El Salvador, which became the first nation to use Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender, could easily hold 5,750 Bitcoins, per “Bitcoin Office” report. The national Bitcoin Office is a government entity aimed at managing all projects related to the cryptocurrency.
Per a Reuters report, the nation mined nearly 474 Bitcoins since 2021 using geothermal power fueled from the Tecapa volcano.
JUST IN: 🇸🇻 El Salvador mines 474 #Bitcoin worth $29 million using its volcano-fueled geothermal power plant.
— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) May 15, 2024
The power plant’s official data released Tuesday, noted that the government holdings accounts to over $354 million at current prices. With the BTC wealth pool, the nation launched a Website on Tuesday for tracking its Bitcoin Treasury.
The nation’s current Bitcoin holdings and the launch of a memepool website, signifies that El Salvador might eventually become one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
Interestingly, President Bukele also stated that he has no plans to sell the country’s vast Bitcoin holdings. Bukele’s administration has installed 300 processors to mine Bitcoins from the volcano, the report added.
El Salvador’s Bitcoin Mining From Geothermal Power
The geothermal state-owned power plant devotes 1.5 megawatts (MW) to cryptocurrency mining, out of its 102 MW produced.
“We don’t spend resources that contaminate the environment, we don’t depend on oil, we don’t depend on natural gas, on any resource that isn’t renewable,” Daniel Álvarez, president of the Rio Lempa Hydroelectric Executive Commission, which oversees the plant, told AP News back in 2021.
Bitcoin mining in El Salvador would appear to have a supportive government in Bukele. However, when it comes to cheap electricity, the nation imports about one-fifth to one-quarter of its electricity. The rest of the electricity production is divided among hydroelectric, geothermal and plants fired by fossil fuels.
Among those, geothermal accounts for about a quarter of the country’s energy, given that El Salvador has 20 active volcanoes.
According to a 2021 report, the energy produced from the geothermal turbines source about 300 computers. Bitcoins are “mined” using computers that solve complex mathematical problems and require a large amount of electricity to operate.
First steps…
🌋#Bitcoin🇸🇻 pic.twitter.com/duhHvmEnym
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) September 28, 2021
In an industry that still relies heavily on polluting coal-fired power plants, the Salvadoran government is touting the use of clean energy for local mining.
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