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Comment by reedjosh | Hacker News Reader

In the case of El Salvador, Bitcoin mining will be used to bootstrap geothermal.

Bitcoin can finance the energy generation and later transmission infrastructure can be added.

Ok, but geothermal energy creates pollution. It's considered a cleaner alternative to tradition energy sources insofar as it replaces existing energy demands, not when the demand is being created ad hoc.

"Geothermal power plants do not burn fuel to generate electricity, but they may release small amounts of sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. Geothermal power plants emit 97% less acid rain-causing sulfur compounds and about 99% less carbon dioxide than fossil fuel power plants of similar size." - https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/geothermal/geothermal-en...

What kind of pollution does geothermal create? Honest question. I was under the impression it's just steam spinning turbines. Akin to a nuclear plant but without all the problematic radioactive fuel.

Any construction project generates significant greenhouse gas - concrete and its production are major GHG generators, and disturbing the soil, displacing living plants also tends to generate emissions.

Building a new power plant in addition to all your existing ones will never reduce GHG emissions, regardless of how clean the new one is. We need to start tearing down old power plants and reducing consumption overall, not finding new things to spend countries' worth of energy on.

Fair enough but I can't see that as more harmful than any other energy production. El Salvador still does not generate enough power to serve all it's citizens, so they will be building more power plants regardless. Hopefully they can balance bitcoin mining in the off-peak hours, and not create new plants solely to support bitcoin mining.

But I fail to see how geothermal's environmental impact is problematic.

The point is Bitcoin in an imaginary ideal scenario is at best neutral, not positive.

Bootstrapping energy production in remote places could have a few nice side effects sure, it just doesn't help its environmental impact.

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