Loading playerElon Musk, the CEO of the automaker Tesla and one of the richest people in the world, said Tesla has suspended the possibility of buying its cars in bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency in the world.
The reason is that Musk, and with him Tesla, is concerned “about the rapid increase in the use of fossil fuels for mining and bitcoin transactions.” After Musk's announcement, Bitcoin lost 17 percent, reaching its lowest since early March.
Tesla & Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/YSswJmVZhP
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2021
The “mining” (extraction) of bitcoins is their production process, which takes place thanks to the maintenance of the computer system that makes them work: a system based on thousands of computers that work at high intensity to solve complex cryptographic problems that consume a lot electricity, which in a good percentage, which varies from country to country, is still produced with fossil fuels, therefore with gas emissions that cause climate change. Musk specifically said he was concerned about the use of coal, the most polluting fossil fuel, as a source of energy. Mining often takes place in large warehouses and usually near large power plants, which provide the energy needed to power thousands of computers.
Bitcoin mining currently consumes the same energy annually that the Netherlands consumed in 2019, the Guardian wrote based on data from the University of Cambridge and the International Energy Agency.
– Read also: Where bitcoins are made
Musk, who has always been a proponent of cryptocurrencies, said that bitcoins “are a good idea on many levels”, but they cannot “have a great cost to the environment”. Musk hasn't ruled out bitcoin transactions for Tesla cars forever, however: he said he plans to reintroduce them when mining switches to “more sustainable energy” and that he's looking for cryptocurrencies that use less than 1 percent bitcoin energy for transactions.
It was Musk himself who bought bitcoin for a value of one and a half billion dollars (about 1.24 billion euros) in February and introduced in March the possibility of buying Tesla in bitcoin, thus greatly increasing the value of the cryptocurrency.
