Iran bans the use of household electricity for cryptocurrency mining

19.05.2021 |

Although Iran is one of the loyal countries to cryptocurrencies — here it is even possible to pay, albeit with some restrictions, mined bitcoins under international contracts — the authorities have decided to tighten their attitude to crypto-mining companies. Thus, the Ministry of Energy plans to introduce additional fines for miners who use household electricity in their activities.

Starting in mid-2019, cryptocurrency mining activities in Iran are fully legalized. The country with historically low electricity prices has become attractive to many mining companies, and Chinese partners, among others, are placing their facilities here. However, not everyone dares to bring their activities to the light. Many use electricity from the so-called household network, which is not able to reliably serve additional loads. Thus, we can already observe some disruptions in the supply of electricity to end users in a number of regions. Cryptocurrency mining wears out the infrastructure, which requires additional costs from the ministry. It is on the restoration of equipment that the new type of fines is planned to be directed.