El Salvador is now using energy from nearby volcanoes to mine bitcoin.
El Salvador Is Putting Local Volcanoes to Good Use
President Nayib Bukele announced late last week that his country had minted what he called the first volcano-powered bitcoin unit. He also posted a video of bitcoin rigs being set up at a geothermal crypto mining operation stationed in a forest which happened to be near a volcano.
Thus far, El Salvador has only managed to extract roughly $280 in BTC through volcanic power. On paper, this is barely a fraction of what a full bitcoin is worth today. However, the process appears to be working and Bukele has stated that this will be a long-running project for the Central American country. Following the news, the price of bitcoin rose to more than $47,000 while several other assets – including Ethereum, Cardano, and Ripple’s XRP – all shot up by anywhere between five and ten percent.
El Salvador has been on a roll these past few months to ensure bitcoin becomes a staple currency of its people. The nation first announced in June that bitcoin would become equal to the U.S. dollar, which the country – up to this point – had been heavily reliant on. While the U.S. dollar would not disappear into oblivion, it would no longer be the primary currency of the nation. This position would now be shared with BTC, and businesses were required to accept BTC for goods and services just like they were USD.
The country encountered heavy resistance from organizations like the World Bank, which stated it would not help El Salvador implement its bitcoin agenda due to the volatility and price swings that crypto tended to experience.
However, the Central American region did not let this little setback get in its way. It moved forward with its plans, and ultimately declared bitcoin legal tender in early September. Despite several protests from individuals who were fine utilizing USD and keeping life the same, El Salvador officially decided that BTC was here to stay.
The price of bitcoin shot up to a new all-time high in mid-April. The currency was trading for about $64,000 per unit, though the asset then came tumbling down after individuals like Elon Musk began to seriously decry the mining sector for allegedly wasting energy and contributing heavily to things like climate change and other potentially hazardous issues.
Fix the Energy Use!
Musk stated several months ago:
We are concerned about the rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel. Tesla will not be selling any bitcoin and we intend to use it for transactions as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy. We are also looking at other cryptocurrencies that use less than one percent of bitcoin’s energy.