El Salvador Mines Nearly 474 BTC Using Geothermal Volcanic Energy

El Salvador, a Central American country has once again shown its commitment to boosting its Bitcoin reserves. In a recent disclosure, the country revealed that it has mined nearly 474 Bitcoin (BTC) over the past three years by harnessing its geothermal energy.

El Salvador Continues to Boost Its Bitcoin Holdings

According to a Reuters report, the BTCs were mined by a small amount of geothermal energy generated by the country’s imposing Tecapa volcano, using 300 mining processors. The nation has allocated 1.5 megawatts (MW) to cryptocurrency mining out of the 102 MW produced by the state-owned power plant. 

The new BTC addition brings the government’s total bitcoin holdings to a staggering 5,750 BTC equivalent to nearly $354 million at the current market, according to data from the Bitcoin Office, a government-owned agency.

Furthermore, El Salvador president Nayib Bukele, who was recently re-elected for a second term, has installed about 300 processors to mine bitcoins from the volcano.

Bitcoin mining is known to be notorious due to its high power consumption and carbon emissions. However, El Salvador’s method of mining through geothermal energy has the potential to change perspective about mining. This initiative of amassing Bitcoin while significantly reducing its environmental impact places the country at the forefront of eco-friendly crypto mining, a stark contrast to the energy-intensive methods usually scrutinized for their environmental impact.

El Salvador’s Bitcoin Adventure 

Ever since El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender in 2022, despite various criticism challenges from governments and organizations, the country has continued its Bitcoin venture thereby driving the nation’s economic growth and development. The nation even adopted a Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) strategy to buy one bitcoin every day.

Earlier this year, El Salvador’s Bitcoin-loving president revealed that the country has four additional sources of Bitcoin revenue for the government which include income from its passport program, revenue from helping local businesses convert BTC to USD, profit generated from mining, and revenues from government services. 

Recently, the Central American nation took a significant step towards accountability and transparency with regard to its Bitcoin holdings by launching a website dedicated to disclosing information on its treasury holdings to the public.

At press time, the leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin was trading at $63,764, which represents a slight increase of 3.5% in the past 24 hours.