The Iranian government is reportedly offering a bounty for anyone that dobs illegal Bitcoin mining businesses to the authorities.
A spokesperson from Iran’s Energy Ministry reportedly said that anyone who outs those using subsidized electricity for cryptocurrency mining will be rewarded with up to 20 percent of the funds recovered from the miner, PressTV reports. Damages are based on how much electricity the cryptocurrency miners have used.
Energy Ministry spokesperson Mostafa Rajabi made the announcement in an interview with the IRIB News yesterday.
Rajabi said that using the national grid to mine cryptocurrencies during peak hours will be outlawed under new regulations used to calculate electricity prices.
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To calculate the financial impact of Bitcoin miners on the grid, Rajabi said a baseline figure of $0.08 per KWh will be used.
According to the report, businesses that set up their own power plants for cryptocurrency miners — and meet the country’s mining regulations — will be given incentives. The national grid will be used to support these farms when renewable energy levels drop.
In June, Iranian authorities seized 1,000 Bitcoin mining machines from two abandoned factories that had been using state subsidized electricity to mine cryptocurrency without a license.
In August of this year, the Iranian government ratified a bill that recognized cryptocurrency mining as a legitimate industry.
While it’s becoming clear that the Iranian government is against using subsidized electricity to mine cryptocurrencies, mining itself is not outlawed.
The practice will be allowed inside Iran but only under certain conditions: if miners get the green light from the country‘s industry ministry, don’t mine coins within a 30-kilometer radius of all provincial centers except for the capital Tehran and the central city of Esfahan.
What a cryptocurrency mining firm must do to obtain the go ahead from the country’s industry ministry remains unclear.
You could always go completely off-grid and hide the mining machines in a skyscraper water park.
H/T – The Block
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