By Adam Tarlowski:
Over the years, Iran has publicly stockpiled enriched Uranium at an alarming rate. A lesser known is the fact that they are picking up the pace in mining cryptocurrencies as well. To further that effort, Iran’s government has Ok’d power plants to mine crypto as the country moves forward with a national strategy for cryptocurrency mining.
Iranian authorities legalized crypto mining in July 2019 with a set of strict rules for miners to abide by. Miners looking to join the “hash wars” are required to obtain licenses by the government and use approved electricity tariffs. Since the legalization, over 1,000 licenses have been obtained.
Miners became incentivized with tax breaks and whistleblower rewards if they were willing to send earnings to the government and call out their unlicensed neighbors. The mutual relationship indicates that Iran is a country looking to become a larger player in the crypto industry. Despite Iran’s increased efforts, their hash rate output sits at half that of the United States. More concerning is that Iran and the United States’ combined hash rate is only slightly over 15% of China’s hash rate.
Reliable mining reports are difficult to find, but most point to the fact that China controls around 2/3rds of Bitcoin mining. Cheap parts, electricity and labor have turned China into a mining superpower. The largest concern is the idea that China could ban all mining and overtake the network with a 51% attack (not to give any ideas). Nonetheless, if countries like China, the United States, and Iran want world power, it would not make sense to destroy the very thing giving them leverage. So, the “hash war” continues.