Key facts:
Panajachel, as in El Salvador, has volcanic energy to mine.
The mining project includes an economic and environmental dimension for the area.
Bitcoin mining continues to gain ground in the world. And in Latin America, particularly in recent months, the growth in activity has been remarkable. Now, the town of Panajachel, in Guatemala, is added.
This Friday, March 25, it was announced that the Mayor’s Office of the city, known colloquially as “Pana”, approved a project for bitcoin mining from the municipality.
“Great day for the city of Panajachel #Guatemala and for #bitcoin!” via Twitter the local Bitcoin lake project, which seeks to replicate in Guatemalan territory what happened in El Salvador with Bitocin Beach.
According to the project publication, Panajachel is the “first municipality with bitcoin mining that we are aware of in Central or South America.” This is the activity through which transactions are confirmed and new currencies are issued in this world network, as exposed in the Cryptopedia of this medium.
Panajachel has a peculiarity that it shares with the areas of El Salvador in which President Nayib Bukele decided to start mining bitcoin: volcanic energy. Specifically, from the San Pedro, Tolimán and Atitlán volcanoes.
Patrick Melder, founder of Bitcoin Lake, had assured in contact with Bloomberg that they had already started mining bitcoins in the town, located on the banks of the Atitlán River.
Advertising
The idea of the project contemplates both an economic and an environmental dimension in favor of the “Pana” communities.
On volcanic energy, Melder express: “That is a free resource that can be used to mine bitcoin without harming the environment. In fact, my goal is for bitcoin mining to help provide an economic incentive to clean up the lake for the benefit of the people around it.”
Bitcoiner citadels in Latin America
Panajachel is one of the cities in which bitcoin has begun to gain a foothold in recent times. With the help of Bitcoin Lake, there are already more than a dozen businesses that accept BTC as a means of payment.
In addition to this project, there are already other similar ones in the region. Not only El Zonte, which served as the basis for what ended up becoming the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender. We can also count cases in Costa Rica, Brazil or Ecuador, as we have reviewed in CriptoNoticias.
Beyond the projects with the concept of citadel or bitcoiner community, In Latin America, bitcoin mining has become very popular recently.. Large projects have even been announced in countries such as Argentina and Paraguay, while Venezuela maintains its attractiveness for activity with some of the lowest rates for electricity consumption.