Earlier in the year, Tesla invested US$1.5 billion (RM6.2 billion; roughly 8% of its reserves) in Bitcoin, with CEO Elon Musk saying that the automaker will be accepting the cryptocurrency as a form of payment, the BBC reports.
However, just recently, Musk announced on Twitter that Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin over climate change concerns. This caused the value of Bitcoin to plunge 10%, and Tesla’s shares also took a hit. “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,” he said.
“Cryptocurrency is a good idea… but this cannot come at great cost to the environment,” he added. Musk also said Tesla intends to use Bitcoin as a transactional exchange in the future, when Bitcoin mining shifts to using more sustainable energy. “We are also looking at other cryptocurrencies that use <1% of Bitcoin's energy/transaction," he continued.
An analysis made by BBC tech journalist Rory Cellan-Jones showed that the process of mining Bitcoin uses vast amounts of computer processing power (another reason for the global semiconductor shortage as demand for computer graphics card far outstrip supply). Mining like this “uses more electricity each year than Malaysia or Sweden and is closing in on the annual consumption of Egypt,” he noted.
A recent research shows that China is responsible for more than 75% of Bitcoin mining around the world, and its carbon footprint is as large as one of China’s 10 largest cities. This is because Bitcoin miners use coal-generated electricity to power their mining rigs, which are used to solve complex mathematical puzzles.
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Cryptocurrency mining in Iceland uses virtually only hydro-electric & geo-thermal power.
Crypto mining is huge business. Malaysia with hot sunny weather all year round, should revived projek Jepak solar power.
Elon Musk the greatest manipulator
This megalomaniac should concentrate on making good electric cars, or Tesla will be a “has been” as they big guns get their EV act on the road.
Already in 2021 “Volkswagen Group, which manufactures VW, Audi, Skoda, Seat, and Porsche, remains the most popular battery-electric vehicle group in Europe, with more than 22% of the market share after 10,193 of its vehicles were registered” and from China https://www.benzinga.com/news/21/05/21120647/nio-grabbed-23-share-of-chinas-all-electric-suv-market-in-april-ahead-of-teslas-17
The energy and computing power used for bitcoin mining are better used for completing the human DNA sequencing or finding a really suitable vaccine for COVID19.
Nah it doesn’t make money. Nobody is gonna do it.
these bitcoin miners can be rich enough to buy over the pharmaceutical companies that make those vaccines…
when elon musk says this, the btc price going down, so can pump/buy more btc. you know, buy at support. this is one of his strategy to increase the value of btc.
Climate concerns my arse! It is due to bitcoin wildly changing value that makes buying a Tesla difficult. The period between a customer signs the order form and pays for downpayment, the value would have changed many times and with bitcoin going down in value (in part due to Elon), they would be making loss selling cars for cryptos.