"Battle cannot be fought", Iranian miners dodged the war but could not "speak"

Author: 0x66

Source: BlockBeats

Not fighting anymore. In the morning of January 8, local time, US President Trump gave "ready to embrace peace" and "will not make a direct military response" to US-Iranian relations in a delayed national speech. Reply.

Although it has long been judged that this battle could not be fought, after receiving Trump's clear attitude, Bitcoin miner Liu Wu (a pseudonym) with a heart hanging in a sigh of relief: the alarm was lifted and the mine was safe. However, over the past two days, the world has been shocked by the news that "the Iranian military acknowledged that human flight mistakenly shot down Flight 752 and killed all 176 people on board." Will the situation just stabilized again?

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Liu Wu, who has just returned from Shenzhen to Iran, was worried when he heard the news that the plane was shot down. Since entering the mining industry in June 2018, he has been responsible for the planning and investment promotion of the Iranian mine. After more than a year of intensive preparations, in July last year, the factory full of miners transported from China had just roared.

Choosing to open a mine in Iran was a bold decision. This Middle Eastern country located on the east side of the Persian Gulf is considered by mining practitioners as a mining paradise. The electricity costs as low as 3 or 4 cents are far lower than domestic. Because of this, many miners from China are not far away. Come here to build a factory.

However, here is by no means "gold everywhere." Several miners from the front line tell us that the unstable regulators and the Iranians who like to tell the story are important reasons to stop Chinese miners from going to the country to dig for gold, and the increasingly mature customer team and constantly high commission fees , Is narrowing the gap in mining revenue between the two countries.

This time, the mine owner may not retreat urgently, but the miners who are waiting to see it, really have to weigh it.

Miners say that this battle cannot be fought

Iran is rich in mineral resources and oil is distributed all over the country. As everyone imagines, because of black gold, this country has unimaginable wealth. The rich natural resources, together with the gentle relations between China and Iran, have also allowed Chinese entrepreneurs 5,000 kilometers away to smell the opportunity to make money and come here early.

However, this country located in the Middle East, a military center, is not stable. This time, a sudden U.S. air strike killed General Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Suleimani. The two countries became tense immediately. Then, angry Iran fired more than a dozen short-range ballistic missiles against the United States, hitting its military base in Iraq; Coupled with the news that "civil aviation planes were shot down", the war broke out immediately.

All of this will not affect the crypto mines for the time being.

Just after it was determined that the two countries would not have another war, the mine owner Wu Qiu told the block rhythm BlockBeats that when the news first came out, he was really worried about the safety of the mine. Within the territory, there is a distance from the local mines, which will not affect the mines for the time being. Panic is not necessary.

In addition, some miners even think that this is a "conspiracy for resources", because this incident is enough to affect global oil prices and even the exchange rates of related countries. "It was said that when the United States and Iran were about to fight, many people suspended Stock trading has even been cleared. On the other hand, the stocks of military companies have risen against the trend, and then the news of peace in the United States has spread. "The ultimate benefit will only be arms dealers. They believe that there will be no more bad news. In this case, this battle cannot be fought.

At present, Liu Wu, who is currently holding a 160,000 kilowatt mine (invested at the level of 10 million yuan), also holds the same view. Even in the most tense situation, they have not made a plan to "withdraw" from Iran. At this time It was only six months since the mine was on track in July last year.

Liu Wu's rare metal company has been operating in this country for five or six years. He is an Iranian executive assigned by the company. He has accumulated a lot of government and network resources in the country, and it is an accident to have access to mining. "The reason why I know about mining is that someone came to us in the second half of 2018 and wanted to find a team to help set up the mine."

Liu Wu later learned that the bitcoin price at that time had once penetrated the price of many types of mining machinery, and many miners had no choice but to "sell the miners." At that time, many of the people who contacted them had just bought a large number of second-hand mining machines from Sichuan and other places. Taking this opportunity, he learned about Bitcoin and mining by the way. After realizing that it was a hugely profitable business, he quickly reached a partnership with a few friends and began to find people, money, relationships, and preparations for building a mine.

In most cases, the price of electricity is an important factor for the profitability and survival of the mine.

Iran's electricity costs as low as a few cents allow entrepreneurs here to ignore this element for the time being. But in addition to electricity, if you want to set up a mine in Iran, you must find suitable sites and partners, or coordinate local relations.

With the background of his company, Liu Wu's mine has not encountered any obstacles in terms of compliance. "We are currently the only company in Iran that has obtained a mining license," he emphasized, "this license is sufficient for us to conduct mining operations in compliance with Iranian territory." According to Liu Wu, the general government is on companies that choose to issue licenses. , Will only choose those companies with strong strength, relatively large scale, and contribute to the local economy.

Regarding compliance, there is no need to worry about mining the "regular army", but this one directly locks the way out of those small mines.

"If you do not have a license, it will not be easy for miners to pass customs." Before that, it was true that illegal mining machines were seized and seized by overseas personnel. Liu Wu said that this country is only the size of nine or ten provinces in China. The government does not “catch” cryptocurrency mining, and the minimum existence of the mine does not affect local residents.

"Many of the mines that cooperate with small power plants and have deep roots are afraid to dig after being fined."

Another miner, Lao L, is more direct, and bluntly "engaging relationships" is an important reason for deciding to mine in Iran. "It mainly depends on the locals being ruthless. Generally, they will take away 50% of the proceeds." He told the block rhythm BlockBeats, and most of them made a lot of commissions from Chinese.

These clients, who travel between China and Iran, described to domestic investors low foreign electricity bills and ambitious visions, turned their heads, and shuttled between large and small power plants in Iran to chat with local people and try to promote cooperation. . Excluding the commission, according to the electricity price, the cost of mining in Iran has basically been converted to 3.5 ~ 3.7 gross. "If you don't have sufficient preparation, you can't do it at all."

However, even after completing all of the above processes, mine owners may face another unpredictable challenge: whistleblower.

"Iranians love to tell"

Iran is not a country that does not allow crypto mining.

As early as July 14, an official from the Iranian Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mining and Agriculture said that a cryptocurrency backed by gold would soon be available that would be mined with the permission of the central bank. A week later, the Iranian Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mining and Agriculture announced that the Economic Commission of the Iranian Government approved the establishment of a cryptocurrency mining mechanism. In addition, in the import of mining machines, the Iranian General Administration of Customs has also determined the tax rate standards for mining machines and equipment. The mining machine is regarded as a computing device and enjoys the same tax rate standards as computers.

This means that official permits have been obtained for mining in Iran, but with compliance comes an increase in electricity prices.

According to the introduction of miners who mine in Iran, under the new standard, the cost of mining has been raised to 1 kWh equivalent to US $ 0.05 ~ 0.07. In addition to other fees and costs, such costs have been comparable to those in China. In this context, many small mines that are not large in scale and are not related are "forced" to go "underground" to find low-cost electricity. But such days are not easy.

"After the introduction of the new regulations, the local government issued a notice to ban illegal mines." Liu Wu, who has worked in Iran for many years, told the block rhythm BlockBeats that Iranians also have a characteristic that they like the illegality of foreign personnel. The government used this to fully utilize the strength of the masses and encourage people to report illegal mining activities. "It is said that the report is returned to the reporter, which is equivalent to 20% of the value of the mine."

In June last year, the Iranian government seized 1,000 mining machines for illegal use of electricity at the mine.

In other words, even if the owners of these small mines escaped the war, it would be difficult to escape the "whistleblower". "The low-cost electricity charges originally benefited the residents of the country. Because cryptocurrency mining itself does not help the country, the government is definitely unwilling to be embarrassed." Liu Wu said that many small power plants are now afraid to cooperate with small mines. Many Chinese miners are unable to do so.

Earlier, there were media reports that Iran has also been reported by the locals due to the huge noise of the mining machine, and finally the mining machine was seized by the local department.

Is overseas mining a good business?

In fact, no matter whether they are travelling to Middle East countries such as Iran, or to Iceland, Russia, or South Asia countries such as Malaysia and Vietnam, countless miners are willing to go from their familiar home country to a country with no relatives to find the lowest cost of mining. Are driven by interests.

For crypto mine owners, both foreign and domestic, they will face similar problems before deciding whether to mine or not, such as electricity costs, such as the cost of mining machines, and plant construction, equipment, network, manpower, and operation and maintenance expenses. Because the latter types of floating space are limited, it is more the price of electricity that is currently driving miners to look for opportunities around the world.

Therefore, there has also been a calculation based on electricity costs. Venezuela only needs 531 US dollars to mine a bitcoin, becoming the country with the lowest mining cost in the world; gimmicks such as Iran's only 4 cents of electricity bills and Malaysia's free electricity attract domestic miners , Rushed to other countries to find examples of "optimal mining sites."

In fact, behind these low-cost electricity, there are many hidden pits.

Iranian police release pictures of seized miners

For example, due to objective reasons such as large mining and power equipment, and small Iranian ships, it will take at least one year for the mining machine to pass the customs to the exhibition and add local relations. In addition, if it is not a compliant mine, it will still face This is an unpredictable report by local residents; Venezuela's electricity bills are indeed low, but frequent power outages and abductions and extortion of foreign miners are commonplace.

Iceland, once known as a mining ideal country by miners, is facing the predicament of lacking local power and building more dams and power stations to destroy the local natural environment while obtaining an excellent low-temperature cooling environment. For these miners who are migrating around the world, integration into the local environment is already a very high barrier.

However, in the crypto ecosystem, experienced miners have always been the most sensitive to risks and profits. It is also because of the tireless pursuit of profits by miners that the development of crypto mining has become a business with global influence. one.

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