El Salvador Now Mining Bitcoin Using Volcano-Powered Energy

El Salvador is gaining hype as the up-and-coming country to make cryptocurrencies legal tender. At the beginning of this month, the president, Nayib Bukele, said that volcano-powered energy would be used to mine Bitcoins. On the first day that volcano-powered energy was used to mine cryptocurrencies, he announced that they had accomplished an astonishing feat. He said that Bitcoin worth $269 had been mined this way.

Despite being a fascinating renewable source of energy, it is only in the testing phases. On September 29, the president uploaded a 25-second long video. It gave some little insight into the country’s volcano-enabled crypto mining trends. In the video, audiences can see government-sealed shipping containers with full rigs inside. The videos also show workers installing the rigs to allow Bitcoin mining.

This comes after the worldwide community showed concern of how much energy crypto mining takes. As a way to appease the environmentally-conscious crypto enthusiasts, Bukele focused on renewable energy sources.  In June, he tweeted relying on volcanoes for the purpose of Bitcoin mining. He explained that it would be completely clean, and with no emissions.

To reduce the country’s carbon footprint in terms of crypto mining, the president reached out to various bodies. For one, he called LaGeo SA de CV, the state-owned geothermal electric company. This was so that they could offer services for the purpose of Bitcoin mining. The aim of this was to reach the goal of a zero carbon footprint and cheaper mining costs. This is because geothermal energy accounts for a quarter of the country’s local energy production.

To put things in context, the country’s uninhabited regions have around 20 active volcanoes. But the energy released from the volcanoes wasn’t being used. At the same time, relying on geothermal energy to meet crypto mining-related energy needs wouldn’t be the most efficient move.

Consequently, the president decided to rely on the renewable energy available thanks to volcanoes. It would help ensure a cleaner and more efficient mining process. Of course, this wouldn’t make El Salvador the first country to do so. Other nations are using renewable energy for crypto mining purposes as well. Nordic nations like Norway and Iceland are popular among crypto communities for eco-friendly crypto mining practices. They have an abundance of renewable energy resources like wind, hydro, and geothermal power.

Since 2018, Iceland has been using renewable geothermal energy to mine cryptocurrencies. Similarly, Norway has 100 percent renewable energy. Here, crypto miners benefit from the fruitful energy resources to power their setups. Let’s not forget that in these countries, the climate plays an important role as well. Because of the naturally low temperatures in these countries, crypto miners can reduce overall costs by naturally cooling servers.