While China is in the midst of an intense crackdown against crypto mining, a number of countries are considering using volcanoes to generate cheaper and greener energy to power bitcoin mining operations.

As crazy as it may sound, in Latin America and the Caribbean alone, some 3,000 volcanoes could be leveraged for this very purpose.

In fact, after his historic move to make bitcoin a legal tender on his country, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has revealed their plans to utilize geothermal energy from volcanoes to mine bitcoin. He said a state-owned company could provide mining facilities with affordable and cleaner energy.

Not an original plan though

The idea might be clever and plausible, but it is not something that originated from the small nation that is currently making headlines in the crypto world.

It is believed to be based on existing developments in other parts of the world. In fact, in Iceland, magma-fuelled power plants have been providing the country with enough energy to run bitcoin mining centers.

These facilities, according to The Guardian, have exceeded the energy use of Icelandic households as early as 2018, a familiar reason for worries about the process of producing the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

A huge potential waiting to be tapped

“We have more than 3,000 volcanoes all over the Latin America and the Caribbean,” said Inter-American Development Bank energy specialist Christiaan Gischler Blanco in a U.S. radio program last month.

An interactive map of active volcanoes across the world confirms countries in the said regions such as Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile host untapped energy resources that could be used to mine cryptocurrencies.

Image courtesy of Cointelegraph News/YouTube

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Source: https://bitcoinerx.com/blockchain/thousands-of-volcanoes-could-be-used-for-crypto-mining-operations/