Published date: 23 January 2021 10:45 UTC | Last update: 10 months 3 weeks ago
Controversy has erupted in Iran after senior officials blamed Chinese mining of cryptocurrencies for recurring blackouts in the country, as well as rocketing pollution.
Following major power outages in Tehran in early January, media reports and officials began to point the finger at a large Chinese mining farm near the city of Rafsanjan.
The farm, which employs 54,000 miners, is the largest authorised site for Bitcoin mining in the country, reportedly using 175 megawatt hours of electricity.
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The farm, which operates under the name of the company Iran-China Investment Development Group, has rejected the allegations, blaming inefficiency in the Iranian electricity industry for the blackouts.
Tehran, Iran – An Iranian newspaper this week shamed government authorities for allowing cryptocurrency farms – especially those belonging to the Chinese – to mine bitcoin in Iran.
“Burning away public trust is even more dangerous than burning the people’s money in Chinese cryptocurrency farms,” read the Jomhouri-e Eslami editorial titled “Red farms!”
The accusations are not confined to one newspaper. For two weeks, Iranian social media, state-affiliated media, and dozens of local and national officials have weighed in on the subject of crypto farms, their electricity consumption and the alleged role mining plays in harming the nation’s air quality.
But members of the crypto community are crying foul, arguing that they are being scapegoated for Iran’s mounting woes as it battles the worst COVID-19 crisis in the Middle East and the crushing financial blow of the pandemic and United States economic sanctions.