Danger into Profit: El Salvador is Going to Use a Volcano for Bitcoin Mining

Volcanoes are known for their catastrophic destructive potential. The citizens of Pompei knew this full well. However, with the advancement of mankind, even this mighty force of nature does not seem so scary anymore. Some crazies have found a way to harness it for profit. For bitcoin mining, for example.

The second month of autumn began with another announcement from El Salvador. This time, the country's president, Nayib Bukele, tweeted that a mining farm based on geothermal energy from a volcano in San Salvador is being tested.

In fact, the facility was already installed in September. Earlier, Bukele had presented a video showing the installation of mining equipment at the facility. During the testing phase, the farm has already mined about $260 worth of BTC.

Never stop innovating

It seems like El Salvador is really becoming progressive. After the country adopted Bitcoin as its second national currency, about 1.6 million citizens have already registered a BTC wallet, according to CoinIdol, a world blockchain news outlet. And the number keeps growing.

Despite numerous problems with the country's national Chivo wallet, El Salvadorans seem to be showing a lot of interest in cryptocurrency. If the country now starts mining its own digital gold reserve, interest could grow even stronger.

Currently, there is a massive amount of research into green energy sources for mining cryptocurrencies, as miners strive to protect the environment and optimize energy consumption. As reported by the Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC), 56% of miners worldwide have switched to renewable energy sources. Under these conditions, the solution presented by El Salvador (if successful) could become quite useful for the entire globe. Not to mention the benefits it could bring to the country's economy.

In the past, several other countries have already looked for ways to profit from mining. For example, Ukraine planned to transfer its surplus energy from nuclear power plants to state-sponsored mining in 2019. Unfortunately, these plans have not yet been implemented.

Thus, El Salvador currently remains the only country in the world that is fully embracing cryptocurrencies and showing the rest of the world how to profit from the potential of this emerging industry.