Academic Says Bukeles Bitcoin Mining Test Bad Deal

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Source: Twitter / @ nayibbukele

A leading Salvadoran engineering scholar has claimed that volcano-fueled Bitcoin (BTC) mining could be ruinous to the country’s economy, and said the government has spent $ 4,672 of public funds to mine only 269 USD in BTC.

According to El Diario de Hoy, Carlos Martínez, professor of electrical engineering at the University of El Salvador (UES), claimed that in four days of mining so far, the state has managed to extract a total of 0.00599179 BTC (269 USD at time). The professor added that if the energy price was $ 0.13 per kilowatt hour and the government used 100 WhatsMiner M31S 3.74 kW mining rigs, the state would pay $ 1,168 in costs. “It’s definitely a bad deal,” Martínez concluded.

The professor made his calculations based on data released by the government on Friday.

However, President Nayib Bukele added a caveat to the numbers, saying the government is “still testing and installing” its new system.

Bukele said that “we are still testing and installing, but this is officially Bitcoin’s first mining” of volcanic energy.

Other skeptics continue to express doubts. The same outlet reported that energy industry insiders “agree that the current facilities of LaGeo (the state-owned geothermal production company) lack the capacity to house a Bitcoin mining center.” , claiming that BTC mining requires more energy than the company can. to produce with “volcanode”.

Martínez agreed that the nation “does not have the installed capacity to meet the demand for electricity,” and warned that if sufficient energy was allocated to a mining center, “it would increase electricity tariffs for local people. Ordinary Salvadorans ”.

The media outlet, which opposes Bukele’s rule and his BTC adoption policies, noted that the president had not yet “detailed the cost of the equipment acquired for the mining project.” It also did not reveal exactly how much energy was used on the site, the cost of building the facilities, or the number of government employees involved in the mining project.

Last week, a leading NGO, the Foundation for Economic and Social Development (Fusades), said large-scale Bitcoin mining in El Salvador “will cause energy shortages and price increases.”

Álvaro Trigueros, director of Fusades’ economic studies department, reportedly said “volcanode” mining would likely be limited and could not hope to achieve “large scale” because the government was all too aware of this. intense mining efforts “would generate problems on the national electricity market”.

Regardless, on Reddit, many international posters reacted with relative enthusiasm.

Another wrote that the report was “just click bait” because “it takes time to establish the hash rate and smooth things out.”

Bukele, meanwhile, triumphantly proclaimed the success of the state-released Chivo app, which he says now has 3 million users – in a country of nearly 6.5 million people.

But mainstream left-wing media continued to claim that the government was flouting the law in its campaign to adopt Chivo.

La Prensa Gráfica reported that MPs were briefed and trained on how to use the Chivo app in a parliamentary office in the city of Sonsonate. Media and opposition lawmakers from the ARENA party claimed it was improper use of government facilities and a violation of the code of ethics .____ Read more: Mining center at the arrival of the exchange

– Dominated by institutions, Bitcoin mining is also possible from home – How Bitcoin mining could help nations generate domestic energy

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