The popularity of the Hamster Kombat clicker game in Iran has caused sharp criticism and concerns from local authorities. This is reported by the Associated Press.
According to the publication, the Iranians' fascination with cryptocurrencies and mobile applications with the distribution of digital assets is explained by the difficult economic situation. The country under sanctions is suffering from high inflation and a lack of jobs.
Users believe that in Hamster Kombat they will be able to access the alleged cryptocurrency associated with the game, which is still not publicly sold.
"A desperate attempt to grab onto a tiny hope that this will one day turn into something valuable," explained Amir Rashidi, director of digital rights and security at Miaan Group.
In turn, Iranian government officials saw the clicker craze as an attempt to distract citizens from the upcoming presidential elections. The deputy commander of the country's armed forces, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, called the Hamster Kombat "a tool of the West."
"One of the features of soft warfare on the part of the enemy is the game of hamster. [The people are being distracted so that they] don't pay attention to the plans of the presidential candidates and can't choose the best candidates," he said.
The daily newspaper JameJam, published by Iran's state television, accused citizens of wanting to "get rich without effort."
"A society that, instead of working and striving for success and earnings, turns to such games and looks for the shortest ways to windfall income, is gradually losing the culture of effort and entrepreneurship, moving towards convenience," the newspaper said, without mentioning the existing economic problems.
97-year-old Shiite religious scholar Nasser Makarem Shirazi called cryptocurrency "a source of many abuses." He recommended against using Hamster Kombat or other similar bitcoin-related applications.
Some countries are fighting the clicker at the legislative level. For example, in Uzbekistan, Hamster Kombat players were threatened with arrest and a fine.
Due to numerous requests, NAPPA, the local crypto market regulator, has issued an explanation regarding the application.
The agency explained that at this stage it does not classify Hamster Kombat as a Play-to-Earn, since the in-game currency has no collateral and no real utility.
According to local legislation, coins also do not fall under the definition of a crypto asset, since the blockchain is not used for the issue.
In the case of listing and recognition of HMSTR tokens as a crypto asset, citizens of Uzbekistan will be able to buy and sell them only through licensed national cryptocurrency service providers. Up to this point, the regulation of the token turnover is not within the competence of NAPPA.
Sources of The Bell publication name the creator of Hamster Kombat Russian IT entrepreneur Eduard Gurinovich. He is the founder of the online used car auction CarPrice and the CarMoney lending service.
Telegram messenger is among the beneficiaries of the clicker, and the cash turnover reaches several million dollars a day, according to the interlocutors of the publication.
As of mid-June, the number of active Hamster Kombat players exceeded 150 million people.
Earlier, the KuCoin cryptocurrency exchange announced the premarket of the in-game HMSTR token. The start of trading has been postponed several times and is currently scheduled for June 28.
Recall that security researchers discovered two fraudulent campaigns in Telegram at once, aimed at Hamster Kombat players.