Iran government is cracking down Bitcoin miners and other cryptocurrency mining operations over the past three months amidst its new pending legislation. The new pending legislation will formalize mining licenses.
Jail Time and Fines for Miners
Bitcoin miners are reportedly living in perpetual fear as the government has not officially legalized the mining license process.
Miners currently have the probability to be jailed or receive enormous fines or their mining equipment could be sealed off.
“If the government learns about my equipment, they’ll seal it and turn it off,” one small-scale bitcoin miner, operating just 15 machines in Tehran, told CoinDesk, adding:
“I’d be arrested. … After six months of waiting [for licensing regulations], they still want to make miners seem like criminals.”
An estimated made by a professional bitcoin miner said that over the past four months 80,000 mining devices has been confiscated.
Another bitcoin miner adds that as his thousands of machines were confisticated 30 households have lost their way of income due to the shutdown.
“We have to wait for the Ministry of Energy, and the new regulations, to make a protocol with tariffs for our business,”
“There are also fines on the price for electricity,” he added, explaining that the ‘electricity fines are often four times the annual cost of power for the machines. For example, if the mining farm paid $5,000 for a whole year of electricity, the fine for using a subsidized electricity source could be $20,000.’
Havoc on the crypto community of Iran
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Bitcoin Magazine report by a Tehran based journalist such harsh scrutinity on finding bitcoin miners have created havoc on the Iranian crypto community.
Fars News, a local news outlet reported in July that several unnamed individuals were arrested in the southwestern city of Saveh for transporting smuggled mining equipment.
“If you were caught by the police having mining equipment in your car, your equipment would be seized and you would be charged with a penalty for handling or moving illegally imported machines,” a miner stated.
“All we want, as people living in Iran, is for our government to understand the importance of this opportunity,” a bitcoin miner said, speaking to the hope that Iran will become a hub for bitcoin mining operations.