El Salvador’s first volcano-powered Bitcoin mining project goes live News ▸ El Salvador ▸ Bitcoin ▸ Mining
El Salvador’s first volcano-powered Bitcoin mining project goes live
The crypto-forward nation's long-promised geothermal Bitcoin mining dream may finally become with Lava Pool, the nation's first project to attempt it.
2 min read
Updated: Oct. 5, 2023 at 5:34 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
El Salvador marks the launch of Lava Pool today, the country’s first Bitcoin mining pool powered by renewable geothermal energy. T
he venture, a collaboration between energy company Volcano Energy and tech corporation Luxor Technology, is the country’s first attempt to harness the abundance of renewable geothermal energy for crypto mining.
According to the press release, the Lava Pool will be maintained by Volcano Energy, a public-private partnership that has pledged to commit 23% of its net income to the Salvadoran government.
The pool is set to benefit from Luxor’s Hashrate Forward Marketplace, which offers hedging strategies to protect against market volatility—a mechanism already adopted by leading players in the Bitcoin mining market.
Volcano Energy’s CSO, Gerson Martinez, highlighted the importance of this project, stating that it is a vivid manifestation of El Salvador’s pioneering role in the Bitcoin ecosystem. The move emphasizes the country’s ongoing efforts to merge Bitcoin into its energy infrastructure—a strategy that could significantly bolster the economics of new energy projects, particularly in remote areas, providing immediate revenue and offering flexible load management capabilities to support the grid during periods of high demand or stress.
Ambitious plans
The initiative is a component of the broader Volcano Energy project, an ambitious endeavor aiming to establish a global Bitcoin mining powerhouse fueled by renewable solar and wind energy. The project plans to develop a 241 MW renewable power generation park in the Metapan region of El Salvador, funded by a total commitment of $1 billion from Bitcoin industry leaders.
Furthermore, the Bitcoin mining farm’s initial computational power is projected to exceed 1.3 EH/s, placing Volcano Energy within the top 20 mining pools by hashrate. With such an equivalent hashrate to NiceHash and KuCoin, the development signifies a significant step towards El Salvador’s economic freedom, energy competitiveness, and self-reliance, which the nation aims to achieve through the integration of Bitcoin and renewable energy resources.
As the first Bitcoin mining pool in El Salvador goes live, the nation continues to mark its presence on the global Bitcoin stage, showcasing the potential of Bitcoin mining and renewable energy integration to the rest of the world. However, it remains to be seen how this development will influence the broader acceptance and integration of Bitcoin mining within the global energy infrastructure.
Author 
Jacob Oliver
Jacob Oliver is a recovering academic and English teacher turned crypto journalist and web3 writer. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Washington.
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