Every week we’ll be bringing you the highlights of Iran’s tech scene in the past week. This week, we covered Iran’s great capacity to issue its own cryptocurrency, USSD service’s safety guarantee, ICT developments in 5 years, new ride-hailing apps and the incident at Snapp’s Kerman office.

Iran, a Good Candidate for Issuing Its Own Cryptocurrency

According to Khosro Saljooghi, Member of IT Organization Operating Staff, Iran has the ability to replace paper bills with the digital money. He mentioned that today the value of digital currencies is based on the amount of electric energy which is spent on producing them. Iran benefits from vast deserts which can be used to transform solar energy into electricity for a tenth of the price compared to other countries in order to produce digital currencies. He also said that, in the status quo and with the need to confront the international sanctions against us, this capacity should be taken as an opportunity.

Previously, we heard that Iran’s Deputy Minister of ICT announcing the ministry’s determination to work alongside the Central Bank in entering this matter officially. For further reading on this subject, read this article.

USSD Safety Issues Solved

A good news in the past week was that the Minister of ICT, Azari Jahromi, announced the Communications Regulatory Authority’s (CRA) understanding with the Central Bank to guarantee the safety of using USSD services. According to this agreement and the understanding of cell-phone operators with PSP Companies, installing an applet on SIM cards is the proposed solution for securing the transactions. Currently this approach is being processed.

Related: 

Central Bank of Iran May Stop USSD Payments

Iran’s ICT Developments in 5 Years 

According to the minister of ICT, the number of startup accelerators in Iran has increased 25 times since 2011 and 30 empowerment centers for businesses were established during the past 5 years. Also 30 startup investors, 36 Computer Emergency Response Team (CRT) Centers and 4130 startups are currently active in the country. He also mentioned that the current value of the ICT market in Iran is about 9 billion dollars and by the end of the sixth development plan, it will reach to around 27 billion dollars.

Only Two of the Ride-Hailing Apps Have Official Permits

According to the Taxi Organization, out of the multiple ride-hailing apps that are currently being used, only two of them have obtained an official permit. These two are Carpino and Cabin. Also two new similar apps have been unveiled in the recent days. The first is again Cabin which obtained official permits from the start. And the second one is iTaxi which is designed by the Taxi Organization itself.

Snapp’s Kerman Office Was Attacked!

Last week the disturbing news of attacking Snapp’s office in Kerman by taxi drivers was reported. Unfortunately Snapp’s staff in this office were injured and the office itself was ruined. For more information about the attack, read this article.