El Salvador Bitcoin City is at the foot of the Colchagua volcano.
El Salvador plans to build a Bitcoin city at the volcano’s base, using the cryptocurrency to fund the project. Its president said. The city will be spherical to resemble a large coin and will be built in the southeastern region of La Union, President Naib Bukele said.
The site will use geothermal energy from the Colchagua volcano to power bitcoin mining, he added. El Salvador recently became the first country to use Bitcoin as a legal tender.
The move has sparked widespread protests over fears that cryptocurrencies will bring instability and inflation to the impoverished Latin American nation. Ahead of the frenzied crowd at a bitcoin promotional event in the coastal town of Mizata Saturday evening. Bukele said the proposed new city would “cover it all”.
“Residential areas, retail spaces, services, museums, entertainment, bars, restaurants, airports, ports, rail transport – everything revolves around Bitcoin,” the 40-year-old said. The president, who appeared on stage wearing an upside-down baseball cap. Said the city would not impose any income taxes, only sales taxes.
He said half of the proceeds would be used to “build the city” while the rest would be used to keep the streets “tidy and clean. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are mined using sophisticated computers to solve complex mathematical problems. Unfortunately, it is expensive, complicated, and uses a lot of energy.
Bukele did not provide any data for the city to be built or completed but. Said he believed that most public infrastructure would cost around 300,000 bitcoins.
A bitcoin is currently trading for just under $60,000 (£45,000).
In September, El Salvador introduced virtual currency as legal tender alongside the US dollar. That’s when the government launched a new digital wallet app that will spend $30 (£22) in Bitcoin for every citizen. In addition, more than 200 new ATMs have been installed across the country. He presented the move to boost economic development and employment, but El Salvador was divided by the action.
This means that companies are already obligated, where possible, to accept digital coins as a means of payment. Bitcoin is a controversial currency, among other things. Because its value can fluctuate significantly – it has gone up and down dramatically in the last year.