Incredible things are happening in El Salvador! This tiny Latin American country is harnessing the energy of the Tecapa stratovolcano to mine bitcoins!
El Salvador is the first country to adopt Bitcoin as its legal tender. According to Interesting Engineering, the government is using the green thermal energy of the Tecapa volcano for Bitcoin mining. The recent estimates show that 1.5 MW out of 102 MW generated by the geothermal power plant powers 300 processors that mine cryptocurrency. Over three years, the state budget has been replenished with 474 Bitcoins thanks to green energy. At the current exchange rate, this is equivalent to $31.8 million.
Three years ago, El Salvador passed a law recognizing Bitcoin as an official payment method. As a result, the flagship cryptocurrency was put on equal footing with the US dollar, the country's official currency. As a result, this Central American country became the first in the world where payment with cryptocurrency is officially permitted. However, there is a fly in the ointment. Economists and environmentalists have frequently targeted this decision by the Salvadoran government. Earlier, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) noted that the "speculative nature of the number one cryptocurrency" poses a threat to the country's economy.