This morning, El Salvador’s President, Nayib Bukele, wowed the Bitcoin world with a short video that shows several BTC mining rigs operating at a thermal power plant. The powerplant in question harnesses energy from the nation’s active volcanoes.
The video was shared to the president’s Twitter with the caption, “First steps…” and already has 41K likes and over 8K retweets.
Bukele did not give any explanation as to how many machines are currently online or how much volcanic electricity was being allocated to the Bitcoin mining effort. He simply explained that the project has begun operations to become a ‘volcanode’.
Volcanic energy
Volcanic power has been used to generate energy for over 100 years around the globe. The majority of this power comes from heat, that is created underground and can be harnessed using several technologies.
While volcanic heat has been used as a source of energy for years, El Salvador’s new Bitcoin mining plant is the first crypto initiative to use the natural energy resource.
El Salvador’s Bitcoin mining facility was developed to help the country to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender, which went ahead in early September. The president claimed that introducing the cryptocurrency as legal tender would bring, “”financial inclusion, investment, tourism, innovation and economic development.”
To ensure that the new policy can provide the prosperity claimed by the president, new Bitcoin mining facilities are being developed across the country. The government has directed state-owned geothermal electric firm, La geo, to develop a strategy that uses the country’s natural resources to produce power Bitcoin mining facilities.
Mixed responses to the initiative
Across Reddit, users were impressed with the use of volcanic power for Bitcoin mining. One user even predicted that El Salvador was “moving towards being the richest country in the world.” Another wrote that it was “hard to imagine the headline existing even a few months ago.”
While El Salvador’s president is receiving largely positive responses around the globe, he is currently fighting backlash at home. In El Salvador, there are controversies over alleged government plans to pay employees in Bitcoin, rather than fiat USD.
Bitcoin Adoption has received a lukewarm reception in El Salvador, with many citizens left confused over how the token works and questions over its volatility. Opposition leaders have also spurred claims that Bitcoin adoption will fuel money laundering in the nation.
Earlier this week, the president shutdown the notion that the state will seek to pay pensions in Bitcoin or let companies pay wages in anything other than fiat USD. However, reports supporting these claims continue to surface . Many El Salvador citizens would rather receive their pay in USD than Bitcoin and are beginning to worry about what the introduction of new BTC mining facilities will mean for their pay.
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