Bitcoin mining is thriving in Iran – but mostly in the shadows.
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Welcome back to The Mining Pod! Today, Masih Alavi, CEO of ViraMiner, joins us to discuss an overlooked mecca for bitcoin mining: Iran. He estimates that miners in the country operate with just 5 MW of legal, while 2 GW of mining activity hums away in the shadows of basements, offices, and even jewelry stores. Plus, Alavi discusses how Iranian citizens use outdated mining equipment to evade sanctions, convert crypto to USD, and survive capital controls from within and sanctions from without. Alavi explains why the government's hardline stance and tax code pushes miners underground and the ingenious methods Iranians use to hide their operations from authorities.
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# Notes:
- Only 5MW legal mining vs. 2GW illegal in Iran
- Outdated S9 miners still profitable in Iran
- Illegal miners caught by authorities
- High tariffs push miners to operate illegally
- 18 million Iranians own crypto assets
- Iran Bitcoin hashrate dropped 10-15% during protests
Timestamps:
00:00 Start
01:47 Mashi background
07:03 Mining ETH
07:37 ViraMiners
08:11 BTC mining in Iran
10:09 Illegal mining operations
13:33 Mining with older hardware
14:14 Electrical tariffs
17:49 Industrial scale mining
21:16 Exchanges or under the table
30:21 Obtaining hardware
32:41 Legal routes for hardware?
38:52 IP logging with pools
42:41 Hashrate waiting to come online
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