President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador has announced that bitcoins will begin to be mined taking advantage of the volcanic activity in the territory. Since September 7, this cryptocurrency has become a legal tender in the country and through geothermal energy it is intended to guarantee its stability.
Through a publication on his Twitter account , Bukele has notified that El Salvador has obtained 0.00483976 bitcoins (approximately 200 euros) thanks to this method. However, he has indicated that the system is still being “tested and installed”.
- Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻 (@nayibbukele) September 28, 2021
The main reason for the use of this type of energy is the high energy consumption required to mine virtual money. Faced with this problem, El Salvador will use a resource that is abundant in its territory: geothermal energy.
El Salvador will offer $ 30 in bitcoins to each citizen who downloads the government’s cryptocurrency app
This occasion would not be the first time that the country uses this energy. Long, El Salvador gets a quarter of its electricity through its facilities.
The only change they have made in order to use their volcanic activity for financial gain is to create a bitcoin mining center next to the existing facilities. Through this system, Bukele’s idea is to create bitcoins with geothermal energy.
In this way, the president of El Salvador fulfills his promise that LaGeo, the state electricity company, will offer “Bitcoin mining facilities with cheap energy, 100% clean, 100% renewable and 0 emissions” from its volcanoes.
With these proposals, El Salvador is trying to make bitcoin relevant in the territory compared to its other legal tender, which is the US dollar. However, this measure has not yet succeeded in convincing the Salvadoran citizenry.
