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<\/a><\/p>\nNot actually in El Salvador. But it’s a pretty cool volcano anyway. This is Tungurahua<\/a> in Ecuador.<\/small><\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n President Nayib Bukele tweeted a video: a shipping container of miners has been set up at a LaGeo geothermal power plant, in Berl\u00edn, Usulut\u00e1n!<\/a> [Twitter<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n This is purely performative \u2014 because Bitcoin mining in El Salvador makes no economic sense.<\/p>\n When you mine Bitcoin, you\u2019re competing directly with every other Bitcoin miner in the world. So you go wherever<\/i> reliable electricity is cheapest.<\/p>\n From 2013 to 2021, that was China \u2014 with the cheapest commercial electricity in the world, at 2 to 4 cents per kilowatt-hour.<\/p>\n When China kicked the miners out in May,<\/a>\u00a0 they tried various small countries with remarkably cheap electricity, but not such reliable grids, such as\u00a0 Kazakhstan or Abkhazia \u2014 but the miners have mostly settled into cheap local markets in the US and Canada, often using fossil fuels. Digiconomist calculates Bitcoin energy consumption using a world average Bitcoin mining price of 5c\/kWh. [Digiconomist<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n Industrial electricity in El Salvador is around 13 to 15c\/kWh. You might<\/i> be able to make a profit with the Bitcoin price as high as it is at the moment \u2014 but bubbles pop. Paying three times the going rate for your business inputs is not a sustainable enterprise. [SIGET<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n In June, Bukele also promised a new 95 megawatt geothermal plant to mine bitcoins. [Twitter<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n There is indeed a new geothermal well that came online in June, at a plant whose total capacity is around 95 MW. This new well was planned for years \u2014 but then Bukele suddenly declared it would be used for Bitcoin.<\/p>\n If<\/i> Bitcoin volcano mining actually resulted in a new geothermal plant \u2014 which it hasn\u2019t as yet \u2014 then that would be the first verified example of Bitcoin mining resulting in new renewable energy. If for political reasons, rather than economic ones.<\/p>\n It\u2019s important to note that El Salvador has much better uses for any new geothermal. As of December 2019, the country imported around 20% of its electricity. New geothermal would cut that percentage, and cut the price by reducing reliance on fuel oil generation. [Unidad de Transacciones<\/i><\/a>, 2019, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n But for the moment, Bukele is just setting up rigs in an existing plant.<\/p>\n Why is Bukele pushing volcano mining? Some Bitcoin maxi floated the idea of volcano-powered bitcoin mining<\/a> in a Spaces call, and Bukele decided off the top of his head that this was policy now.<\/p>\n I hear gossip that competent LaGeo employees \u2014 who are already underpaid, understaffed and overworked \u2014 have had their fill of this nonsense, and are quitting in noticeable numbers.<\/p>\n Fortunately, a new hydroelectric scheme is coming on line in October! [La P\u00e1gina<\/a>, in Spanish<\/em>] Less fortunately, gossip says one of the generators doesn’t actually work yet, and filling it prematurely may damage the system. But they’re going to fake the launch, and maybe flood some downstream villages, to give Bukele the appearance of a big win after the 15 September demonstrations.<\/a> The Office of the President has decreed it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n President Bukele claims there are 2.1 million<\/i> signed-up Chivo users! This number may<\/em> be downloads of the Chivo app, as listed in the app stores \u2014 the publicly-displayed app store totals are 846,000 on Huawei and over 1 million on Google Play.<\/p>\n If 2.1 million users got a Chivo signup bonus of $30 in bitcoins, this would be about $63 million. The government has purchased just over $35 million in bitcoins to back the numbers displayed in the Chivo app. This would mean a lot of unbacked \u201cdollars\u201d displayed in the Chivo app \u2014 precisely the money-printing that a lot of Salvadorans feared<\/a> back in June. [Elsalvador.com<\/i><\/a>, in Spanish<\/i>]<\/p>\n But it\u2019s not plausible that this many users have signed up. The customer service centres are near-silent, and that\u2019s not because Chivo works wonderfully well. Chivo will absolutely not release the number of successful signups.<\/p>\n A non-negligible proportion will be users who have to reinstall the app repeatedly just to get it to work and authenticate them.<\/p>\n I\u2019m wondering what\u00a0 proportion of the download numbers would be bots downloading the wallet to use with known public DUIs (national ID card numbers) for the $30 signup bonus. You can create a Chivo account with a dead guy\u2019s DUI.<\/a><\/p>\n A lot of people want to cash out their free $30 as quickly as possible. They queue for ages at the Chivo ATMs \u2014 but the ATMs don\u2019t work well, or haven\u2019t any cash in them. Many are selling their \u201c$30\u201d for $25 in cash \u2014 which I predicted in June.<\/a> [Elsalvador.com<\/i><\/a>, in Spanish; <\/i>Elsalvador.com<\/i><\/a>, in Spanish<\/i>]<\/p>\n Reports continue of Chivo network failures. Money disappears; money is sent, but not received; transfers to bank accounts don\u2019t go through; a transaction is sent and a much smaller amount is received. Or the network is simply under \u201cmaintenance.\u201d [Elsalvadorgram<\/i><\/a>, in Spanish; <\/i>Elsalvador.com<\/i><\/a>, in Spanish<\/i>]<\/p>\n What happens when things go wrong? Chivo terms and conditions say: you\u2019re on your own. No chargebacks. You must have told someone your password. [La Prensa Grafica<\/i><\/a>, in Spanish<\/i>]<\/p>\n After a Chivo kiosk was vandalised in the 15 September protests, President Bukele tried blaming William G\u00f3mez, the head of journalist association APES \u2014 and not whoever signed out the government truck delivering T-shirts to the vandals. G\u00f3mez points out that he looks nothing like any of the vandals in photos from the day, and has a large tattoo on his arm that the vandals didn\u2019t. [Elsalvador.com<\/i><\/a>, in Spanish<\/i>]<\/p>\n Lorenzo Rey, who runs the Chivo project and its main vendor company Ulter, claims running Dash Venezuela, and promoting the minor altcoin Dash, as his relevant track record in crypto payments. It turns out that a lot of the Venezuelan merchants listed by Dash Venezuela as accepting Dash did not, in fact, accept Dash \u2014 or didn\u2019t even exist. So, just the experience needed to run Chivo. [George Donnelly<\/i><\/a>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n The Chivo wallet was not written by Ulter, but by Argentine crypto exchange company Lemon Cash \u2014 founded by old-time bitcoiner Wences Casares \u2014 who were paid $750,000. Lemon plans to introduce its own wallet app to El Salvador in 2022. [Clar\u00edn<\/i><\/a>, in Spanish<\/i>]<\/p>\n Athena Bitcoin, keen to serve Chivo\u2019s massive claimed customer base, has launched Vanguard\u00a01 \u2014 for businesses to deliver their payroll in bitcoins! News of this is not being received positively. [Athena SV<\/i><\/a>, in Spanish; <\/i>Elsalvador.com<\/i><\/a>, in Spanish<\/i>]<\/p>\n You can\u2019t even use Bitcoin to buy prepackaged FUD! [Twitter<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Cryptocurrency investor Brock Pierce and YouTube influencers Logan Paul and Evan Eckenrode held a massive \u201cWorld Bitcoin Day\u201d party, to celebrate El Salvador\u2019s adoption of Bitcoin. \u201cThat Pierce describes the Bukele regime as being open to accountability and transparency says almost everything you need to know about his position and his knowledge of Salvadoran politics,\u201d said El Faro journalist Nelson Rauda. [El Faro<\/i><\/a>, in Spanish<\/i>]<\/p>\n Video of the party was widely distributed. The local influencers who came along for the party, Fernanfloo (YouTube) and Nicolle Figueroa (TikTok), are now regarded as dissolute idiots by the wider populace. They worried they would be \u201ccancelled\u201d \u2014 which, like almost everyone who ever says they\u2019re worried about being \u201ccancelled,\u201d means they thoroughly deserved to be. [Elsalvador.com<\/i><\/a>, in Spanish<\/i>]<\/p>\n Some Salvadoran influencers have also been promoting Chivo to the Salvadoran diaspora, to get them to send remittances home via Chivo.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Brock and Crystal Pierce at the influencers’ party \u2014 by Nelson Rauda, El Faro<\/small><\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bukele is determined to continue on the path of Bitcoin, to the point of making up clearly fake numbers. He has a supermajority in the Legislative Assembly, so nobody can bring new laws to stop him.<\/p>\n But Chivo is a failure that nobody trusts. First, they have to make the basic payment network functionality work properly. Then they have to slowly build up trust with the public. Then<\/i> people will treat this thing as usable money.<\/p>\n This means the populace doesn\u2019t like or trust Bitcoin. They\u2019ll keep using dollars.<\/p>\n El Salvador\u2019s sovereign debt was down to 67.4 cents on the dollar as of Monday. That\u2019s serious doubt the bonds will ever be paid. [Elsalvador.com<\/a>, in Spanish<\/i>]<\/p>\n This is because bond markets consider IMF or World Bank bailouts extremely unlikely \u2014 the Bitcoin Law is economically incompetent, and Bukele\u2019s government is increasingly anti-democratic and plagued with corruption issues.<\/p>\n There are plenty of issues other than Bitcoin for Salvadorans to worry about. Vice minister of justice Osiris Luna allegedly stole $1.6 million of food parcels meant for COVID-19 relief. [El Faro<\/i><\/a>] Non-pliable judges are being forced to resign \u2014 including the ones investigating government corruption. [El Faro<\/i><\/a>, in Spanish<\/i>] Bukele has lined up to be able to run for President again.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s OK \u2014 Bukele put \u201cWorld\u2019s coolest dictator\u201d in his Twitter bio! LOL!<\/p>\n The best<\/i> outcome for Bukele is that Bitcoin goes nowhere in El Salvador \u2014 negligible adoption, negligible local utility. It can\u2019t go anywhere good at this stage. But I suspect Bukele will keep turning to his Bitcoin system as a distraction \u2014 throwing a dead cat on the table, as we say in the UK \u2014 from all the other problems his impulsive tactics have led to.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nBitcoins of Mount Doom<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/chivo-maintenance.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nChivo still doesn\u2019t work<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/prepackaged-fud.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nParty, party<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/brock-pierce-bitcoin-party.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDead cat bounce<\/h3>\n
![\"Become](\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/become_a_patron_button.svg\" "\\"Become")
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