El Salvador president teases geothermal Bitcoin mining farm

Published at: Sept. 29, 2021

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele shared a video showing the apparent progress of the country’s Bitcoin (BTC) mining plant powered by volcanic geothermal energy.

The video shows an overview of a power generation facility, with technicians enabling crypto mining rigs.

First steps...#Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/duhHvmEnym

— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) September 28, 2021

Bukele did not elaborate much on the process shown on the video, only writing “first steps” with a Bitcoin tag alongside emojis depicting a volcano and El Salvador’s national flag. The president’s office did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

The post comes months after Bukele announced plans to build a geothermal Bitcoin mining facility. The president said in June that he would be instructing state-owned electrical company LaGeo to manage a Bitcoin mining plant powered with “very cheap, 100% clean, 100% renewable, 0 emissions energy.”

El Salvador officially accepted Bitcoin as legal tender on Sept. 7 to work alongside United States dollars, just three months after the nation’s Legislative Assembly passed the “Bitcoin Law.”

Related: Bitcoin’s power consumption this year has already surpassed all of 2020’s

The latest move by the Salvadoran government reaffirms the massive potential for Bitcoin proponents to cut BTC’s carbon footprint, using a wide number of renewable energy sources, including hydroelectric, solar and wind power.

According to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Bitcoin already hit its benchmark on renewable energy in July, suggesting that the percentage of renewable energy usage was “likely at or above 50%.”

Tags
Related Posts
New project aims to bring global crypto miners to Russia
A major cryptocurrency and blockchain association in Russia is launching a project to bring global crypto mining operations to the country amid a Chinese crypto mining crackdown. The Russian Association of Cryptoeconomics, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain, or RACIB, announced an initiative aimed at transferring global computing resources for crypto mining to the Russian Federation. More information on the project is expected to be released at a later date, a spokesperson for RACIB told Cointelegraph. In order to promote and implement the project, RACIB is closely cooperating with Russian government authorities and state corporations, forming a range of joint working groups …
Adoption / July 16, 2021
Russian Ministry wants to legalize Bitcoin mining in specific areas
Amid the Russian government continuing working hard to come up with cryptocurrency regulations, a federal ministry has made another proposal regarding the crypto mining industry. Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development has greenlighted the concept of crypto mining regulation in the country, proposing to allow mining operations in areas with “sustainable surplus in electricity generation,” local news agency Izvestia reported Tuesday. As part of the proposal, the ministry suggested introducing lower fees for setting up mining farms and data centers in specific Russia’s areas as well as offering reduced energy rates for such facilities. The ministry also wants to establish a …
Bitcoin / Feb. 15, 2022
Here’s how blockchains are helping to advance the global energy grid
The blockchain industry’s impact on the energy sector has been a major source of controversy over the past five years. Governments and environmental protection advocates have routinely expressed concerns about the amount of energy required to keep the Bitcoin network secure. Data shows the network’s energy consumption now rivals the yearly energy consumed by some small countries. While much of the debate has centered around the negative environmental impacts of Bitcoin (BTC) mining, the drive to maximize earnings from mining and integrate blockchain technology with the energy grid has also introduced new developments that have the potential to be beneficial …
Adoption / June 10, 2022
Russia seems to be preparing to mine Bitcoin with flare gas
The Russian government continues to establish links with major players in the cryptocurrency mining industry despite staying skeptical about legalizing cryptocurrency trading and payments. Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom Neft has entered into a partnership with BitRiver, the largest crypto-mining colocation services supplier in Russia providing hosting services for major crypto mining operations. Gazprom will provide BitRiver's partner data centers with electricity generated from the associated petroleum gas, the companies officially announced on June 16. As part of the collaboration, BitRiver will be developing a digital infrastructure based on the oil fields that Gazprom provides crypto mining services from the …
Adoption / June 17, 2022
Is Bitcoin a waste of energy? Pros and cons of Bitcoin mining
Bitcoin arouses passion, curiosity and has received more and more media attention, especially after having climbed the ranks of the best financial asset of the decade. However, whenever its price goes up, many doubts and questions arise, mainly around its origin and the energy expenditure by miners. The Bitcoin protocol has created a unique digital asset To understand how Bitcoin (BTC) is created and what mining is, the key is the double-spending problem. Before Bitcoin, there was neither a digital value to be transferred nor a digital asset to be divided into several parts. That is, if you scanned a …
Technology / Jan. 24, 2021