The 2023 Miss Universe pageant’s preliminary costume contest kicked off on Thursday – and Miss El Salvador’s outfit proved to be a hometown hit.
The contestant donned a “volcanic empowerment costume” harking back to the nation’s signature volcanoes, that are being leveraged by the federal government to mine Bitcoin (BTC).
El Salvador and Volcanic Empowerment
As she took the stage, this yr’s Miss El Salvador – Isabella García-Manzo – was welcomed by the San Salvador crowd with thunderous applause.
Her costume featured an enormous crown depicting the solar, and a brilliant orange costume that turned crimson, then charcoal again towards the prepare. The crown and again of the costume “ignited” brilliant orange at nighttime, and erupted right into a collection of brilliant flames in its remaining section.
“It honors the transformative energy of nature and the human spirit,” mentioned the pageant’s announcer. “It options an eruption of volcano parts, symbolizing the rebirth of the nation.”
In the course of the costume’s preparation section, one in all its designers referred to as its mannequin a “volcanic goddess.”
“Once I thought of when a volcano eruption occurs, and what an eruption represents… one thing ends, one thing begins,” she mentioned. “With that in thoughts, I needed to nonetheless signify the beliefs of the volcano.”
El Salvador has skilled a slew of transformative modifications over the previous three years – one in all which included making Bitcoin authorized tender in 2021. Although using the forex stays restricted on the bottom, its adoption has helped double the nation’s tourism figures since 2019.
Final yr’s Miss El Salvador wore an outfit straight associated to Bitcoin, together with a Bitcoin-themed workers and a coin-shaped Bitcoin swimsuit. Its designer, Francisco Guerrero, mentioned the costume depicted El Salvador’s evolution of forex – from cocoa all the way in which to BTC.
El Salvador’s Bitcoin Initiatives
In 2023, the Salvadoran authorities introduced a significant public-private partnership with Volcano Vitality to deploy $1 billion towards sustainable Bitcoin mining. Backed by Tether, the initiative will ship 23% of the income it generates to the federal government, with one other 50% re-deployed towards constructing out infrastructure.
Solely $250 million has been raised for the initiative up to now, which is able to solely go towards wind and solar-based mining. Geothermal-based mining will probably be constructed out down the road.
One yr in the past, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele promised that El Salvador would begin buying 1 BTC per day. Bitcoin’s worth has greater than doubled since that point.
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