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Definitely. We have no means of international purchases. Credit cards, master cards, Paypal, nothing. Bitcoin was a hope for us until the the government released an official statement and deemed it illegal.

Oh yes... I had students in Iran in a similar situation. They had to buy prepaid visa cards on the black market to trade.

There are decentralised exchanges, though still young, http://bisq.network is one of them. For those willing to risk reprimand, there are ways around overbearing regulations