Volcano-fueled Bitcoin town proposed for El Salvador

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Treehugger has often complained about Bitcoin and crypto due to its heavy electricity consumption and has even gone so far as to suggest its ban. (Don’t read the comments!) However, there is a proposal from Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to build the world’s first “Bitcoin City” that will be very green, with the city and Bitcoin mining all fueled by heat. geothermal power of a volcano.

How does volcanic energy work.

Fernando Romero

While the people of Pompeii and Herculaneum were unavailable for comment, building a city in the shadow of the Conchagua Volcano live makes a lot of sense if you can harvest the energy and turn it into electricity. The government plans to issue a billion dollar “volcanic bond” to raise funds, half of which will be invested in Bitcoin and half will be used to build the city. According to Reuters, Bukele invited people in saying, “Invest here and earn all the money you want. It is a fully ecological city that functions and is powered by a volcano.

Fernando Romero

It is a very interesting city, designed by the Mexican architect Fernando Romero, to be totally sustainable. Romero writes on Facebook:

“This new city will mark the new moment of our civilization. It will be a new urbanism with an environmental conscience thanks to Bitcoin City generating its own energy from the volcano located at the perimeter. This will show a new humanitarian city map. ”

Fernando Romero

It is designed to be a pedestrian city with large landscaped avenues, streetcars, cycle highways and a light rail network.

Fernando Romero

Romero writes:

“The city was designed to be built in stages. As a decentralized system, investments can be regulated according to the needs of growth. The city will have a large central plaza with a museum that will become a global attraction, exhibiting exhibitions on The story of There will also be smart buildings with the latest technology, as well as a large multi-purpose arena that will broadcast events of all kinds, and become the epicenter of concerts in the region.

Fernando Romero

The business model is different from most cities, being Bitcoin based. According to Romero:

“At Bitcoin City, companies related to cryptocurrency mining will be welcome, as well as tech companies who come to invest due to their interest in being a part of this innovative smart city model. A number of incentives for investors will make this city a benchmark on how to make a city both efficient and sustainable. ”

According to Fortune magazine, the city will be exempt from taxes on income, property and capital gains. The only tax in Bitcoin town will be a 10% value added tax (like HST in Canada or VAT in UK) to fund town services.

Fernando Romero

“The citizen is at the center of the design of Bitcoin City. Their mobility will be clean and their way of working comfortable. The new public space will be the culmination of decades of research into what humans need to live well in an anti-inflationary environment. economy.”

There are many who question the value of cryptocurrencies and also wonder if Bitcoin guys can build a city. Economist Ryan Avent notes in his blog:

“Proposals to create ideal communities based on smart blockchain systems are presented using the language of inclusion and democracy. institutions that we have betrayed what one might call fatal vanity. ”

Fernando Romero

The city map is incredibly detailed and well defined. It took a lot of work. I wondered about this and asked a friend who worked for Romero, who told Treehugger that “this project has been in his portfolio for over 15 years or so, and it’s his version of Foster’s Masdar City “. For context, Masdar is an eco-city in Abu Dhabi designed by Foster and Partners that was never completed as planned, and Romero proposed this city for Central America, long before Bitcoin and the volcano did. bite.

Treehugger loves recycling, so it’s good that it’s finally being used. However, the friend tells Treehugger: “This project seems utopian and not well thought out. It never seemed to me that it could keep its promises, especially in terms of mobility and sustainability.”

Ebeneezer Howard

Speaking of recycling, it also sounds like The Garden City concept developed by Ebenezer Howard in 1902, which would house 32,000 people on 9,000 acres. It had a concentric shape with radial boulevards, but no volcano. Howard also designed his city around money and finance, according to Daniel Nairn in Smart Cities Dive most of his book, “The Garden City of the Future”:

“… can be read as a business model presented to potential investors. He assures interested parties that he can get them a 4.5% return. Howard clarifies that he is not a socialist and that he is not doesn’t see the centralized government playing an initial role. The closest thing I can relate to his plan is an association of owners on steroids, he calls it a “quasi-public body”, which owns all the land in town and rents them out to residents. of the plan is that all land is purchased in advance, so that the increase in property value generated by the growth will be captured by the community itself. ”

It’s not as good as the Bitcoin Volcano bonds, which pay 6.5%.

Alice Constance Austin

The project also recalls the work of Alice Constance Austin, known to Treehugger for her homes without kitchens, which were to be built in her utopian socialist city of California, describing it:

“The Socialist City must be beautiful, of course; it must be built on a defined plan. . . thus illustrating in a concrete way the solidarity of the community; it should emphasize the fundamental principle of equal opportunities for all; and this should be the last word in the application of scientific discoveries to everyday life, putting each labor saving device at the service of every citizen.

Fernando Romero

While Bitcoin City leans a little more libertarian than socialist, it is clearly part of a long line of utopian visions of reinvented cities. Romero says it will be effective and sustainable. Blockstream’s Samson Mow says in Fortune that it will be “the financial center of the world” and “the Singapore of Latin America” ​​because Bitcoin will hit $ 1 million in five years and anyone who invests in it will be very rich. It sounds like a safe bet – urbanistically and financially.

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