Elon Musk announced this week that Tesla would pause accepting Bitcoin for Tesla purchases, citing the cryptocurrency’s energy usage. He also specifically criticized one fossil fuel power plant in New York, which as Arstechnica reported, was revived to mine Bitcoin. Now the firm behind that plant, Greenidge, is already making moves.
I don’t know what it is, but we’re missing something on the recent decision by Tesla and Elon Musk to walk back the company’s decision to accept Bitcoin as payment for Tesla vehicles. The series of events so far just don’t make sense, for many reasons. Let’s walk through it.
Tesla has ceased accepting Bitcoin as a payment method for its cars, only a couple months after starting to offer the payment method. Elon cites concerns around the Bitcoin network’s energy consumption as the primary concern driving the decision.
