Elon Musk questions assertions Bitcoin is sustainable
Musk thinks bitcoin's use of fossil fuels is destructive, but critics say he's dead wrong
Tesla CEO Elon Musk tried to refute claims Thursday that Bitcoin is "greener than critics say."
As part of a string of tweets Thursday, Bitcoin Magazine cited Kraken CEO Jesse Powell saying not only that the digital currency is green but that Musk – who has recently questioned the digital currency's environmental impact – "has some more studying to do."
"Based on what data," Musk replied.
To bolster their point, Bitcoin Magazine released a round of back-to-back tweets citing information from its latest article using data from The Cambridge Centre For Alternative Finance.
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"The Cambridge Centre For Alternative Finance estimates that 76% of all miners use renewable energies as part of their mix. CoinShares estimates that total share of renewables may even be as high as 73%," the magazine tweeted.
In recent months, Musk has drawn attention to cryptocurrency, expressing concern over its mining process – the process of creating the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin mining is done by solving mathematical puzzles on powerful computers that require large amounts of energy.
Musk announced that Tesla would stop accepting the digital currency as payment for its vehicles and wouldn't resume bitcoin transactions until "there’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners" with a positive future trend.
"We are concerned about rapid increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel," Musk said on Twitter in May. He added that cryptocurrency is a "good idea on many levels" but its promise cannot come at a "great cost to the environment."
Musk alluded to his decision in another tongue-in-cheek tweet referencing a breakup.
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However, Powell and Bitcoin Magazine aren't the only ones who disagree with Musk's assessment.
Michael Saylor, co-founder of the business intelligence company MicroStrategy and a staunch Bitcoin defender, said during the Bitcoin 2021 conference earlier this month that he believes "Bitcoin is the most efficient use of energy that the human race has yet come up with."
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"I think that Bitcoin is an extraordinarily disruptive, beneficial technology to the entire energy industry, and as I studied it, it became clear to me that it’s the highest-value use of intermittent energy," Saylor said. "It’s the highest-value use of renewable energy. It’s the highest-value use of wasted or stranded energy. And it’s just the highest-value use of energy period."
FOX Business' Audrey Conklin and the Associated Press contributed to this report.