Vice News reports that Bitcoin and cryptocurrency users are extremely upset with Tesla CEO Elon Musk after it was announced that Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin as payment citing environmental concerns.
Motherboard by Vice News reports in an article titled “Bitcoiners Are So, So Mad at Elon Musk,” that cryptocurrency fans are currently extremely upset with Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk after the billionaire tweeted that Tesla would no longer be accepting Bitcoin as payment due to environmental concerns.
“We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel,” Musk stated at the time. Tesla is currently holding more than a billion dollars worth of Bitcoin which it doesn’t plan to spend yet, with Musk stating that it will be used for transactions “as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy.” Tesla is also “looking at other cryptocurrencies that use <1% of Bitcoin’s energy/transaction.”
The reaction to this from Bitcoin and cryptocurrency fans was almost immediate. Motherboard notes that this had a huge effect on the cryptocurrency for two reasons, one being that it was a very public betrayal from a popular mainstream figure that many felt gave legitimacy to cryptocurrency.
The other is that Musk has now stated his opinion on the controversy surrounding the carbon footprint of Bitcoin. Bitcoin does indeed have a large carbon footprint, as does anything that uses electricity such as computers or even Musk’s electric cars, but Bitcoin users have pointed out that for technical reasons Bitcoin’s energy usage cannot be quantified in “energy use per transaction” calculations as Musk did.
The combination of energy sources powering Bitcoin, which includes fossil fuels as well as various renewable sources, is also a source of debate. And to add to the situation, Musk also appeared to tout Dogecoin as the superior alternative to Bitcoin, causing much anger from Bitcoin fans.
This has caused essentially a civil war as the crypto community and Musk fandom proceed to both attack and defend the billionaire CEO.
A selection of tweets about Musk can be seen below:
updated it to better reflect the current situation pic.twitter.com/RL9dXqGwnT
— Neeraj K. Agrawal (@NeerajKA) May 17, 2021
Dude you’re somehow undoing a lifetime’s worth of trust-building all within a 24-hour period. WTF is going on. You’re imploding.
— Timothy S. Kim (@timothy_skim) May 13, 2021
How are your cars powered?
— Spike Cohen (@RealSpikeCohen) May 14, 2021
How can you spend so much money to invest in crypto and NOT KNOW how it works & how it’s made?!??
You’re supposed to be a genius. All this has shown is how not smart you truly are.
— Dr. John Grohol (@DocJohnG) May 13, 2021
Elon Musk: Buy this electric car that needs fossil fuels to build & charge the car for its entire life span while also heavily polluting the environment to harvest the required resources for the battery.
Also Musk: Buy DOGE!
Also Musk: cryptocurrency bad for environment.
— DJ Freedom Rockets Ὠ (@DJFreedomRocket) May 13, 2021
Just wondering if Tesla is now classed as a cryptocurrency since both really only move depending on Elon Musk tweets.
— Big_Orrin (@Big_Orrin) May 17, 2021
Original Dogecoin Inventor called Elon Musk a “self-involved grifter” And that the Coin’s rise “doesn’t make sense. It’s super absurd.” /r/CryptoCurrency https://t.co/iHw7lIn9ph pic.twitter.com/b3R6cV1eL5
— CryptoNewsDaily (@CryptoNDaily) May 15, 2021
Apparently there is now a “Fuck Elon Musk” cryptocurrency and it’s mooning. pic.twitter.com/YlP8oWZVbb
— Keubiko (@Keubiko) May 17, 2021
One Reddit post on r/Bitcoin with 3,000 points states: “Elon Musk exposing himself as a barefaced sciolist. No different from Craig ‘Faketoshi’ Wright.” The user added: “This is why people should stay in their lane. The cult of Elon has deluded themselves into believing their own bullshit that he’s some sort of frickin’ polymath.”
Following Musk’s statements, Bitcoin price dipped significantly with the price of 1 BTC dropping by $10,000, although the coin is still worth over $40,000 as of now.
Read more at Motherboard here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com