Elon Musk believes that nearly 50% of the Bitcoin mining industry has shifted to the use of renewables. This is a likely reason for the company to start accepting BTC payments from Tesla customers.
On Wednesday, July 21, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the company will soon be accepting Bitcoin payments once again. Musk’s comments came during the B-Word conference hosted by the crypto council for innovation.
Joining Musk were other industry players like Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood. Speaking at the event, the Tesla chief said:
“It looks like bitcoin is shifting a lot more toward renewables and a bunch of the heavy-duty coal plants that were being used…have been shut down, especially in China. I want to do a little more due diligence to confirm that the percentage of renewable energy usage is most likely at or above 50% and that there is a trend toward increasing that number. If so, Tesla will most likely resume accepting bitcoin”.
This serves as a vote of confidence for the Bitcoin community. Previously, in February, the automobile giant announced its decision to start accepting Bitcoin payments against Tesla car purchases. However, in May, it dropped the idea citing “rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining”.
Later, there have been several initiatives for moving towards green energy Bitcoin mining solutions. Top miners from North America have collaborated to form the Bitcoin Mining Council.
In the same month, China also declared war against Bitcoin miners asking everyone to shut down their operations. There’s been a massive shift of miners from China to North America which caters to cheap energy sources that are renewable.
“Long-term, renewable energy will be the cheapest energy, but it doesn’t just happen overnight,” Musk said. “But as long as there is a conscious and determined, real effort by the mining community to move toward renewables, then obviously Tesla can support that.”
Elon Musk: I Want Bitcoin (BTC) to Succeed
The Tesla chief who has been critical of Bitcoin recently also made some positive comments at the event. He also addressed some of the allegations about his involvement in pump-and-dump schemes.
“If the price of bitcoin goes down, I lose money. I might pump, but I don’t dump. … [I] definitely do not believe in getting the price high and selling, or anything like this. I would like to see bitcoin succeed,” said Elon Musk.
As always, Musk’s comments helped to move the Bitcoin price, but this time in a positive upward swing. The Bitcoin price has gained over 4% and has moved past its crucial resistance of $32,000 as of writing this story.
However, analysts warn that it could be a momentary swing. Speaking to Bloomberg, Steen Jakobsen, chief investment officer at Saxo Bank said:
“Bitcoin and Ethereum did manage to pull a rally together after Bitcoin had dropped down through the key US$30,000 area yesterday, but really needs to recover above US$32,000 sustainably to dig itself out of a hole”.
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