Bitcoin mining heats up in El Salvador

Elliot Shirnia
2 min read
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The President of El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele, has teased his nation’s new volcanic geothermal-powered Bitcoin (BTC) mining system.

President Bukele posted a video of the in-development mining system which has been added to the LaGeo (El Salvador’s national geothermal energy plant) site to facilitate BTC mining.

The creation of a zero-emissions mining system is a big step for BTC. The community and miners, in particular, have come under intense scrutiny recently for the high energy usage that mining requires.

It was approximated earlier this year by Cambridge University that the yearly energy used for mining BTC is greater than that of Argentina.

The increase in power consumption has meant that mining has become a ‘dirty’ phrase. Introductions of mining pools such as El Salvador’s should do a lot to change that. Already a large amount of energy used for mining comes from renewable sources.

Until recently, the range of carbon-neutral energy used to mine BTC was between 39% and 73%. The comes from China, where at times the hash rate can rise about 50% from Sichuan and Yunnan provinces during the rainy season when hydroelectric power is at its most abundant.

El Salvador made headlines earlier this year after it became the first nation to adopt BTC as an alternative to its national currency. President Bukele instructed the president of LaGeo to prepare a zero-emission mining facility only a few days after the announcement of BTC’s adoption.

The creation of the mining centre has come at just the right moment. As China shuts down mining operations, the creation of a renewable energy mining centre has the potential to invite Chinese miners to El Salvador. With over 25% of the nation’s energy coming from renewable geothermal sources, El Salvador may suddenly become home to a huge new green mining operation. The future of BTC mining is hotting up.

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