Iran to Test the Digital Rial Soon

According to Iran's Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture of Iran, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) declared this week that the pilot launch of crypto rial would start shortly.

Iran's national bank's digital currency is referred to as "crypto rial" (CBDC). The Chamber noted that the crypto rial will be a digital counterpart of the nation's official currency and that the Iranian central bank has stated that "the purpose of constructing the crypto rial is to turn banknotes into a programmable entity."

The Chamber explained that one of the main features of this central bank digital currency is "its high security," elaborating: Crypto rial has been designed in a way that is easy to track, and even if the data on the smartphones are hacked, the crypto rial can be tracked.

Earlier this month, the government of Iran has reportedly started issuing licenses to crypto miners​ under the new "comprehensive and detailed" regulatory framework previously approved. The authorities previously issued licenses to a number of crypto mining operations but halted the process due to power consumption and illegal mining issues.