By George Ward
Nearly two years ago, El Salvador became the first nation to make Bitcoin (BTC) a legal currency. However, the country is in the news again, this time for its BTC city project.
El Salvador has received an international accolade for its innovative and eco-friendly Bitcoin City project. According to reports, the country will construct the city at the foot of a volcano.
El Salvador’s BTC City Receives International Recognition
A recent report by Noticias de Bariloche (NDB), an Argentinian news outlet, stated that a jury of 25 experts from LOOP, a global design organization, selected El Salvador’s Bitcoin City project for its outstanding interior and architectural design. Notably, 56 different nations submitted 705 proposals for the award.
Meanwhile, El Salvador’s urban project will be located in the southeast region of El Salvador. Fernando Romero, a Mexican architect, developed the city’s design. According to Romero, this project is an innovative model of a smart metropolis built to be efficient and sustainable.
According to reports, Bitcoin City will use green energy from two close volcanoes, Conchagua and Tecapa. The energy source for the city will initially be the geothermal energy from the distant volcano, Tecap.
Afterward, it will later transition to the Conchagua volcano, which is closer. Furthermore, Romero received the Global Architecture & Design Award.
The architect also drew the architectural design for the New Mexico International Airport two years ago. According to Romero, “the new urban square is the result of decades of research on the requirements humans have to fulfill to thrive in an economy that does not experience inflation.”
The Bitcoin-Shaped City
The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, first revealed the designs for a Bitcoin-shaped city last May. At the time, the President tweeted, “the development of Bitcoin City is progressing well.”
Bukele, in his tweet, also shared pictures of several iconic structures that will be constructed in the plazas. The design for the city includes several features.
One of them is that the city has a museum that is meant to draw global attention by showcasing the role of BTC in the history of money. Additionally, there are also plans for a large entertainment center.
However, the President has not yet announced a date for the start of the construction of the city. In other news, El Salvador changed the name of its El Zonte beach to ‘Bitcoin Beach’ last year.
This move was part of the country’s projects to protect the flagship cryptocurrency.