The fear of the dominant global financial system regarding Iran’s use of cryptocurrencies is just a tiny facet of the documentation in this area that needs to be brought to policymakers’ attention.
Bitcoin is scary, or perhaps it’s better to say it was scary. Bitcoin was frightening because it was disruptive. This disruption created the best opportunities for a sanctioned and isolated country from the global financial system. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies present many opportunities, but there are two major caveats. The first caveat is that before Iranian officials realized what Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are and what opportunities they provide, the sanctioning powers identified what an opportunity for us is as a serious threat to themselves in think tanks and universities. Referring to articles published 5 or 6 years ago, one can understand the extent of the dominant system’s fear of the opportunities that cryptocurrencies presented for Iran. The second caveat relates to the fact that some individuals in Iran, knowingly and unknowingly, have left no effort untried to restrict cryptocurrencies. Many opportunities have been wasted, and although awareness among policymakers and government officials has significantly increased, we still do not see a practical will and national consensus for transformation based on blockchain and token economics in the country.
In this issue, we have extensively discussed the fear of the dominant global financial system regarding Iran’s use of cryptocurrencies. However, this only scratches the surface of the documentation in this area intended to remind policymakers, that the story of this fear is much broader and more serious.
One powerful tool the United States uses to control cryptocurrencies is Chainalysis’s technology and services. According to public documents, this company is a contractor for all military and security agencies in the West. Reza Soltani provides an interesting overview of Chainalysis’s services and operations.
America’s efforts to dominate the blockchain world are not limited to government or emerging blockchain companies; even a giant like Google has not overlooked Web 3. In this issue, Hossein Ghotbi reveals Google’s plans in blockchain.
Some in Iran still repeat false claims like parrots; for instance, they say cryptocurrencies have not been legalized anywhere or that tokenization necessarily means money creation and similar statements. In previous issues, we wrote about the use of cryptocurrencies by China and Turkey, and this time, Maral Koushki explains the regulation of cryptocurrencies in the UK. We will continue to gather and publish this information until no one can claim that cryptocurrencies and tokenization are illegal everywhere.
In one of the most important events of the current year, a group of blockchain ecosystem activists in the country engaged in a direct dialogue with Mohammad Amin Aghamiri, Secretary of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace. Majid Eshghi, Mehran Mahramian, and Mojtaba Tavangar were also present at this meeting. Faezeh Taheri’s account of the meeting is worth reading. I would like to thank Aminollah Dad for coordinating this meeting.
From the beginning, the development of cryptocurrencies and blockchain has had many victims. The latest of these heroes, who has fallen out of favor with the U.S. government, is CZ, the founder of Binance; Maral Koushki narrates the story of his rise and fall in this issue.
Stay tuned for the next issue.
