Many countries (China, Russia, Iran, etc...) have a giant incentive to escape SWIFT and US-centric control over value transfer.

IIRC, there has been effort by China an Russia to circumvent the petro-dollar jail. Why re-invent the wheel, when a system already exists for doing just that?

Or maybe nation states know something that everyone else doesn't wrt the actual robustness of crypto against state-sponsored attacks.

While this is true, they also are petrified of something they themselves don't have authority over. I don't think the hesitance is surprising, these are governments that are obsessed with controlling most aspects of their citizens lives.

On the other hand, these nation states would use cryto if they were technical and knowledgeable enough of the intricacies of such market. Venezuela already launched its own crypto-currency (the Petrodollar) which was a complete flop. You'd think that a nation state with all its resources, people, sovereignty and army would be able to make a cryptocurrency (probably an Ethereum fork) work. Well, it's simple: They can't.

Most countries today rely on a system they barely understand how it works. They collect taxes, print money and try to export/import stuff. The whole system is glued together by a nation that somehow appeared before, during or shortly after the second world war. Their answer to instability in markets is almost always restrictions (either in money transfers, or blocking imports, or arbitrarily confiscating wealth).

These systems have barely evolved especially in less developed countries, and even in first class countries are still quite archaic. It doesn't help that these system do not have knowledgeable people about these technologies who could help shape policy, recognize trends or act.

The only reason these countries still have semi-functioning finances is that a large portion of the population never heard, or have the technical capabilities to deal with crypto. The newer generation is going to force a re-draw of nation states and probably bankrupt some governments in the process (it's already starting to happen).

They don't even want to use that system. They want to create yet another that is state-controlled.

The US are only in this controlling situation because of a historical accident (WWII).

If they hope to establish non US-controlled ways of exchanging value, I suspect they'll have to relinquish some amount of control, unless - of course - China becomes much more preponderant both economically and militarily.

Well, the good news on that front is that most international money transfers use the IBAN system rather than swift, and IBAN is run by a consortium of EU banks.

Source?

And while it may be the case by number of transactions, I'd be very surprised if that was true by volume.

Edit; I think your parent comment is confusing concepts. IBAN is international bank account number. You enter an Iban as the target address for your swift transfer. I wasn't aware of a different system that also uses IBAN ... is there one?

When you wire money from e.g. Europe to the US, they don't speak IBAN, you have to specify US-centric bank account designations.

So it‘s more like "Iran nationalizes Bitcoin mines“?

Which isn't to say this absolves Iran of its oppression of internal opposition or funding of terrorists. But there is no Manichean opposition, and the United States' belligerence has tended to strengthen the conservative hardliners inside of Iran, at the expense of those who want to normalise relations and shift the balance of power in the country's theocratic-democratic structure towards the latter.

But it is grossly unfair, anyone who enthusiastically supports as-implemented US Middle Eastern policy is worse than irredeemable. If Bitcoin pushes back against that policy then I'll shelve what doubts I have about crypto because it would be helping in one of the world's real problems.

edit: werd

I mean that's what TV tells you every day of the week.

And when it's not enough, politicians at the highest level do the same thing.

How dare you make things complicated!

/s

...right yeah I getcha... their desire to bypass the financial system put in place by that very same foreign power must have absolutely no moral standing whatsover, especially since their democracy was ruined.

Not every article or comment needs a long winded disclaimer on how they feel about a topic just so they don't get cancelled. I know thats a foreign concept to some people.

Seems pretty easy for Iran to unsanction itself, just remove the "official miner" requirement.

Nope.

Excerpt from genesis [1]:

    00000080   01 04 45 54 68 65 20 54  69 6D 65 73 20 30 33 2F   ..EThe Times 03/
    00000090   4A 61 6E 2F 32 30 30 39  20 43 68 61 6E 63 65 6C   Jan/2009 Chancel
    000000A0   6C 6F 72 20 6F 6E 20 62  72 69 6E 6B 20 6F 66 20   lor on brink of 
    000000B0   73 65 63 6F 6E 64 20 62  61 69 6C 6F 75 74 20 66   second bailout f
    000000C0   6F 72 20 62 61 6E 6B 73  FF FF FF FF 01 00 F2 05   or banksÿÿÿÿ..ò.

The value of the coins mined in Iran is directly tied to the current spot price of Bitcoin.

Isn't in the USA's interest now to ban the exchange of Proof of Work coins in the USA? Which will subsequently crash the price and weaken Iran.

Not if they find an exchange - say in China - willing to exchange that coin for local currency and let them purchase goods with said local currency.

Not as hard as you might believe, especially at a sovereign nation level.

Right now in the US adoption is happening on the city/state level and expanding outwards, this is not a fluke.