Latest news about Bitcoin and all cryptocurrencies. Your daily crypto news habit.
A Guatemalan circular Bitcoin economy known as âBitcoin Lakeâ is leveraging Bitcoin ASICs to clean the nearby Lake AtitlĂĄn while generating income for the community.Â
As Bitcoin Lake Founder Patrick Melder explained, the âKaboomâ mining project is repurposing used cooking oil to help mine Bitcoin, rather than pollute the local environment.Â
Mining Helping the Environment?
As Melder told Bitcoin Magazine, the project is a follow-up to prior attempts at cleaning the lake that were ultimately both costly and unsuccessful.Â
âWithin the past five years, a major effort to clean the lake costing upwards of $300 million failed because it was so complex with so many large stakeholders who couldnât agree on a solution,â he added.
By contrast, Bitcoin Lake took a bottom-up approach to ecological sustainability. It involves repurposing used cooking oil to mine Bitcoin, which would otherwise be thrown into the street or the landfill that stood above Lake AtitlĂĄn.
âEither way, it would find its way into the watershed and into the lake,â said Melder. By contrast. while the mining process does produce carbon dioxide, it reduces contamination of the lake.Â
Bitcoin Lake shared a video of the project in action earlier this month. Under one tent, the founder kept multiple containers of used cooking oil, a generator, ASICs, and a laptop tracking the hashes being generated. Both the generator and ASICs are old, recycled models, but have found a âsecond lifeâ thanks to the ânearly free energyâ provided by seed oils.Â
The founder hopes to popularize the initiative in neighboring communities as they realize they can feasibly and profitably clean the environment.Â
In the United States, concerns about Bitcoin Miningâs negative impact on the environment are still commonplace among regulators. However, multiple reports have outlined ways that it can help heal the environment, such as by flaring excess natural gas.Â
Spreading Bitcoin Adoption
Melderâs broader âBitcoin Lakeâ project â of which âKaboomâ is a part â has three goals: cleaning the lake, educating the community about Bitcoin, and creating a circular Bitcoin economy. That includes spreading Bitcoinâs adoption as a store of value, medium of exchange, and unit of account.Â
âThe truly virtuous circular #Bitcoin economy is to use every form of wasted energy to mine BTC and secure the network. In the process â distributing income BACK INTO THE COMMUNITY,â tweeted Bitcoin Lake on September 12th.Â
The project was inspired by El Salvadorâs Bitcoin Beach, where various Bitcoin-friendly initiatives have taken hold. However, unlike the Salvadoran example, Bitcoin Lake had no large endowment or donations to kickstart its operations. Mining, however, is helping to get Bitcoin into the economy.Â
Regarding education, the project has already Bitcoin-related material into the local education centre. Since January, children in the area have been learning core concepts such as âwhat is inflationâ and even âwhat is moneyâ â ideas that some say traders on Wall Street struggle to grasp.Â
Educational meetings for adults, businesses, and indigenous community leaders are also present. Overall, the initiative is meant to inspire natural adoption through education, rather than coercion that catches businesses off guard.Â
In El Salvador, many objected to the Bitcoin Law upon its implementation last year, which included a stipulation to force businesses to accept Bitcoin. President Bukele clarified later that the detail only applied to large corporations in practice.Â
âSince weâve started in January of this year, weâve onboarded over 60 businesses in and around Panajachel, and in Guatemala as a whole we have about 200 businesses that we have onboarded to accept bitcoin,â Melder explained.
The post Guatemalan Town Cleans Local Lake Using Bitcoin Miners appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the views of Bitcoin Insider. Every investment and trading move involves risk - this is especially true for cryptocurrencies given their volatility. We strongly advise our readers to conduct their own research when making a decision.