TL; DR Breakdown
- Iran suspends licensed crypto miners operations
- The country wants a reduction in the reliance on energy in this hot period
- Iran is responsible for about 7% of the total Bitcoin hashrate
Iran has announced that it has suspended energy provision to crypto miners as the countrywide demand for energy during this winter period heightens. The head of the Grid Management Company, Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, gave this update in a statement to local news stations. In his statement, Iran will be closing down crypto mining facilities that have been authorized to reduce the reliance on liquid energy.
Iran to cut dependence on energy by 40%
According to Mashhadi, the decision to streamline energy provision to partakers across the country sometime last month. However, the decision was communicated to the Broadcasting company on Dec 25, the same day it broke the news. In a statement by Mashhadi, he mentioned that there had been too much reliance on liquid fuels, so the authorities have been taking up measures to ease them.
Other than cutting off the power supply’s from licensed crypto mining facilities, the authorities are also ensuring there is no wastage of energy, and lampposts in several areas are being shut down. In his statement, Mashhadi talked about the various ways that citizens can help them achieve this aim. Some of the measures include cutting down on their electricity and gas usage. Going by recent statistics, most of the energy in Iran is used to heat buildings, taking up 70% of the total consumed energy.
The country is responsible for 7% of the total Bitcoin hashrate
According to the executive, the scheduled cutdown on energy should help the country reduce the total consumption of energy by about 40%. While suspending licensed crypto miners, Iran has been working actively to combat illicit crypto miners across the country.
Last month, local news stations announced that the country had confiscated about 222,000 mining hardware from illegal miners in the recent crackdown by the energy centers. Across this year, Iran has put its name on the map in terms of Bitcoin mining. Presently, the country is responsible for about 7% of the total hashrate of the leading digital asset.
Before now, Iran announced that it would ban crypto mining centers from making new Bitcoin due to the over-reliance on energy during these periods. After the power grid stabilized, Iran announced that it had removed the ban on mining activities in September.
