Over the past two days, a number of Asian media have announced the release of PayMon gold-backed “cryptocurrency” in Iran. All of them refer to the news agency Mehr News , which on July 13 published a small note that said that the payment instrument would soon be released.
It is worth noting that the first time about PayMon (from the Persian "covenant") became known in February of this year. Then the media reported that the launch had already allegedly took place, however, it can be assumed that the speech was most likely about the test phase.
Thus, the gold-backed digital currency was allegedly developed by the four major banks Parsian Bank, Bank Pasargad, Bank Melli Iran and Bank Mellat under the supervision of the country's central bank, the agency reports. The mining of this digital currency, the report said, is already being carried out by a consortium of private Iranian IT firms.
"This Iranian payment tool based on encryption will facilitate the optimal use of the frozen assets of Iranian banks ," quoted Shahab Javanmardi, a representative of the Chamber's Commerce, Industry and Agrarian Policy Resource.
BlockchainJournal was able to discover Javanmardi 's LinkedIn page , which states that he is the general director of FANAP . This is a large IT company that is part of the Pasargad Financial Group. Note that Bank Pasargad is considered one of the developers of PayMon.
Apparently, the Iranian digital currency should help the country bypass international economic sanctions, in particular – the US. Probably, US President Donald Trump could ban its use by US citizens and companies, as he did in the case of Venezuelan El Petro, and also threaten foreign corporations with restrictions if they start working with PayMon.
Add that yesterday, tensions in relations between Iran and Western countries has increased dramatically. This happened due to the detention by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of a British tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran said that the ship violated international maritime law, and the country's ambassador to the UK, Hamid Baidinejad, stressed that Iran is ready for any development of events, even in the event of an escalation.
It should be noted that the government should not exceed the issue of ships. This is quite dangerous and unwise at a time. Iran however is firmly ready for different scenarios.
– Hamid Baeidinejad (@baeidinejad) July 21, 2019
International shocks, such as the US and Chinese trade war , as well as the risks of military conflicts in the Persian Gulf, usually have a strong effect on financial markets. Investors fear escalation and may leave for so-called “safe havens”, such as gold or bitcoin.
Recall that in the Grayscale Investments report “Hedging global risks for liquidity using Bitcoin” , the impact of crises on the price of Bitcoin is analyzed in detail .
Returning to the situation in Iran, according to the Mehr News news agency, the private sector asked the authorities to take a clear position on cryptocurrencies, because in the past the central bank tried to enforce a legislative ban on Bitcoin payments, and the Ministry of Energy, on the contrary, considered the introduction of export tariffs for miners to increase revenue.
Nevertheless, the situation with the purchase of Bitcoin in Iran is extremely difficult, since recently residents of this Islamic republic stopped servicing the LocalBitcoins service, and local bitcoin exchanges cannot provide stable liquidity for orders above 2 BTC.
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