Chronic Blackout: How Crypto Mining Worsens the Energy Crisis in Iran

Since late February 2025, residents of Iran have been living in constant readiness for power outages. Across the country, power supply disruptions lasting up to 3–4 hours per day are being recorded. For millions of families, this means refrigerators that stop working in the summer heat, hospitals forced to switch to emergency generators, and cities plunging into darkness.

Despite government assurances of a gradual “reduction in the slope of outages” in the coming years, reality tells a different story. On August 6, pro-government media warned citizens to “be prepared” for daily four-hour outages, and representatives of the Tavanir company hinted that next year outages would be “fair” — which in practice could mean not a reduction, but a redistribution or even an increase in time without electricity.

Mining as a Hidden Consumer

Experts and even state media are increasingly naming the main culprit of the energy problems — industrial cryptocurrency mining. According to Tavanir estimates, unauthorized mining installations consume about 3,000 megawatts of electricity. This is as much as three power units of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant produce.

Since 2019, authorities have discovered and seized 263,000 units of mining equipment — equivalent to the consumption of 2.6 million households. But even these figures may be understated: many farms operate covertly, being connected to influential structures, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

In 2022–2023, one power plant in Tehran consumed as much energy as 13 provinces of the country. Economists are already calling what is happening an “energy mafia takeover,” where the profit goes into the pockets of a narrow circle, and the cost is darkness in the homes of millions of people.

Social Tension Is Growing

In August 2025, spontaneous protests have already taken place in a number of cities. People demand the return of electricity to their homes, accusing the authorities of inaction and concealing the real causes of the outages. The situation is worsened by hot weather, water shortages, and the economic crisis.

With the current approach, the outlook appears grim: outages will continue, industrial mining will expand, and the energy system will deteriorate.

Why X1 EcoChain Is an Alternative That Could Save the Situation

The X1 EcoChain model was initially designed not to overload power grids.

• X1Nodes consume only 3 W/hour.

• They operate at home or in offices, without the need for industrial farms and giant power plants.

• The absence of ASIC equipment eliminates mass generation of electronic waste.

• The network is physically distributed and does not depend on centralized energy sources.

If blockchains operated on the X1 EcoChain principle, energy crises like Iran’s simply would not occur. Instead of thousands of megawatts being drained, only a few megawatts would be consumed, distributed among hundreds of thousands of low-power devices.

Conclusion

Mining in its current form is not just a technological activity, but a factor capable of destabilizing entire countries. Iran has already faced this head-on. Transitioning to energy-efficient solutions like X1 EcoChain is not a matter of trend, but a matter of survival for energy systems and social stability.

🌐 Website 📱X.com 📱Instagram 📱Discord 📱Telegram