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SpaceX founder and Tesla CEO Elon Musk watches him visit the construction site of Tesla’s gigafactory in Gruenheide, near Berlin, Germany on May 17, 2021.
Tesla (TSLA.O) boss Elon Musk said on Sunday that his electric car maker would allow customers to re-transact with bitcoins when the creation of new coins becomes more climate-friendly. Tesla’s on-off relationship is a big factor in the value of cryptoassets: Musk’s latest remarks sent him back above $ 40,000. He did, however, set an incredibly high bar.
So-called bitcoin miners use loads of energy to generate a new coin every 10 minutes or so. Cambridge University estimates usage at 97 terawatt-hours annualized, roughly the amount of electricity produced in Virginia. Knowing how green it is, however, is impossible. A crypto report estimated that renewables made up 39% of the mix last year; another, a year earlier, claimed that bitcoin was already predominantly green.
The problem is, bitcoin energy hunger is built in. The amount required to mine means that no one can take control of the system, which is part of its appeal. As long as the price of bitcoin warrants its mining, and Musks’ comments help to do so, dirty fossil fuel owners have an incentive to keep burning. (By John Foley)
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