Iranians (and Americans) Use Bitcoin to Fight Government Control

Thanks to U.S. sanctions, dollars are scarce in Iran. Enter Bitcoin, the handy-dandy stateless peer-to-peer crypto currency! Iranians are using the hard-to-trace digital currency (which can be exchanged for dollars) to buy things they want or need abroad. And Americans are using bitcoins to evade sanctions:  

At online store coinDL.com, shoppers can use bitcoins to buy Beyond Matter, the latest album from Iranian artist Mohammad Rafigh. Anyone in the U.S. downloading songs, which fetch .039 bitcoins or 45¢ each, risks violating U.S. sanctions. That doesn't bother Rafigh, who's studying computer engineering as well as playing music. "Bitcoin is so interesting for me," Rafigh wrote in an e-mail. "I wish the culture of using digital money spreads all over the world, because it does not have any dependency on anything like politics." Rafigh has translated some bitcoin software into Farsi for his friends. "I love Iran, and if bitcoin is good for me, it can be good for more Iranians like me."

Here's Reason TV on Bitcoin and the end of state-controlled money:

Comments

[InlineSkate]

Unfortunately Bitcoin is still a risky bet. It's valuation is very unstable and tends to jump around dramatically.

[Adam.]

Nevermind that it's been hacked a few times. I really want to believe in Bitcoin but it has a ways to go before it's really safe to use. Of course if you want to buy drugs online it's probably one of the best ways, which is not a particularly safe activity anyway.

[np]

Bitcoin itself has never been hacked. People's computers have been hacked and their digital wallets exposed (some of the press conflate these two)

There are ways to keep yourself secure when using bitcoin

[waaminn]

I dunno man, bitcoin reminds me of "e-gold" I lsot several hundred dollars with e-gold.

http://www.anon-ut.tk

[stateless]

No company runs or owns bitcoin like e-gold, there is no central servers to shutdown or take, tens of thousands of computers around the world keep bitcoin going.

If you have bitcoins and you have them safely stored or are using a brainwallet with a good password you have almost no chance of losing them, if you are using a service to store your bitcoins you have some risk.