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El Salvador adopts Bitcoin as legal tender.
- The country intends to establish a clean energy bitcoin mining hub.
- Bitcoin has come under fire in recent weeks for its role in promoting coal generation.
This week, El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender. The country has further gone ahead to propose using clean energy to mine the cryptocurrency. El Salvador intends to utilise geothermal energy from its volcanoes to provide energy for mining facilities.
President Nayib Bukele stated that that the country’s engineers have already dug a new well capable of generating 95MW of 100% clean and zero emissions geothermal energy. In addition, the president shared on Twitter that the country intends to develop a Bitcoin mining hub around the new well. Bitcoin price has rallied following the announcement from the Latin American country.
I’ve just instructed the president of @LaGeoSV (our state-owned geothermal electric company), to put up a plan to offer facilities for #Bitcoin mining with very cheap, 100% clean, 100% renewable, 0 emissions energy from our volcanos 🌋
This is going to evolve fast! 🇸🇻 pic.twitter.com/1316DV4YwT
— Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻 (@nayibbukele) June 9, 2021
Bitcoin has come under fire in recent weeks due to the energy demands for mining cryptocurrency. However, this news could be the momentum the currency needs for increased global adoption and show that disruptive finance can also align with the global transition to clean energy.