Bitcoin mining is thriving in Iran – but mostly in the shadows. FILL OUT THE MINING POD SURVEY BY CLICKING HERE You're listening to The Mining Pod. Subscribe to the newsletter, trusted by over 15,000 Bitcoiners: https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com 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 Plus, Alavi discusses how Iranian citizens use outdated mining equipment to evade sanctions, convert crypto to USD, and survive capital controls from within and sanctions from without.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. Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com # Notes: - Only 5MW legal mining vs. 2GW illegal in Iran - Outdated S9 miners still profitable in Iran - Illegal miners caught by authorities - High tariffs push miners to operate illegally - 18 million Iranians own crypto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 👉 Fractal Bitcoin, Reduces up to 50% of your pool fee. No new hardware, no extra energy. And it’s easy. FB rewards go straight to your existing Bitcoin wallet address. Over 50% of Bitcoin’s hashpower is already merge mining Fractal. Get more from the same resources — start on Fractal today! 👉 Luxor, Leaders In Bitcoin Mining and Compute Power! Get game-changing mining results with Luxor Firmware. Boost hashrate, cut energy costs, protect your hardware, and maximize mining profits with LuxOS. Published twice weekly, "The Mining Pod" interviews the best builders and operators in the Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining landscape. Subscribe to get notifications when we publish interviews on Tuesday and a news show on Friday! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.