The Iranian Cyberspace Council Secretary has declared that cryptocurrency mining has been accepted by the country’s major authorities.
Secretary Abolhassan Firoozabadi has said that mining now needs the backing of legislation which allows for the activity to become legalized. The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, the Central Bank, the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade, the Ministry of Energy, as well as the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance have all given the go-ahead after consultation with the Iranian government.
The news is somewhat surprising given recent developments in the nation which has sent rather mixed messages regarding the government’s view on cryptocurrency to those promoting its adoption.
Iranians have sent more than USD 2.5 billion out of the country for the purchase of cryptocurrencies. The revelation was made by Mohammad Reza Pourebrahimi, Iran’s Chairman of the Economic Commission of the Parliament, moments after US president Trump announced America’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal earlier this year.
Iranians are still using Bitcoin as a popular alternative to traditional currencies, despite anonymous reports coming in from Iran that the government has been stifling the trading of cryptocurrency since May 2018 by blocking important exchange websites. The Central Bank of Iran had previously declared that all Iranian financial institutions were prohibited from facilitating crypto trading or any other crypto activity.
The new move indicates that the government of Iran has a use for cryptocurrency in mind, by its proposed development of a mining platform, plus its continued discussions around a national cryptocurrency, albeit a move which appears to be aimed at establishing measures to circumvent possible trade sanctions from the US.
The proposed currency will be controlled by the country’s central bank which will control any token issue, which will be backed by the Iranian rial. “The infrastructure is supposed to be as an ecosystem available for Iranian banks,” said the Central Bank of Iran on its news wire last week.
With regards to startups, the secretary has suggested that a regulatory framework will be introduced by this September.