Iran would be in talks with 8 countries to use cryptographic transactions

Iran will negotiate with eight countries to carry out financial transactions in cryptocurrency, local daily Tehran Times reported on Monday (January 28th).

According to the article, Iran has reportedly already started negotiations with Switzerland, South Africa, France, the United Kingdom, Russia, Austria, the United States, the United States and the United States. Germany and Bosnia, and these countries would have gone to Iran to discuss the issue.

It was not clear right away whether the news concerned the national cryptocurrency according to which Iran was about to launch its near future. However, the article notes that the talks on cryptographic transactions were organized with the aim of circumventing the current US sanctions against the country, which corresponds to the main stated objective of the Iranian currency.

In November 2018, US President Donald Trump fully reinstated all Iranian sanctions that had been eased in 2015, the ultimate goal being to reduce the use of Iranian oil by the United States.

The US administration warned of heavy penalties for companies evading the sanctions: in a recent example, Huawei's top official was arrested in Canada at the request of the US prosecutor who had accused her of violation of the sanctions imposed on Iran.

As Cointelegraph announced earlier this week, Iran could unveil its state-backed cryptocurrency at the conference on electronic payment and banking systems in Tehran, which will take place at the beginning of February. A digital currency issued by a central bank and linked to the national fiat could be an alternative to SWIFT, the global settlement system that some Iranian banks do not have access to.

Iran is not the only country to regard cryptocurrency as an effective way to get around sanctions. Venezuela has developed a national oil-backed currency, Petro, to reactivate its struggling economy and avoid restrictions imposed by the US and the EU. However, the experiment would not have succeeded.

At the same time, Russia would consider launching a digital currency backed by the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) alongside Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan.