Almost two months after El Salvador authorities announced plans to develop a geothermal energy-built bitcoin city, many energy experts have criticized the project. The recent criticism is from popular American Professor of Economics, Steve Hanke.
Hanke tweeted that El Salvador’s BTC City project is only about grabbing newspaper headlines because the energy project is linked to an inactive volcano. Hanke further tweeted that “the preparation for Bukele’s BTC city is akin to Florida’s preparation for snow. Powering such a project with an inactive volcano is nothing short of empty talks without corresponding action.”
Bukele Replies
The president of the Central American nation didn’t fail to expose Hanke’s misrepresentation of facts, schooling him with a brief geology lesson. While responding to the popular professor, Bukele remarked that the best location for such a project should be close to an inactive volcano.
He also stated that it would be wrong to cite energy projects close to any active volcano. Some of his tweets state that “it would be senseless to build a geothermal powered-city near an active volcano.”
Announcing The Project
Two months ago, Bukele spoke at the Latin BTC event where he remarked to a group of crypto advocates that his country is proposing a BTC city. The president remarked that some of the city’s features would include zero taxes, airport, entertainment facilities, and residential amenities.
He further stated that revenues from BTC will be used to finance projects in the city. More importantly, the geothermal facility will provide a clean energy source for BTC mining activities. El Salvador authorities plan to sell $1.5B worth of bonds to finance the BTC city project.
El Salvador’s Bitter-Sweet BTC Journey
El Salvador authorities have been severely criticized for making BTC a legal tender from several quarters (within and outside the country). Some citizens believe the authorities didn’t conduct enough research before making BTC a legal tender. But others see Bukele as a visionary leader with the best intentions in saving the country from being financially indebted forever.
Despite reportedly earning nearly $12m in profits from owning BTC, there have also been rumors of issues with the Chiva wallet, with several anti-bitcoin protests rocking major El Salvador cities in recent times.
BTC Whales Increasing Their BTC Holdings
A bitinfocharts data has revealed that the third-largest BTC whale has increased its holdings by buying an additional 457 BTC (valued at about $21m) earlier in the week. This purchase represents the first major activity of this whale since the beginning of this year. This same BTC wallet had purchased 6 BTC on new year’s day, which marked its first activity for the year.
The bitinfocharts data further states that this whale now holds about 123k BTC (valued at more than $5.2B using the BTC USD value as of this writing). BTC’s price has continued to slip since the start of the week and has lost 11% so far over the past nine days. Many crypto traders and investors have remarked that BTC will still decline towards the $38K levels before undergoing a strong bullish run.
