Tesla May Accept Bitcoin Payments Again If This Condition Is Met
Tesla CEO, Elon Musk is tweeting again. And this time, he had some interesting news concerning Bitcoin. If miners can prove they use at least 50% renewable energy in Bitcoin mining operations, the company will accept Bitcoin payments again.
The tweet by Elon Musk reads “When there’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions.”
And that sent the price of the cryptocurrency soaring, however, is there a way for the company to know?
Bitcoin Uses A Ton of Energy
Bitcoin mining is how new Bitcoins are created and is also a necessary component of blockchain technology. To put it in the simplest terms possible, the mining operations are actually verifying that a transaction has taken place.
As a reward for their services, the miners are rewarded an amount of bitcoin.
However, as the computations behind it become more complex, it takes more and more energy to solve them.
Cryptocurrency has exploded in popularity over the last few years, and the price has surged. Bitcoin, in particular, has exceeded $65,000 at times and the number of people trying to generate this currency soared with the price.
It’s estimated that the energy used to mine Bitcoin already exceeds what some countries consume.
The keyword is “estimate.” There is no real way of monitoring the energy consumption of these operations. This is because cryptocurrency is decentralized, meaning no single entity is in control (like a government).
So How Can Tesla Confirm Energy Usage?
And that is the million dollar question. Actually scratch that, at this point it may be more like a billion or trillion dollar question.
Currently, there is no way to do that, and Musk has not responded to any major news outlet at the time of writing this. That said, it’s very likely that they have a plan in place or are attempting to make one.
Most experts are guessing that he will utilize a lot of information that is readily available. However, there will certainly be a fair amount of estimations necessary.
The bottom line, we just don’t know how it is possible to track the amount of green energy usage.
Why Bitcoin Energy Concerns Matter
The world is becoming environmentally conscious. Slowly, but surely.
If cryptocurrency is going to become mainstream, as many predict, energy concerns are going to be the deciding factor. While it may seem like tough love from Tesla, it makes sense.
By forcing miners to be more environmentally friendly, it’s better for the industry.
In fact, El Salvador has officially made Bitcoin a legal tender. It’s the first country in the world to do so.
Thus, for all of you crypto critics out there, that time is over. It might not be in the next decade, but at some point, cryptocurrency may very well be a global currency.
That said, Bitcoin may not be the go-to coin unless it can reel in its energy consumption, or at the very least make sure it uses clean energy to do so.
Robert has been following and writing about environmental stories for years at GreenGeeks. He believes that highlighting environmentally friendly practices can help promote change in every household.
