El Salvador began "mining" Bitcoin with volcanic geothermal energy

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2021-10-17 09:22

In early September, the Central American country of El Salvador became the first country in the world to officially recognize Bitcoin as legal tender. In order to alleviate the energy consumption and pollution during the "mining" of Bitcoin, the country began to use volcanic geothermal energy to generate electricity, providing energy for "mining".

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are virtual goods that rely on a large number of computers to continuously perform high-power calculations, a process known as "mining." Due to the huge energy consumption of Bitcoin's "mining" process and the serious pollution of traditional fossil fuel power generation, Bitcoin's "mining" activities have attracted a lot of criticism.

Now, at a geothermal power plant near El Salvador's Tecapa volcano, 300 Bitcoin "mining" machines are working continuously. The electricity they use is provided by high-pressure vapor heated by volcanic thermal energy, which belongs to renewable clean energy. However, Salvadoran environmentalists say that if the government has a way to generate electricity from cheaper renewable energy, it should first supply electricity to residents, rather than using it for cryptocurrency "mining".

Since the official listing of Bitcoin as legal tender, the Salvadoran government has faced considerable pressure at home and abroad. Concerned about the high risk of price volatility and poor financial stability, many Salvadorans oppose the use of Bitcoin and have held several protests to this end. At the same time, international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have also said that there are many problems in the regulatory and legal fields of El Salvador using bitcoin as legal tender.