Over the past six months, there have been reports of Chinese cryptocurrency mines moving to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. According to recent reports, Chinese miners have also received affordable electricity offers ($0.006 per kilowatt hour) from Iran. It might have seemed that this would be the business of their lives. The reality turned out to be different. Crypto-miners who left China to dig Bitcoin in Iran encountered problems just setting up their specialized facilities in the region. Dreams vs. reality In the media, you can read an interview with Liu Feng, who says that Iran encouraged the miners with cheap electricity. He explains that costs are indeed low there, at only $0.006 per kilowatt hour. Unfortunately, the reality didn't turn out so beautiful anymore. Feng wanted to transport 20,000 T9 Antminers to Iran. However, the equipment was stopped at the border: "(...) the government added this energy-intensive device to the list of 2,000 banned shipments." Feng told the media about the difficulties of being stopped at the border: "The risk of mining equipment being stopped and confiscated at the border is quite high - Iranian customs is said to have confiscated at least 40,000 different models [of excavators] so far." That's not all, however. The miners face other problems as well. Feng himself eventually managed to bring some of the equipment into the country, but only with the help of friendly customs officials who classified the excavators as a type of computer processor. As a result, so far out of 20,000 sets, Feng has recovered 3,000 T9s. After that, however, it wasn't all downhill from there. The miner struck a deal with a local power plant, which supplied him with electricity for 0.06 yuan (US$0.009) per kilowatt hour. The contract lasted for two months. Later, the price offer was doubled. Desperate, Feng tried to partner with a local steel mill where he wanted to place his equipment. Here the problem turned out to be the local residents complaining about the noise coming from the mining platforms. In this particular situation, our hero took the equipment away from the place. However, Feng remains optimistic about Iran's prospects in Bitcoin mining and believes that the situation will eventually change. Does he have a basis for such thinking? Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has publicly expressed his support for a new zone in Iran to create a massive industrial park. "Miners will have to pay a certain amount of refundable deposit in exchange for electricity, and small and medium-sized miners could apply together to enter the industrial park," -noted Feng. Tags T9 antminer bitcoin Iran cryptocurrencies bitcoin mining President Hassan Rouhani
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