Gustavo Petro, who was elected as the new President of Colombia on 19th June, has already spoken out in favour of Bitcoin and the underlying blockchain technology and also suggested the use of Renewable resources for producing cryptocurrency. Besides climate change, socioeconomic inequity, and national peace, Petro has indicated support for Bitcoin adoption.
Following the second-round win of the election, Petro shall replace Iván Duque Márquez and take over as the President of Colombia for the next 4 years on August 7. Francia Márquez, who might become Colombia’s Vice President, is a human and environment rights campaigner. She is the very first African-American woman to hold the role.
Colombia president supports renewable power to mine crypto
Petro also supports a shift away from oil and toward renewable power. According to current estimates, oil and mining account for more than half of Colombia’s monthly exports and up to 8% of the country’s GDP.
Petro is adamant about halting hydrocarbon explorations and building new huge open mines. He also intends to cancel exploratory fracking pilots and oil and gas ventures, despite existing agreements with the firms.
In a reaction to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s concept of creating volcano-powered cryptocurrency miners, Petro stated that Colombia might also benefit from Bukele’s concept, which is to mine cryptocurrency using clean hydropower on Colombia’s Pacific coast, perhaps replacing the cocaine sector.
¿Y que tal que el litoral pacífico aprovechara las caídas de alta pendiente de los rios de la cordillera occidental para producir toda la energía del litoral y reemplazar cocaína con la energía para las criptomonedas?
La moneda virtual es pura información y por tanto energía. https://t.co/65xdN2whuO
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) October 2, 2021
Adoption of cryptocurrency might assist Latin American countries in dealing with significant national currency inflation. In favour of cryptocurrency, Petro claimed that Bitcoin prevents states and banks from issuing powers.
In December 2017, the President-elect commented on bitcoin’s “power.” Petro then implied that cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin might deprive governments and conventional banks of power and return it to the public.
“Virtual currency is made up entirely of information, and thereby of energy,” said Petro at the time.
El bitcoin quita poder de emision a los estados y el señoreaje de la moneda a los bancos. Es una moneda comunitaria que se basa en la confianza de quienes realizan transacciones con ella, al tener como base el blockchain, la confianza se mide y crece, de ahí deriva su fortaleza https://t.co/g8cO9WfP0L
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) December 26, 2017
Petro prediction about crypto mining in Colombia
As per the Colombia coca survey report of 2020, the Pacific coast is among the most active drug trade zones, with coca cultivation expected to expand dramatically by 2020.
Petro also predicted that Colombia can mine cryptocurrency in the Guajira area on the Caribbean coast, seven months ago, using windmills and hydroelectric facilities. The region is well-known for indigenous Tribal communities battling back against the territory’s extremely polluted mining companies.
Guajira has 98% of the nation’s wind turbines. Thus, according to the Colombian press, 65 additional farms will open by 2031. It will produce 6,000 MW of power for the nationwide grid with over 2,000 windmills.
