tech2 News StaffMay 13, 2021 9:55:09 AM IST
Electric car maker Tesla will no longer accept Bitcoin as payment, CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Wednesday, citing environmental concerns. “We are concerned about the rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel,” Musk said on Twitter. He added that cryptocurrency was a “good idea on many levels” but that its promise could not come with “high costs for the environment”.
Tesla, he added, will not sell Bitcoin that it owns.
Tesla & Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/YSswJmVZhP
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2021
Bitcoin price fell 5 percent to $ 51,847, following Musk’s comments on Twitter. Tesla’s share fell 4.4 percent on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Musk conducted a poll on his Twitter account on Tuesday asking users whether Tesla should accept Dogecoin as a method of payment.
Would you like Tesla Doge to accept?
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2021
Tesla said in February that it had invested around $ 1.5 billion in bitcoin and it should begin Accepting digital currency as a means of payment “soon.” The market value of Tesla’s Bitcoin holdings as of March 31 was $ 2.48 billion according to securities filings.
Bitcoin relies on computers that rely on electricity. The number of computers and the energy required to power them are increasing – the growing value of Bitcoin is directly related to the amount of energy it consumes.
Bitcoin miners unlock bitcoins by solving complex, unique puzzles. As Bitcoin rises in value, the puzzles become more difficult and require more computing power to solve. Estimates of how much energy Bitcoin uses vary.
A 2019 study by researchers from the Technical University of Munich and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that at the end of 2018, the entire Bitcoin network was responsible for up to 22.9 million tons of CO2 per year – similar to what happens in a major western city or in an entire city developing country like Sri Lanka. Total global greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion amounted to around 37 billion tons last year.
With contributions from The Associated Press
