The reduction in electricity consumption could help lower the price of the service for Iranian miners. The return of miners to their activity could strengthen the Bitcoin hash rate in the coming months.
On September 22nd, Bitcoin miners will be able to start operating in Iran again. They could even receive a reduction in electricity bills of up to half the price, said the authorities of the electricity sector.
The Electrical Power Generation, Transmission, and Distribution of Iran (Tavanir) announced it would lift the ban on cryptocurrency mining. In May, the Iranian Ministry of Industries, Mining, and Commerce was responsible for taking such action.
They said that miners of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies had to stop their operations for at least four months. The government authorities argued that digital mining, which provided security to the network and allowed the validation of transactions, was interfering with the national electricity system.
A Tavanir spokesperson said a decrease in domestic electricity consumption could help reduce the costs of the service. That way, miners would only have to pay half the fee.
According to the Financial Tribune, the base fee for miners is 16,574 Iranian rials (IRR) per kilowatt per hour (USD 0.11 per kW/h). The local Iranian forex market NIMA was the platform setting that price.
In April 2021, the energy cost before the ban was IRR 4,800 per kW/h, equivalent to USD 0.39. That value has multiplied four times since then.
However, the reduction in the prices for Bitcoin miners could depend on decreasing electricity consumption at the end of the summer. The authorities have indicated that the high demand for electricity during this dry season makes it difficult to generate power.
By allowing the mining of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, they lift the measures taken by the former president of Iran.
The former head of state had requested his government cabinet to implement measures to regulate Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency trading. He argued that it was necessary to preserve and protect national interests amid the expansion of those assets.
At that time, the authorities seized more than 7,000 mining machines that were operating illegally in Tehran. However, they have also issued some permits to miners in various Iranian provinces such as Zanyan.
Iran Could Help the Bitcoin Hash Rate to Rebound
The Chinese government has banned Bitcoin mining in Chinese provinces such as Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Yunnan, and Sichuan. After that, miners began migrating to nearby countries like Kazakhstan, although some also went to the United States.
The Hashrate Index report from the end of June looks at the consequences of the repression from the Chinese government against Bitcoin miners. The document recalls that one million mining machines are stranded in China while the owners evaluate how to move their equipment.
The Bitcoin hash rate has recovered, indicating that miners have been progressively resettling down. Therefore, the resumption of Bitcoin miners’ operations could contribute to increasing that measure of computing power.
By Alexander Salazar
