First mentioned: 19/02/2019
Last mentioned: 12/05/2021
Total mentions: 7
Most mentions: 2021
Elon Musk holds various prominent roles in the business and technology sectors. He serves as the founder, chairman, CEO, and chief technology officer of SpaceX. Additionally, Musk is an angel investor, CEO, product architect, and former chairman of Tesla Inc. He assumes the positions of owner, chairman, and CTO at X Corp, and is the founder of the Boring Company. Furthermore, Musk is a co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI, while also holding the title of president at the Musk Foundation. Renowned as the wealthiest individual globally, Musk has left a significant imprint on diverse industries.
Elon Musk on Bitcoin
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In a turnaround, Musk took to Twitter to declare a significant policy shift regarding Tesla's acceptance of Bitcoin payments. Contrary to his previous stance, he announced that the company would no longer be facilitating transactions with Bitcoin. Musk justified this decision by expressing concerns about the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining, despite acknowledging the cryptocurrency's potential for the future. "Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin. We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel. Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at great cost to the environment. Tesla will not be selling any Bitcoin and we intend to use it for transactions as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy. We are also looking at other cryptocurrencies that use <1% of Bitcoin's energy/transaction."
The level of discourse surrounding Bitcoin's energy consumption has been a subject of intense debate within the community. Notably, Elon Musk has endorsed a tweet asserting that Bitcoin serves as an incentive for the adoption of renewable energy sources. According to data from the Bitcoin Mining Council, approximately 58.9% of the electricity utilized in the mining of Bitcoin is sourced from renewable energy. This information underscores the ongoing efforts within the cryptocurrency sector to align with environmentally sustainable practices. He responded simply with: "True"
"You can now buy a Tesla with Bitcoin"... "Tesla is using only internal & open source software & operates Bitcoin nodes directly. Bitcoin paid to Tesla will be retained as Bitcoin, not converted to fiat currency."... "Pay by Bitcoin capability available outside US later this year."
Musk made a connection between the abbreviations used for Bitcoin and The Boring Company, an enterprise established by him in 2017. He might have mentioned this similarity for amusement, or to create a light-hearted connection between the two entities. "BTC (Bitcoin) is an anagram of TBC (The Boring Company) What a coincidence!"
In the early months of 2021, Elon Musk deviated from his previous statements and incorporated #Bitcoin into his Twitter bio. Here is his comments on the decision: "In retrospect, it was inevitable"
Despite Musk's scepticism about the practical uses of Bitcoin, he shared an explicit image on Twitter with his followers. He captioned the post with the following, showing how tempted he is by Bitcoin: "Me trying to live a normal productive life."
During a recent episode of the FYI Podcast by ARK Invest, the creator of Tesla Inc. started his journey with Bitcoin expressing admiration for the broader cryptocurrency landscape. However, notable scepticism was conveyed regarding the practical use of Bitcoin. "I think the Bitcoin structure is quite brilliant. I'm not sure that it would be a good use of Tesla's resources to get involved in crypto."... "Paper money is going away, and crypto is a far better way to transfer value than pieces of paper."
