Tesla suspends Bitcoin payments due to the climate impact of mining

Tesla suspends the payment function with Bitcoin. Elon Musk tweeted this, referring to the harmful effects of mining on the climate.

The crypto space is currently on the decline. Since Tesla only accepted payments in Bitcoin at the end of March, the change of heart has now followed. So Elon Musk announced by Twitter the suspension of Bitcoin as a means of payment. As a justification, he cited the climate-damaging consequences of mining. More precisely he wrote:

Tesla has suspended Bitcoin payments. We are concerned about the huge increase in the use of fossil fuels in Bitcoin mining, especially coal, which has the worst emission values ​​of any fuel.

Elon Musk on Twitter

As a result, the Bitcoin price plummeted. An hour after the tweet was published, the cryptocurrency fell just below the 47,000 mark. However, investors seem to have increasingly used the dip for subsequent purchases. At press time, BTC is consolidating between $ 50,000 and $ 51,000. Nevertheless, this means a price loss of almost 11 percent for the digital store of value.

Elon Musk: “Won’t Sell Bitcoin”

Even if Bitcoin will initially be banned from Tesla stores until an ecological solution to the mining problem has been found, the electric car maker will not sell any BTC from its portfolio, Musk promised. In addition, they want to allow payments with Bitcoin again as soon as “the transition to more sustainable energy sources” has been completed. Furthermore, one observes other cryptocurrencies whose power consumption is less than one percent of Bitcoin. The Tesla boss did not mention which crypto assets are involved.

Twitter: Backlash and ingratiation

Meanwhile, there are violent backlashes from the crypto space on Twitter. Several personalities from the scene speak out and sharply criticize Elon Musk’s move. For example, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor points out that Bitcoin does not use any additional energy and that the high power consumption is necessary to ensure the high security standard of the cryptocurrency. In his tweet, crypto investor Anthony Pompliano reminds Musk that 75 percent of miners are already betting on renewable energies.

In addition, other users accuse the Tesla boss of a kind of double standard. For example, Spiegel bestselling author Marc Friedrich asks himself where the energy that Tesla uses for the production of its vehicles comes from, let alone the rare earths that it needs for the batteries of the electric motors.

In addition to criticism, some players in the crypto space are trying to get Elon Musk enthusiastic about their more climate-friendly projects. For example, BitTorrent Token CEO Justin Sun writes:

Hi @elonmusk, if you really want an instant, stable, low-cost, eco-friendly payment solution for @Tesla, your best bet is @Tether_to on #TRON.

Justin Sun on Twitter

The Tezos crypto project also welcomes the suspension of Bitcoin payments and dares Ingratiating attempts. In general it has a bit of medieval marriage politics, where various princes, dukes and counts also tried to sell their daughters to the king or to marry them to the prince. It remains to be seen whether Princess Bitcoin and Prince Musk will find each other again or whether the bells in the crypto kingdom will have to be rung again soon.