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Elon Musk is definitely interested in digital currency, but it seems he doesn’t want to figure it out. At least I’m afraid he doesn’t have a deep enough understanding of Bitcoin (BTC) and decentralized systems in general.
A decentralized system must be secure and Proof of Work (PoW) is the solution for Bitcoin to secure its digital asset. The better the Bitcoin is, the more energy the PoW needs to secure the network. In other words, the reason Bitcoin consumes a lot more electricity than Dogecoin (DOGE), for example, is because BTC is much more secure than DOGE.
Related: Experts Response: How Elon Musk Affects the Crypto Space?
The irony of Elon Musk
From a power perspective, BTC consumes more power in Bitcoin mining. This is due to the fact that Bitcoin occupies a leading position. The irony is that electricity is amorphous amorphous in the sense that you don’t know where it is coming from. Just looking at a kilowatt of electricity being transmitted to you, unless someone tells you, you don’t know where it’s coming from. You have to follow the original source, where sometimes the source is green and renewable like solar, wind, hydro or geothermal energy, but sometimes the energy is dirty coal, nuclear and other dirty energy sources that exist.
The main problem is that the energy itself is neutral. Energy does not know where it is coming from. Energy is just energetic electricity. So the irony is that with Elon Musk, the electric cars he sells at Tesla are powered by the same energy that is used in the BTC coal-fired mining machines. It’s ironic that he criticized the mining machines for using a lot of energy, because Tesla cars are powered by using a lot of energy that comes from all over the world. If you build and sell 10 million cars, they will normally use a lot of energy.
Who is right, who is wrong ?
The way to really get rid of dirty energy is to stop production at the source: the power plant. This is the only way to get rid of unsustainable energy sources. If bitcoin mining is necessary, you may think that Christmas lights are okay or that the AC turning on is okay when in reality Christmas lights in my opinion are really useless. I can also say that the air conditioning is also unnecessary. On the other hand, washing machines and dryers are necessary, but if you really wanted to, you could try doing laundry naturally, by hand and in the creek behind your house.
These subjective concerns about what is right or wrong, or how one uses one’s electricity, spill over into society. Are we leaving society and the mature adults who live there to choose how they want to use electricity? Should there be standards, rules or even laws that would regulate it?
If you can use washing machines or air conditioners, why can’t you use Bitcoin mining machines? All of these devices waste energy, but these examples are designed to make our lives easier and better.
Whether it is the Paris Agreement or another important international decree, the goal must be to eliminate dirty energy at its source, in power plants, as mentioned earlier. To be fair, there are many other industries that use a lot of electricity: aluminum, steel, gold and silver mining, they all consume a lot of electricity and use a lot of energy. energy, whether electricity or fossil fuels. Ultimately, it’s a matter of judgment on which activity is good or bad. The answer here would be entirely subjective: for some it is good to mine gold or process steel, while bitcoin mining is destructive to the environment. Conversely, I would say Bitcoin mining is good and processing gold and steel wastes money, energy, and resources. After all, it’s subjective.
Why did Musk choose Dogecoin?
Elon Musk loves being famous, and he probably loves the power that a lot of people love. What is interesting is that with Bitcoin, he has no influence on this, because of the already very popular Bitcoins. In other words, he couldn’t take control of Bitcoin and give it direction because he’s already too strong for that.
Take a look at some of the best cryptocurrencies besides Bitcoin: my brother, Charlie Lee, is the public face of Litecoin (LTC). Ether (ETH) has a very public founder, Vitalik Buterin. Behind Tether (USDT) is Jean-Louis Van Der Velde. Binance Coin (BNB) has Changpeng Zhao, and so on, and they cannot be taken back because there are notable people in the driver’s seats, so to speak. Finally, you have Dogecoin, which was created to be similar to a hobby project, but the founders of Dogecoin seemed to be gone and DOGE was not actively maintained.
Here’s an interesting theory: Elon Musk discovered the Dogecoin tragedy and realized that it could be something he could take control over. He could become the new boss of Dogecoin. (That’s why I think he didn’t choose any other cryptocurrency because they had their own beloved founders and rulers). With such a strong and famous leader of Dogecoin, the price has skyrocketed. This is my theory, but in general I don’t like centralized digital currencies. The fact that you can take Dogecoin back and set the direction on its own is a bad sign for Dogecoin. For me, it’s not very interesting.
This article is taken from an interview by Max Yakubowski with Bobby Lee. It has been condensed and edited.
This article does not contain any investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should do their own research before making a decision.
The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the sole authors and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
Bobby Lee is the former CEO of China’s premier cryptocurrency exchange, BTCC, founded in 2011. Lee received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from Stanford University and began his career in technology as a software engineer at Yahoo. His current business is Ballet, a cryptocurrency hardware wallet designed for accessibility and adoption by the masses. Lee is also vice chairman of the board of the Bitcoin Foundation and the brother of Litecoin founder and advocate Charlie Lee.
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