Central Bank of Iran: Cryptorial to Be Made Available to Public Soon
The Public Relations Department of the Central Bank of Iran announced on Thursday, January 27, that a new payment instrument called Cryptorial will be made available to the public “soon.”
The Shargh newspaper reported on Thursday, citing the Central Bank: “Cryptorial is another form of banknote that will be provided to people in a completely digital format.”
Mehran Mohammadian, Deputy for New Technology at the Central Bank, had previously stated on January 17 that while announcing the “pilot” implementation of Cryptorial, this digital currency was designed to resolve the contradiction between “decentralization of cryptocurrencies” and “sovereignty of national currencies” and was conceived with the approval of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic.
The Central Bank of Iran had banned the buying and selling of Bitcoin in Iran in May 2018, stating that since “the nature of virtual currencies transforms them into a tool for money laundering, financing terrorism, and generally transferring money between criminals, banks have been instructed to prohibit the use of these currencies.”
However, some Iranian officials and parliament representatives have openly stated in recent years that cryptocurrencies are an effective tool for circumventing sanctions. For example, Gholamreza Marzbeh, spokesperson for the Economic Commission of Parliament, stated in late September this year, referring to an annual cryptocurrency extraction of “1.1 billion dollars in Iran,” that “we cannot be indifferent and unplanned regarding the use of this capacity to circumvent sanctions.”
The Central Bank of Iran has not yet released details about Cryptorial, its mechanism, its convertibility to other currencies, and its cost.
Arash Ghanbarzadeh, a digital currency market analyst, had previously stated in an interview with “Online Economy” that “the national cryptocurrency, given that it is under the supervision of the Central Bank and completely centralized, does not possess the decentralized nature of digital currencies” and “will likely not be mineable.”
Mr. Ghanbarzadeh added that “for people interested in digital currencies, the national cryptocurrency cannot be an attractive option. But for the government, as a way to circumvent sanctions, it is a solution they have thought about.”
Source: Radio Farda
