Bitcoin mining is thriving in Iran – but mostly in the shadows.

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Welcome back to The Mining Pod! Today, Masih Alavi, CEO of ViraMiner, joins us to discuss an overlooked mecca for bitcoin mining: Iran. He estimates that miners in the country operate with just 5 MW of legal, while 2 GW of mining activity hums away in the shadows of basements, offices, and even jewelry stores. Plus, Alavi discusses how Iranian citizens use outdated mining equipment to evade sanctions, convert crypto to USD, and survive capital controls from within and sanctions from without. Alavi explains why the government's hardline stance and tax code pushes miners underground and the ingenious methods Iranians use to hide their operations from authorities.

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# Notes:

- Only 5MW legal mining vs. 2GW illegal in Iran

- Outdated S9 miners still profitable in Iran

- Illegal miners caught by authorities

- High tariffs push miners to operate illegally

- 18 million Iranians own crypto assets

- Iran Bitcoin hashrate dropped 10-15% during protests

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

01:47 Mashi background

07:03 Mining ETH

07:37 ViraMiners

08:11 BTC mining in Iran

10:09 Illegal mining operations

13:33 Mining with older hardware

14:14 Electrical tariffs

17:49 Industrial scale mining

21:16 Exchanges or under the table

30:21 Obtaining hardware

32:41 Legal routes for hardware?

38:52 IP logging with pools

42:41 Hashrate waiting to come online

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