Electric vehicle maker Tesla should start accepting bitcoin as payment again. The condition is to wait for due diligence on the amount of renewable energy used to mine the currency, Chairman and CEO Elon Musk said at a conference on Wednesday.
“The answer is most likely that Tesla would start accepting bitcoin again.” That’s what Elon Musk said yesterday at a conference.
Elon Musk‘s announcements at the B Word come after the group’s statements in May as the automaker would stop accepting bitcoin for car purchases. A decision made just two months after the company began accepting the world’s largest digital currency for payment.
“I wanted a little more due diligence to confirm that the percentage of renewable energy use is most likely at or above 50%, and that there is a trend of that number increasing, and if that’s the case, Tesla would start accepting bitcoin again,” Musk said.
As a reminder, bitcoin rose 8 percent to $32,160.16, while ether jumped 11.6 percent to $1,993.36. Tesla shares were down 0.8% at $655.30 in extended trading.
Using renewable energy to mine
The use of bitcoin to buy Tesla’s electric cars had highlighted the inconsistency between Musk’s reputation as an environmentalist and using his popularity as one of the world’s richest people to support crypto-currency development.
Some Tesla investors are increasingly critical of the way bitcoin is “mined,” referring in particular to the use of large amounts of electricity generated with fossil fuels.
In response to this problem, more and more digital currency miners are attempting to use renewable energy to lessen the impact on the environment.
“Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the advent of sustainable energy. We can’t be the company that does that and not do the proper due diligence on bitcoin energy consumption,” Elon Musk said.
He added that he personally owns bitcoin, ethereum and bitcoin, dogecoin. “I could pump, but I don’t vacuum,” he continued. “I certainly don’t believe in raising the price and selling … I would like to see bitcoin succeed.”
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Featured picture : © James Duncan Davidson
