Iran, whose economy suffers from international economic sanctions, is discussing the use of its state cryptocurrency in the transactions with eight countries. This is reported by the Tehran Times.
Representatives of Iran, in particular, are negotiating with colleagues from Switzerland, South Africa, France, England, Russia, Austria, Germany and Bosnia. According to Mohammad-Reza Modoudi , head of the Iranian Trade Promotion Organization, meetings are held in the hope of attracting foreign investors to the country.
At the same time, the question of how Iran will be able to carry out international trade under the pressure of international sanctions restricting access to banking is relevant. According to Modoudi, the key to solving the problem is the digital rial.
On January 29 of this year, the European Commission announced that it intends to create a targeted organizational and legal structure designed to help European countries bypass US sanctions that impede working with Iran. Britain, Germany and France, importing oil and gas from Iran, are interested in eliminating the US dollar from the equation.
The European powers took this step because the Trump administration ensured that the global banking protocol SWIFT became inaccessible to the Iranian central bank. In addition, the US administration has banned US citizens from doing business with Iran, which adversely affects the country’s oil, gas, transport, and financial sectors. Now, when the European Commission is trying to circumvent the ban, America is threatening its allies. So, Republican Senator Tom Cotton said in an interview with the Associated Press:
“The choice is to do business with Iran or with the United States. I hope our European allies will make a wise choice. ”
Amid growing uncertainty, Iran seized the opportunity to create an alternative intergovernmental financial network.
Presumably, calculations in the crypto rial can be conducted among countries that are also under US sanctions. First of all, these are China, Russia, Turkey and Venezuela, although in the latter country the situation is now too unstable to talk about prospects. It is noteworthy that on November 14, Iran signed an agreement on cooperation in the blockchain sphere with Russia and Armenia.
In addition, today it has become known that a blockchain research laboratory and cryptocurrency has been created on the basis of the Iranian central bank. This was announced by Abotaleb Najafi, the head of the company responsible for this project and having concluded a contract with the central bank. The laboratory will be engaged in the development and release of the national cryptocurrency.
