Iran’s Ministry of Trade, Mine and Commerce reportedly dismissed claims by main energy firm Tavanir that blamed unlawful cryptocurrency miners for the continued energy shortages within the nation.
According to a report by the Financial Tribune, Alireza Hadi, the ministry’s director of investment and planning, said that the figures announced by Tavanir “seem to be highly exaggerated.” Hadi questioned Tavanir’s claims that unlawful mining actions eat 2,000 megawatts of energy. “This amount would equal power used by 3 million pieces of hardware,” he said.
Whereas mining cryptocurrency has been legalized by the Iranian authorities, Tavanir blames unregistered miners for nationwide energy shortages. In August 2021, Tavanir spokesperson Rajabi Mashhadi said:
“Unauthorized miners are the primary culprits behind the facility outages in current months. We would have had 80% less blackouts if miners had halted their activities.”
Tavanir additionally claims to have shut down operations for over 5,000 mining farms along with confiscating 213,000 unauthorized mining {hardware} that was capable of consuming 850 megawatts.
Up to now, Iran’s Ministry of Trade, Mine and Commerce has licensed 56 mining farms that collectively eat 400 megawatts, in line with Tanavir’s estimate. In 2020, the ministry authorized and registered 126,000 pieces of mining equipment, which consumed 195 megawatts when running at full capacity.
Associated: The Iranian authorities took down over a thousand crypto mining Farms
Last year, whistleblowers helped Tavanir close down 1,100 crypto mining farms that allegedly did not have proper licenses.
Iranian residents who assist the authorities monitor down unlawful miners had been awarded 100 million rials ($480) as a bounty. Although Iran has approved registered businesses to conduct mining operations, authorities had warned crypto miners to register their business and equipment before the end of 2020.
