly 7,000 illegal crypto mining operations
In order to solve its energy crisis, Iran has also shut down as many as 6,914 crypto farms operating in the country without a valid license over the past two years. This is according to a report by Business Insider India. In total, the unlicensed farms consumed around 645 megawatts of electricity, which is roughly equivalent to the annual consumption of three regions of the country (North Khorasan, South Khorasan and Chaharmal-Bakhtiari). In order to curb the number of unauthorized mining operations, the top power generation authority in Iran is said to be considering increasing the penalties for unauthorized crypto mining operations.
Miners will be cut off to relieve the country’s power supply
Now, TechCrunch reports that the Iranian government has once again restricted crypto mining activities in an attempt to relieve the country’s electricity supply. According to the report, all 118 government-authorized mining operators in Iran have been shut down since June 22nd. This is intended to avoid seasonal peaks in electricity demand, as the spokesman for the Iranian energy industry, Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, explained on state television, according to Bloomberg. However, this approach is not new. Last year, the Iranian government ordered two shutdowns to relieve pressure on electricity infrastructure when demand for electricity hit a record high. Before the first bans, Iran was responsible for about 4.5 percent of all Bitcoin mining, according to estimates by blockchain analytics firm Elliptic in May 2021. That share is now just 0.12 percent, according to the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance percent (as of January 2022).
E. Schmal / Editor finanzen.net
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