Jun 25
Mining Cryptocurrencies with Volcanic Energy
Mining cryptocurrencies with volcanic energy
The local Bitcoin Lake project sought to try to replicate what Bitcoin Beach has achieved in El Salvador. Bitcoin Lake founder Patrick Melder told Bloomberg that cryptocurrency mining activities have already begun in the city. In addition, there are already more than a dozen businesses that accept payment with BTC.
These developments greatly help the adoption of cryptocurrencies in the population, as they make it much easier to access and use these assets.
Panajachel would thus become one of the first municipalities with bitcoin mining in Central America. The peculiarity of this place is that it has volcanic energy, just like El Salvador.
In this case, it has the volcanoes of San Pedro, Tolimán and Atitlán. Melder explained that this energy is a free resource that can be used locally and gives Central American cryptocurrency miners a competitive advantage over those who have to pay for electricity and therefore have additional fixed costs to keep their businesses running.
In addition, these initiatives have government support, so it is possible that they will have subsidies for the activity until it begins to cover the initial investment in cryptocurrency production.
Although geothermal power plants require a significant initial investment, it is estimated that cryptocurrency production can make these projects profitable in a matter of months.
Although it depends on factors that cannot be predicted, the optimistic nature of cryptocurrency makes predictions optimistic, and in any case, the low-cost source of electricity taking advantage of the geographical conditions of these communities has many practical applications.
Toward a Greener Industry
Regarding volcanic energy, Melder pointed out that:
“it is a free resource that can be used to mine cryptocurrencies without harming the environment. In fact, my goal is that cryptocurrency mining will help provide an economic incentive to clean up the lake for the benefit of the people around it.”
Another positive aspect of the project lies in the repercussions for the community, generating jobs, generating capital income, and improving the condition of the natural environment in the area.
The importance of cryptocurrency mining initiatives goes beyond capital inflows, as the benefits for small communities are enormous.
On the one hand, there is the educational factor in blockchain technologies and the use of crypto assets. On the other hand, these projects encourage businesses to accept crypto-assets and thus offer citizens a way to preserve value outside of local currencies susceptible to inflation and devaluation. Can these new nodes be competitive on the bitcoin network in the coming years?
There are currently other similar projects in the region, following the case of El Zonte, which served as the basis for the later acceptance of bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador.
Large projects are expected to be announced in other countries such as Paraguay or Argentina, and after the difficulties that miners in Kazakhstan are facing, the focus has been placed on Venezuela, as this country maintains one of the lowest rates of electricity consumption.
These competitive advantages could put Central American miners on the map and help further decentralize the bitcoin network around the world with more nodes and hashrate to process transactions for the growing community of cryptocurrency users.
Originally published at https://www.reddit.com.
