Tesla suspends them markets cars 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, ο 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, however, a study estimated that bitcoin mining used an average of 7,46 GW of electricity, and the same study now puts the number 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 a specific cryptocurrency, that the company is looking at other options that use less than one percent of Bitcoin's energy per pluschange.
If he really believes what he writes, then Ethereum has a chance, as miners have been discussing the transition to a more energy efficient system and cryptocurrency prices have now remained stable, while the value of Bitcoin has fallen by around € 5.000. at € 42.194, according to Coinbase.
