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Iran is set to introduce new rules that will allow miners to sell cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin to the central bank

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This is how Iran hopes to get the money it needs to pay for imported goods

Rhythmed BlockBeats message, according to local Iran, Oct. 30Media reports, Iran is working on new rules that would allow local miners to sell bitcoin mined in mines directly to Iran's central bank to pay for imported goods.

The decree, proposed by Iran's Energy ministry and central Bank (CBI), requires legally registered cryptocurrency miners in the country to sell to the CBI the cryptocurrency they have mined. That may be because Iran has seen its foreign exchange reserves fall by more than 33 percent in the last two years, and bitcoin is increasingly seen as a workaround to tough U.S. sanctions. Iran's move is reminiscent of oil-rich Venezuela's recent decision to nationalize mineral resources. Venezuela is also under U.S. sanctions.

Rumours had swirled that Iran's central bank had all but officially converted its main reserve currency from dollars to renminbi and was considering creating its own digital currency. The combination of the yuan and a state-approved digital currency could help Iran sell more of its oil on the global market.

But the move to hand over Bitcoin, at least on the surface, is less about exports than about paying for imports. "The Iranian regime is struggling to obtain Foreign exchange to buy imports such as machinery, industrial inputs and consumer goods," US officials said in a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in December.

While bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are more international than foreign, they may still be helpful. As previously reported by Law, Iran officially legalized cryptocurrency mining in August 2019, but at the same time banned trading in cryptocurrencies. Iran's energy is plentiful and cheap, but the economy depends heavily on oil exports to countries unwilling to violate U.S. sanctions, which fell into a deep slump earlier this year. Between March and July, Iran cut oil production from 3.1m b/d to 1.9m b/d, the lowest level since 1981. Most of Iran's oil production is stored on storage ships.

随着时间的推移，伊朗意识到即使能源出口因制裁和需求减少而被扼杀，它依然可以保留其自然资源，并利用它们进行加密货币挖矿活动，促进其发展。今年早些时候，伊朗批准了设在该国发电厂内的工业比特币挖矿中心。修订后的细则仍在制定中。据外媒报道，「这些矿工应该在 CBI 引入的渠道的授权范围内，直接提供原始加密货币。」