Crypto-friendly El Salvador mines first bitcoin with energy from volcanoes
El Salvador has officially mined a tiny part of its first bitcoin using the power harnessed from a volcano, President Nayib Bukele announced a month after his country adopted the cryptocurrency as legal tender.
The mining operation, run by the state-controlled energy company LaGeo SA de CV, managed to generate 0.00599179 bitcoin, or about $269, using geothermal power from volcanoes, Bukele tweeted.
We’re still testing and installing, but this is officially the first #Bitcoin mining from the #volcanode 🌋
— Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻 (@nayibbukele) October 1, 2021
Earlier this week, the president shared on Twitter a video of government-branded shipping containers carrying digital-currency miners to an energy facility in the jungle for installation by LaGeo technicians.
There are 20 volcanoes on the territory of the small Central American country, and nearly a quarter of its domestic energy production is generated by geothermal energy.
First steps...🌋#Bitcoin🇸🇻 pic.twitter.com/duhHvmEnym
— Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻 (@nayibbukele) September 28, 2021
In June, El Salvador’s congress approved the proposed adoption of bitcoin as legal tender. Three months later, President Bukele announced that his government had purchased the first 400 bitcoin, marking the start of the world-first adoption of the currency.
As part of the nationwide rollout, the government added hundreds of bitcoin to its balance sheet and launched a virtual wallet called Chivo, or “cool” in Spanish slang. The crypto-wallet offers no-fee transactions and allows for quick cross-border payments, and every Salvadoran account-holder was gifted an initial $30 in digital assets.
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