On August 26th Coinedict reported that Iran’s National Cyberspace Center declared their draft of the state back digital currency project was ready. An Iranian news agency IBENA reported today that the secretary of Iran’s Supreme Cyberspace Council, Abolhassan Firoozabadi, now considers mining cryptocurrency to be legitimate.
Firoozabadi more specifically emphasized that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin would be now recognized by major government agencies within Iran. These government agencies include the likes of Iranian Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, Iran’s Central Bank, the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade, the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance.
Although Firoozabadi claims that these government agencies recognize cryptocurrencies, no official legislation has been enacted as of yet that would support the burgeoning cryptocurrency industry with any kind of guidelines or legal framework. However, according to Firoozabadi, a platform is in the works by Iran’s National Cyberspace Center (NCC), that would cater exclusively to cryptocurrency mining regulation.
The Iranian government is also reportedly planning to roll out a state-backed cryptocurrency, very much like what India is seeking to do. Coinedict reported on the 1st of September about how Andreas M. Antonopoulos was highly critical of the idea behind state-backed cryptocurrencies, as they bring the worst of both worlds in his opinion.
The President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, is the man in charge behind Iran’s National Cyberspace Center pursuing the draft of the state-backed cryptocurrency project. Iran has been under a considerable amount of pressure owing to economic sanctions imposed by the United States which has led them to be bullish in their stance towards the cryptocurrency industry. The tough sanctions imposed by Donald Trump has led to the Rial observing peak hyperinflation.
Owing to their optimistic stance, the price of Bitcoin (BTC to PH) soared to over USD 24,000 on some Iranian exchanges. A similar situation was also observed with the price of Ethereum soaring to over USD 900.
