Iran Planning to Launch Its Own Digital Currency

Currently, the country is being shaken by social uprisings, and the Iranian regime is under sanctions imposed by the United States. Still, we have now learned that Iran is thinking about creating its own cryptocurrency?. This was announced, via Twitter, by the Iranian Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications.

The Bank of Iran Develops a Local Currency

If we believe the Ministry’s tweet from February 21st, the country’s central bank is planning on creating a cryptocurrency? that will be backed by the state itself. The announcement was made after a meeting of the bank’s board of directors, during which, “the subject of digital currency based on Blockchain? technology was discussed.” Also, during the meeting, it was decided to “to introduce the very first digital currency with Cloud technology by using the power of the country’s elite.”

The announcement came at an interesting time, since the day before, February 20th, Venezuela, also under fire from international sanctions, launched their own cryptocurrency? dubbed the “Petro”. Elsewhere, central banks in China, Singapore and the UK have also been toying with the idea of launching their own national cryptocurrencies.

Iran Was Against the Idea of Cryptocurrency?

A few months ago, the Iranian central bank said, “Wild fluctuations and competitive business activities, such as marketing, have made the market unreliable and very risky.” They also confirmed that they were looking for solutions to “control and limit the use of digital money in Iran.”

Moreover, the Secretary of the Iranian authority in charge of cyberspace, Abolhassan Firouzabadi, said that Iran would begin “accepting” Bitcoin? if it were regulated. According to Iranian media, the Bank of Iran does not recognize Bitcoin? as a legal tender within the country.

On the other hand, many believe that the Iranian regime is trying to use cryptocurrency? to circumvent international sanctions since the use of Paypal, Mastercard and Visa are also sanctioned against in the country.

It should also be mentioned that the country’s national currency continues to lose value against the dollar despite the government’s efforts to reform interest rates. Still, the Iranian government has flat-out denied that they are trying to use Bitcoin? to bypass US sanctions.