Iran to Test a ‘National Cryptocurrency’

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An official from Iran’s Central Bank revealed that the pilot phase of the country’s digital currency project will begin soon. The Islamic Republic hopes to join a growing group of countries that want to benefit from having their own currency and implementing blockchain technology in other areas.

Trials of a state-backed digital currency will begin in Iran. Iran’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) will be piloted shortly, according to a high-ranking representative of the financial regulator quoted by the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA). The announcement comes four years after the project was first announced.

The CBI sees digital currencies as a solution for resolving certain inconsistencies and decentralizing resources, according to Mehran Moharamian, deputy governor for IT at the Central Bank of Iran. CBDCs have already begun to benefit other countries, he said.

Moharamian did not provide any specific information about when the pilot phase would begin. In 2018, the Iranian government tasked the country’s Informatics Services Corporation with creating a “national cryptocurrency.” The banking automation and payment services network in the country is run by the CBI arm.

According to the company, the Iranian digital currency was created using the Hyperledger Fabric platform, a blockchain framework implementation and one of Hyperledger’s projects hosted by the Linux Foundation.

The Iranian stock market is expected to be revived thanks to blockchain technology.

Despite the fact that the Iranian crypto space is largely unregulated — aside from mining — a report published this week claimed that officials are exploring various ways to use the technology that underpins cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

According to Majid Eshqi, the head of the Iranian Securities and Exchange Organization, the capital market in Iran should seriously consider adopting blockchain technology because it can help address some of the stock market’s most pressing issues and open up new avenues for its revival.

As quoted by SENA and the English-language business daily Financial Tribune, he elaborated: “At the very least, in two years, we will be forced to use blockchain technology. It won’t be long before physical assets and stocks that can be easily traded are tokenised.”

He went on to say that now is the time to consider the potential of blockchain technologies to solve some existing issues, such as shareholder identity verification, and to begin the infrastructure process.

Tehran will allow local companies to use cryptocurrencies in international settlements with their partners abroad, according to Iranian media earlier this month. According to reports, the central bank and government of the sanctioned country have given their approval to implement a mechanism to facilitate payments with digital coins in the field of foreign trade.

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Shambhavi Soni
Shambhavi Soni

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