Elon Musk – the South African entrepreneur behind billion-dollar companies such as Tesla and SpaceX – has taken more jabs at the bitcoin mining process.
Elon Musk Isn’t Done Asking Mining Questions
People were shocked last week when Tesla announced it would not be accepting bitcoin payments for goods and services despite claiming it would do so back in March. Sadly, this sent bitcoin into a huge downward spiral, and at the time of writing, the world’s biggest and most popular cryptocurrency by market cap has fallen below $40,000.
The reason for Tesla rescinding its decision came from Musk laying siege to the bitcoin mining process, which he suggested could pose a heavy burden to Earth’s environment. He expressed concern that too much energy is being used to extract new coins, and that those who took part in mining were guilty of placing the planet in danger.
Things are not ending there. Now, it sounds like Musk is calling on all major bitcoin miners to disclose how much energy they garner for their operations from clean sources, such as hydroelectricity. In a series of social media messages, Musk stated:
Energy usage is starting to exceed that of medium-sized countries. Recent extreme energy usage growth could not possibly have been done so fast with renewables. This question is easily resolved if the top ten hashing [organizations] just post audited numbers of renewable energy vs. not… These massive [bitcoin mining operations] take away the fabric of decentralization. A true ‘for the people crypto’ needs to be realized.
The bitcoin mining debate has waged heavily over the past few months as bitcoin continues to reach new highs. While given its present price the argument is likely to die down for the time being, it looks like members of the crypto world are continuing to pose ideas regarding why bitcoin mining could potentially lead to irreversible harm.
It has been stated in past reports that bitcoin mining now requires more energy than certain countries such as Iceland and Argentina. In addition, it is said that mining boasts as big a carbon footprint as the city of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Aside from his jabs at bitcoin mining, Musk continues to plug Dogecoin, posting the following tweet:
How much is that Doge in the window?
More Love for Dogecoin
This was accompanied by a picture of a Shiba Inu dog – which typically serves as the coin’s mascot – on a $1 bill. Musk mentioned that he was a serious Dogecoin fan and explained:
I have not and will not sell any Doge.
Dogecoin was on a meteoric rise not long ago when the currency rose to nearly 70 cents per unit. However, following bitcoin’s string of longwinded downfalls, Dogecoin could not help getting caught up in the negative hype and ultimately lost about 20 percent of its value.
