Tesla is suspending car purchases with Bitcoin, citing the environmental impact of mining.
Just a few weeks after it started acceptance of Bitcoin as a currency for the Tesla car market, Elon Musk revealed in a tweet that will "suspend" the effort. According to the announcement (Tesla does not appear to have a press office), the company is "concerned about the rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and trading."
It sounds a bit strange as news and it is probably an evasion and not the real cause, but the fact remains that Bitcoin is no longer considered a means of buying Tesla cars. We will see what effect this news will have on the exchange rate of Bitcoin against the dollar.
Last year study however, it estimates that bitcoin mining used an average of 7,46 GW of electricity, and the same study puts the number currently at 16,71 GW. This represents electricity consumption 147,79 TWh on an annual basis.
Tesla went on to tweet that "it will not sell any Bitcoin" (had recently bought $ 1,5 billion in Bitcoin launching its exchange rate and it is unclear if it has already sold and how much) and that "it will use these Bitcoin whenever mining shifts to more sustainable energy consumption".
This reasoning from Musk sounds a bit strange, as the energy consumption from the use of bitcoin was already known long before he bought them. It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post.
Finally Musk adds without specifying any specific cryptocurrency, that the company is considering other options that use less than one percent of Bitcoin's energy per transaction.
If he really believes what he writes, then so be it Ethereum has a chance, as miners have discussed switching to a more energy-efficient system and the cryptocurrency's prices have remained stable today, while the value of Bitcoin has fallen by around €5.000 to €42.194. according to Coinbase.
