DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Taxi drivers and cyclists furiously tap their cellphones as they wait at the red light in the Iranian capital during a heat wave in early June. Some pedestrians in Tehran do the same. They all believe they can become rich.
The object of their fascinated attention? The “Hamster Kombat” app.
Beyond a broader crypto craze, the app’s rise in Iran highlights a harder truth facing the Islamic Republic ahead of Friday’s presidential election to replace late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May: a economy hampered by Western sanctions, persistently high inflation and a lack of jobs.
Even as presidential candidates make promises about reviving the country’s economy, Iranians who have been hearing about bitcoin for years are now flocking to the app out of the sheer hope that it will one day pay off — without knowing much about who is behind it.
“It’s honestly a sign of desperation,” said Amir Rashidi, director of digital rights and security at Miaan Group and an expert on Iran. It’s about “trying to hold on to anything that you have a tiny bit of hope might one day become something worthwhile.”
Those able to divest from holdings in Iran’s beleaguered currency, the rial, have been buying property, art, vehicles, precious metals and other hard assets since the collapse of Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2015.
At the time of the deal, the exchange rate was 32,000 rials to $1. Today, the dollar is close to 580,000 rials — and many have found the value of their bank accounts, pension funds and other assets eroded by years of rapid depreciation.
Meanwhile, the prices of fruit and vegetables have risen by 50% since last year, while the price of meat has risen by 70%. The cost of a ride in a shared taxi, common in the Iranian capital, has almost doubled. Even rides on Tehran’s metro, still the cheapest option for the city’s commuters, have increased by around 30%.
“Since the morning I had three visitors in my store, none of them bought anything,” said Mohammad Reza Tabrizi, who runs a clothing store in central Tehran. “Most customers prefer to buy from hawkers or second-hand items in other places.”
In underground walkways and other parts of the city, hawkers sell almost anything they can get their hands on. It is this desperate environment that has increased the public’s interest in cryptocurrency and mobile games that offer coins.
The proliferation of smartphones throughout Iran, as well as the relatively low cost of mobile services compared to other countries, makes access to apps like “Hamster Kombat” attractive.
The app can be accessed through the messaging app Telegram, which remains popular in Iran despite attempts by authorities to block access to it. It functions as an incremental or a ‘clicker’ game: users repeatedly click on an object or complete repetitive tasks to earn points.
In “Hamster Kombat,” users believe they may be able to gain access to a purported cryptocurrency related to the game that is still not publicly traded.
In an email, individuals describing themselves as the game’s developers declined to answer questions about their identities or business plans, but insisted they “did not offer any cryptocurrency in the game.”
“We educate our audience about crypto through game mechanics,” the email claimed.
Still, the game is similar to another app that offered Iranians cryptocurrency in the past — and it appears that just the promise of what could be free money may be driving some Iranians to distraction.
Jokes online show a man tapping a gravestone as if it were a cell phone. Another uses a massage gun to quickly hit a hamster on the screen.
But the public’s fascination with the game has also caught the attention of authorities.
Vice Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, deputy head of Iran’s military, described the app as part of the West’s “soft war” against Iran’s theocracy ahead of the elections.
“One of the hallmarks of the enemy’s soft war is the ‘Hamster’ game,” Sayyari said, according to state news agency IRNA. He theorized that the “enemy” is popularizing the game so that people would be distracted. and not “pay attention to the plans of presidential candidates.”
“Then the people will fail to choose the best candidates,” Sayyari said. Hard-line experts in Iran have expressed similar views.
The daily JameJam, published by Iran’s state television, also warned that the ever-increasing interest in the game was a sign of “the dream of becoming rich overnight and acquiring wealth without effort.” It said the players range from “builders, mechanics and refrigerator repairmen to colleagues and classmates at university.”
“A society that, instead of working and trying to succeed and make money, turns to such games and looks for shortcuts and windfalls, gradually loses the culture of effort and entrepreneurship and moves towards convenience,” the paper said , without recognizing that the country’s economic problems were serious. that could potentially increase interest in the app.
The app has even caught the attention of a 97-year-old Shia religious scholar, Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, who is known for his fatwas declaring things “haram” or “forbidden” from his office in the holy city of Qom. Iran’s center of Shia learning, packed with religious schools and revered shrines.
Shirazi called cryptocurrency “the source of a lot of abuse” and said people should not use the “Hamster Kombat” app or other similar apps involving bitcoin.
Iran is not the only one concerned about the game.
Authorities in Ukraine, locked in a devastating war with Iran-armed Russia since Moscow’s 2022 invasion, warned that users’ data remains stored in Russia and could potentially put them at risk.
Then there’s the greater risk of exposure to malware, as consumers in Iran often cannot legally purchase new software or even access legitimate app stores. They also face the risk of state-sponsored hackers attacking them because of their political views.
Meanwhile, as Iran’s election campaign continues, presidential candidates are using Instagram, X and Telegram – all services previously banned by the theocracy following rounds of nationwide protests.
“As long as you can pay the price, everything is available,” says Rashidi, the Iran expert.
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Karimi reported from Tehran, Iran.