BREAKING: Elon Musk suspends vehicle purchases using Bitcoin, citing climate change concerns

“Tesla will not be selling any Bitcoin and we intended to use it for transactions as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy.”

ADVERTISEMENT
Image
Nick Monroe Cleveland Ohio
ADVERTISEMENT

Elon Musk has been an eccentric sort of champion for cryptocurrency. When it came to his Saturday Night Live gig, people were in part hoping that the big guy would bring a boost to Dogecoin with his appearance.

In general the scene surrounding cryptocurrency has taken many cautious steps forward. With introductions on mainstream payment platforms like Paypal and Cash App, these go to show an effort at trying to legitimize the alternative digital money in the public eye.

Unfortunately with every few steps forward there’s a step or two back. In the case of tonight, the Tesla CEO announced a halt on accepting Bitcoin cryptocurrency as payment for vehicles. The stated reasoning includes environmental concerns.

“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 intended 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.”

This comes as likely a surprise to many people familiar with Musk’s and Telsa’s recent decision making. At the beginning of February the company bought $1.5 billion in BTC and signaled their initial plans to accept it as payment for their cars. By the end of April the value of Telsa’s bitcoin ballooned to $2.5 billion.

It was a little under a week ago that an SEC Chair urged cryptocurrency exchanges to require more “direct” regulation.

It’s unclear if Telsa’s announcement today will impact the Dogecoin initiative announced back on Sunday, in which SpaceX will launch a satellite to the moon funded entirely on the meme digital currency.

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign in to comment

Comments

Powered by StructureCMS™ Comments

Join and support independent free thinkers!

We’re independent and can’t be cancelled. The establishment media is increasingly dedicated to divisive cancel culture, corporate wokeism, and political correctness, all while covering up corruption from the corridors of power. The need for fact-based journalism and thoughtful analysis has never been greater. When you support The Post Millennial, you support freedom of the press at a time when it's under direct attack. Join the ranks of independent, free thinkers by supporting us today for as little as $1.

Support The Post Millennial

Remind me next month

To find out what personal data we collect and how we use it, please visit our Privacy Policy

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy
ADVERTISEMENT
© 2024 The Post Millennial, Privacy Policy