Volcanoes from El Salvador to power Bitcoin mining, BTC Conference, and Solana blockchain
Volcanoes from El Salvador to power Bitcoin mining, BTC Conference, and Solana blockchain
Hey Redpill Readers!
Missing out on redpill crypto market breakdowns? Hold your horses. We’ve got some good stuff to share with you today.
Here’s what you need to know...
ELECTRICITY GENERATED FROM VOLCANOES TO MINE BTC
The main story in the cryptoverse of course comes from our new friend, the president of El Salvador, who tweeted this...
And here’s the thing, Bitcoin mining has taken a lot of heat for being harmful to the environment. But this is mostly trash from environmentalists.
And especially the mainstream media. Any time they can, they’ll push fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) in the world.
On the flip side, mining Bitcoin does require large amounts of electricity to power the computers that generate the cryptocurrency.
But look, that’s by design. The energy use is well worth it. Big time.
That said, crypto folks such as Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, say Bitcoin mining could lead to more renewable energy projects (like the one announced in El Salvador).
This was on display the other day as Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said his country, which has just adopted Bitcoin as legal tender, would make it easy for miners to harness green geothermal energy from the country’s volcanos. Super cool.
THE TAKEAWAY
This is a big deal. Why, you ask? Simply because this energy source is renewable. And because a lot of renewable energy right now is currently underutilized.
Or it’s considered “stranded” energy. Yes, stranded.
As the Editor of TFIC, Marty Bent, also wrote this on his Twitter page recently...
“The dream: find a large stranded gas well in a rural part of the country, use some gas to mine bitcoin and the rest to power the small Citadel town I build up around the mining op. Start with a quality restaurant, library and church.
Slowly but surely add to the town from there.”
That sounds like the future, eh? Get ready for some Bitcoin mining operations to pop up left and right in this country.
But here’s the thing, unlike nearly every commodity on Earth…
Electricity is pretty darn hard to move over long distances. El Salvador’s geothermal plants, for example, could step it up in this regard. But truth is, the country has a weak economy. And many of the country’s power plants are underutilized.
Using them to mine Bitcoin, however, helps utilize this hard-to-use energy.
The best part? This has already been demonstrated with Bitcoin mines powered by natural gas flaring in the U.S. as well as China and underused hydroelectric plants.
And for China’s underused hydroelectric plants, the Ya’an city’s guidance even emphasized that electricity by blockchain firms should come from generated power that’s being connected to the state grid. That’d be ideal.
“On principle, blockchain companies should construct factories near power plants that have excessive power and are integrated with the State Grid,” the guidance says.
Moving on...
MASSIVE BITCOIN CONFERENCE HOSTED IN MIAMI
Thousands of Bitcoiners flocked to Miami from all over the world for the 2021 BTC Conference, which was billed as the largest crypto event in history.
On day two of the festivities, Miami-Dade County Commissioner gave the opening remarks to a sold out crowd...
“This is an entire industry visit," Cohen Higgins said.
"These are businesses. These are financial industries and we want them to have a home and I think Miami-Dade County is the perfect home.”
Who else? Kevin O'Leary from CNBC Shark Tank. He was there. Laser eyes and all. But he didn’t speak much about $100k BTC (or anything like that). Instead, he spoke about ‘green bitcoin’ and mining with clean energy. Go figure.
THE TAKEAWAY
When you have crazy politicians like Elizabeth Warren talking, this is what you get. She apparently dislikes proof-of-work Bitcoin mining (yet knows little to nothing about this technology or this space). So, what should you expect?
Expect more of this rhetoric, as Bitcoin mining infrastructure, moves to the US.
Meanwhile…
At the conference, former Presidential Candidate Ron Paul said, "Everybody wants monetary freedom, I would hope, but… I want to clarify that because some people want free money, and that's different. There's a lot of free money circulating out there, and it's all fake. It's all political corruption."
And there’s the CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, who said, "Whatever I can do — whatever my companies can do — to make Bitcoin accessible to everyone, that is what I will do for the rest of my life."
Of course, while on stage, many folks booed the Twitter CEO and founder. Don’t think you can censor a president of a freakin’ country and not receive backlash from local citizens (and free independent thinkers worldwide).
Your move, Jack.
Next up…
SOLANA LABS RAISES $314 MILLION BY A16Z
Left out of the loop? Here you go. Solana Labs, the developer of the Solana blockchain (a competitor to Ethereum), has raised $314.15 million in a private token sale round.
And this round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Polychain Capital.
In case you don’t know, Solana is the blockchain that Civic (CVC) migrated over to after dealing with Ethereum issues (high fees, among other things).
Who else participated in this round? Alameda Research, CMS Holdings, CoinShares, Multicoin Capital, Sino Global Capital, and a few others.
THE TAKEAWAY
With fresh capital in hand, Solana Labs plans to launch an incubation studio to speed up project development on top of the Solana blockchain.
If you hold any Solana (SOL) in your portfolio, this is bullish news long-term. But, if you don’t hold any, you can go get some on the Binance exchange.
MORE REDPILL CRYPTO NEWS
Ethereum founder, Vitalik Buterin, on Lex Fridman’s podcast
British billionaire Alan Howard just led a $25M investment for crypto
Jack Dorsey suggests Twitter to integrate Lightning Network
Google advertising policy opens doors to wider Bitcoin community
Decentralized finance (DeFi) is fueling the crypto craze—as well as recent volatility, according to The Wall Street Journal
Texas governor, Greg Abbott, greenlights state-chartered banks to custody crypto, and has come out in full support for blockchain technology
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