El Salvador Uses Geothermal Volcanic Energy For Bitcoin Mining
What’s The News
A Central American country El Salvador recent information reveals something interesting about Bitcoin mining through an eco-friendly process using geothermal volcanic energy. El Salvador mines around 474 Bitcoins worth $29 million using volcanic geothermal energy since 2021.
Over three years of accumulation, the Country El Salvador currently holds 5750 BTC worth $354 million. El Salvador mines Bitcoin with volcanic energy from the country’s Tecapa Volcano. Tecapa uses special computers called processors which use volcanic energy that comes from the heat inside the volcano, which is called geothermal energy.
They used the energy of 300 mining processes, whereas the mining process used 1.5 megawatts (MW) of power out of the 102 megawatts that the power plant produces. However, the power plant in El Salvador produces energy more than the country requires that’s why they allocated a part to the mining process, according to Reuters.
As Bitcoin mining consumes a lot of environmentally hazardous fossil fuels, it has caused a lot of debates in the cryptocurrency community. Ripple and other organizations like Greenpeace support the change from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake mining for Bitcoin. On 22 November 2023, Governor Kathy Hochul of New York commanded the ban of some types of Bitcoin mining which will be enforced for the next two years.
However, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla has announced that in the future customers will be able to buy Tesla vehicles with Bitcoin after purchasing $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin. On the other hand, after he got to know the environmental significance of Bitcoin mining. he had second thoughts. He stated that he would provide more than 50% of Bitcoin mining using clean energy. Some reports suggest that Tesla has already relied around 60% on renewable energy sources for Bitcoin mining. Musk has not talked about this or has not yet implemented the payment option with Bitcoin. A lawsuit ruling out that Tesla broke the clean air regulations is on trial in the context of the pollution that took place at its Fremont manufacturing.
El Salvador uses Bitcoin as Legal Tender
El Salvador is the first and foremost country that accepted Bitcoin as a legal tender in their country in the year 2021. They use the United States Dollar along with Bitcoin remarks that they are not dependent only on US currency for their transactions. This step leads El Salvador to open new doors of development along with environmental safety.
After 2021, the regulatory authorities of El Salvador focused on various policies regarding Bitcoin which includes Bitcoin mining through geothermal plants. However, many other countries criticized and argued for adopting Bitcoin as a legal tender. Also, the World Bank heavily criticized the Central American nation for adopting Bitcoin.
The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele won the re-election in 2024 with huge support due to supporting Bitcoin adoption policies. Even in the tough times, Nayib Bukele supports Bitcoin. He states that the Country would buy one BTC every day.
The Bitcoin Mining process requires high electricity, fossil fuels, and other resources that can harm the environment. El Salvador is renewing the volcanic energy and transforming it into a productive pathway leading to an eco-friendly environment.
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