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Flawed "Mining Paradise"

As early as November last year, there was news that miners had migrated to Iran for mining.

At that time, the price of cryptocurrencies plummeted, "mining disasters" became more and more severe, and "mining machines sold by the catty" and "mining machines at 70 yuan per catty" became hot topics. In a previous interview with 31QU, Yuchi founder and Cobo Wallet CEO Shenyu said that this rumor is true, and most of the mining machines are still sold to places where electricity costs are cheaper, such as the Middle East.

Some industry insiders told 31QU that, more precisely, most of the mining machines have been shipped to Iran. “In Iran, a second-hand T9 can generate more than 3,000 yuan in profits within a year, but it can only be eliminated at a loss in China.”

At the same time, Bao Erye also yelled on Weibo, "I want to buy power stations around the world." Three days later, he locked his eyes on the Middle East, "In a country in the Middle East, for some reason, it is inconvenient to disclose the name. A cent of RMB per kilowatt-hour."

Although some netizens speculated that the country that is not convenient to disclose is Iran, but more than a month later, Bao Erye declared that "I just heard about Iran mining, and I have not been there personally, nor participated in the investment", and emphasized that " If you're worried about U.S. sanctions, it's best not to go."

But it is an indisputable fact that miners migrated to Iran. Low electricity bills are the eternal pursuit of miners. Iran's electricity bill as low as 3 cents stimulates the nerves of every mine owner.

"In the second half of last year, miners began to flood into Iran on a large scale." Lao He, director of Yizhong Group, told 31QU. Yizhong Group is a state-level key project enterprise in Iran, located in a bonded area free of customs duties and income taxes. In 2018, they officially entered the cryptocurrency mining industry.

Unlike the "regular army" of the Iran-China Group, there are still many miners forming a "guerrilla". At the end of last year, Coindesk also reported that Chinese miners were looking for mining opportunities in Iran. "In the past few months, (they) established a company in Iran to import mining machines." According to the interviewees, This is done "in secret" by people with a lot of power and money.

This trend continued until this year’s flood season in Sichuan mines. As the price of coins rose, miners who migrated to Iran also participated in the vigorous battle for second-hand mining machines. According to media reports, because the Iranian miners bid "outrageously", during the flood season this year, the domestic mines even appeared in a state of "hard to find a machine".

However, despite the low electricity bills in Iran, there are still various unstable factors in mining in Iran, causing the migrating miners to lose their money.

First and foremost is regulation.

In the article "Iran Mining, A Thrilling "Money Game"", 31QU has introduced in detail the various challenges that a mining machine will face if it wants to operate safely in Iran.

The first is the customs. "The first thing to do when you arrive at the port is how to declare at the customs. If you can't pass this level, you don't need to talk about it later." The interviewee said that if it is not in compliance, once the mining machine is checked confiscated.

Previously, there was a rumor among miners that Iranian customs had successively confiscated at least 40,000 cryptocurrency mining machines of various models.

Today, Iran’s official attitude towards mining has changed, and the Economic Council of the Iranian government has approved the establishment of a cryptocurrency mining mechanism. Will Iran become a mining paradise again?

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From "Warning" to "Approval"

In the past two months, Iran's attitude towards blockchain and cryptocurrency mining has undergone a drastic change.

Previously, the Iranian government was not very friendly to the army of miners from China.

During the Dragon Boat Festival this year, Iranian Deputy Minister of Energy Homayoun Haeri (Homayoun Haeri) stated that Chinese encryption miners should pay electricity bills according to the price of exported electricity.

Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, deputy general manager of Iran’s National Grid Dispatch, even made it clear that using the national grid for cryptocurrency mining is illegal.

On June 24, an official of Iran's state-owned power generation and transmission company Tavanir warned that cryptocurrency miners in Iran would face the possibility of power outages if they were discovered by the government to use electricity for mining.

Interestingly, 3 days later, photos of a mining facility inside an Iranian mosque went viral on social media.

Mahsa Alimardani, a spokesperson for Tavanir, explained: "This is because the mosques can get free energy in Iran, so the Iranians set up bitcoin mining farms in the mosques."

Of course, the Iranian government is not just "talking about it". Last month, they also seized about 1,000 bitcoin mining machines in two abandoned factories.

In fact, the harsh attitude of the Iranian authorities is also understandable. In May of this year, electricity consumption in Iran increased by 7% year-on-year, and cryptocurrency mining was the main reason.

Mashadi said: "The output of each bitcoin is equivalent to the annual consumption of 24 residences in Tehran, or the electricity consumption of a real estate in 24 years." Such a huge electricity consumption is used in the cryptocurrency mining industry. , Of course, it will be closely supervised and cracked down by the government.

However, it is not known whether it is due to "livelihood pressure" or for the purpose of revitalizing the industry. Recently, the Iranian government's attitude has changed 180 degrees.

The shift dates back to July 10, when Central Bank of Iran Governor Abdol Nasser Hemmati said the Iranian government was planning to authorize cryptocurrency mining.

But at the same time, he put forward two conditions. Simply put, the first condition is that Chinese miners should pay the electricity bill according to the export electricity price; the second condition is that the bitcoin income points obtained from mining should be given to Iran.

Then Mohammad Sharqi, managing director of the Blockchain Association, a non-profit organization in Iran, said that it would be better for the Iranian Ministry of Energy to regulate digital currency mining by issuing industrial and commercial electricity licenses.

With increasing attention from all walks of life, on July 22, the Iranian Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mining and Agriculture announced that the Economic Council of the Iranian government had approved the establishment of a cryptocurrency mining mechanism in the country. It also marks Iran’s official recognition of cryptocurrency mining as a legal industry within its borders.

It is worth mentioning that the Iranian government itself has the idea of ​​mining. On July 14, an official from the Iranian Chamber of Industry, Mining and Agriculture claimed that Iran will soon launch a gold-backed cryptocurrency that will be mined under the license of the Central Bank of Iran.

Shahab Javanmardi, CEO of Iranian information and communication technology (ICT) company FANAP, said the cryptocurrency will be mined through a partnership between the Central Bank of Iran and a private IT company in the country. "Iran's cryptocurrency is backed by gold, but functions similarly to foreign competitors."

In any case, judging from the current situation, the Iranian government’s attitude towards the cryptocurrency mining industry will definitely become more and more positive. The regulatory concerns that Chinese miners are most worried about seem to have been assured.

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Iran mining "regular army"

Although the top-level supervision has shown its attitude, various problems will still be encountered in the actual implementation process.

“The management of the Iranian government is still relatively chaotic.” Lao He told 31QU that getting things done in Iran still depends on relationships. Many miners have found large and small local relationships, looking for power plants and large companies, but there will still be cooperative operations. risk.

What's more, in the regulatory attitude that has been disclosed, other conditions have been set for foreign mining companies: electricity fees must be paid according to the export electricity price, without subsidies; the income from mining bitcoins must be distributed to Iran, which virtually increases the number of miners. the cost of.

"But it's normal to have risks." Lao He believes, "Some people just like to take risks."

Compared with the miners who are still hesitating whether to migrate to the Middle East, Lao He’s mine is running too smoothly: there is no customs problem, "we are in the bonded area, we can enter legally"; there is no need to mine secretly, "There is no problem of illegality. We have made everything clear to the government."

Even, most of the mining machines in the mine are S9 and T9. "The new mining machines are too expensive." Lao He said bluntly, "We don't need to use such expensive things, T9 is very good."

Currently, Lao He’s company plans to build a super-large mine in Iran, and plans to run 100,000 mining machines.

"The income is quite good, and a mining machine can pay back in 40-50 days." Lao He told 31QU that the most important thing is that the electricity fee is cheap. "In China, the electricity fee may account for 60% of the cost of the mine. , probably less than 6 percent.”

Lao He has always emphasized that they belong to the "regular army" mining in Iran, but it is not easy to become a regular army. "We are a Chinese-funded enterprise that has been established in Iran for many years. We have several hundred million in assets. We have also invested in Iran for many years and have a good relationship with the local area." Lao He told 31QU that if you want to become a regular army, you must have strength. Second, there must be years of accumulation.

But for some miners who migrate around the world, this is a very high barrier.