At a time when millions of Iranian lives relied on Covid-19 vaccines being consistently refrigerated, the summer of 2021 was marked by frequent, dangerous power outages. Power cuts are hardly unusual in Iran, but these were caused by a new phenomenon. A surge in cryptocurrency mining, which requires high volumes of electricity, was overpowering the circuits and affecting the grid.
The mining of cryptocurrency – a digital asset that can be traded and used to pay for things – has been legally regulated in Iran since 2009. The restrictive law, which requires $100,000 in assets and an adequate plot of land to house the servers, means that the majority of mining takes place outside the legal framework.
