Iran Demands Bitcoin For Ships Passing Hormuz During Ceasefire - Slashdot
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An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Financial Times: Iran will demand that shipping companies pay tolls in cryptocurrency for laden oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz (source paywalled; alternative source), as it seeks to retain control over passage through the key waterway du...

He said that the tariff is $1 per barrel of oil, adding that empty tankers can pass freely. “Once the email arrives and Iran completes its assessment, vessels are given a few seconds to pay in Bitcoin, ensuring they can’t be traced or confiscated due to sanctions,” Hosseini added.

  • CannonFodder@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    5 months ago

    How could that work? Doesn’t it take some time for a bitcoin transaction to get pulled into the chain?

    • commander@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      5 months ago

      At the size of transactions they’d be doing, it’d probably be worth it to set a high fee so that it gets picked up and processed faster. Should still be peanuts compared to the value of cargo these tankers are carrying

      • CannonFodder@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        5 months ago

        Doesn’t that require trust in the provider hosting the off chain transactions? And lightning transactions can get preempted by conflicting moves from a wallet, and invalidated? I’m no expert, but it seems like these big regular transactions would be targets for abuse.

        • fruitycoder@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          5 months ago

          Yes, as far as I understand it. No you create a mutisignature wallet first that holds the funds that can be moved around the layer 2 network.

          On chain makes more sense for this application to me too