Tetherthe organization issuing the stablecoin of the same name, has decided to inject part of its funds into the renewable energy production project currently being carried out by El Salvador, in order to boost Bitcoin adoption in this Central American country.
El Salvador: an ever-growing appetite for Bitcoin?
In addition to Tether, a small number of companies have also chosen to invest in this energy production project. The latter, bearing the name of Volcano Energyaims to generate electricity from solar and wind power in El Salvador to power future Bitcoin mining operations in the country.
Before continuing, it seems extremely important to point out that the Volcano Energy project does not use geothermal energy to generate electricity, contrary to what was announced several months ago by a number of media. and players in the crypto ecosystem. On the technical side, the project aims to generate 241 MW of renewable energywith 169 MW of photovoltaic solar energy and 72 MW of wind energy.
Nevertheless, the project remains particularly interesting for El Salvador which continues to pursue its efforts with regard to the adoption of Bitcoin, this almost two years after the BTC officially became a “legal tender” (i.e. a legal tender) in the country thanks to the initiative of Nayib Bukele.
Seeing the potential for nationwide enforcement, President Bukele announced his bitcoin law at a cryptocurrency conference in Miami in June 2021. This law makes El Salvador the first country in the world to accept bitcoin as legal tender and requires businesses to accept it as payment. Note that for the moment, the other Latin American countries have not yet adopted significant legislation or clear regulations on cryptocurrencies.
Volcano Energy and Tether: a historic partnership between the two entities
Just a few days ago, Tether announced its intention to invest heavily in Volcano Energy to increase its exposure to the energy production sector, in addition to positioning itself to have its hands on futures. bitcoin mining farms that will soon emerge, both in the territory of El Salvador and elsewhere.
There is also an ideological element in this rapprochement. Paolo Ardoinodirector of Tether’s technology division, emphasizes that he is convinced that El Salvador is paving the way for the global adoption of Bitcoin, despite the relative slowness of the democratization of the most important cryptocurrency as a means of payment in the country.
Ardoino does not hesitate to draw parallels with the European Union which adopted the euro as its reference currency in the early 2000s, which required significant resources to modify the existing financial infrastructure, as well as the adhesion of citizens of the 27 Member States of the European Union. He specifies in this regard that despite all the power that the European bloc enjoyed at the time, this transformation took between 5 and 6 years, and the citizens were all the same particularly confused in the face of all these upheavals.
It is interesting to note that the spread of bitcoin as a means of payment in El Salvador had some start-up problems, this is a fact that has already been brought to light by several journalists during their travels across the country. But Paolo Ardoino asserts that it is unfair to expect an immediate change of habit on the part of the whole population, knowing that the latter is not forced.
Thus, he declares that adoption will probably take a little more time before becoming fully democratized. Moreover, he specifies that this adoption is done through initiatives coming from private companies and public investments.
If you want to know more about the Volcano Energy project and the adoption of Bitcoin in El Salvador, do not hesitate to consult our previous articles on this subject:
Sources: Nayib Bukele