Is Elon Musk”s greener bitcoin plan a pipedream? – MENAFN.COM

Is Elon Musk”s greener bitcoin plan a pipedream? – MENAFN.COM

(MENAFN - Gulf Times) Elon Musk says Tesla won't use or accept bitcoin until he can be sure it's produced sustainably. But he may be waiting some time. Musk announced his new position in a major U-turn on Wednesday, prompting speculation among some experts about whether he had a plan to wean the crypto industry off the fossil fuels that power ''mining," the energy-intensive process that creates coins. Tesla could itself take an active role in helping make bitcoin greener by investing in new projects aimed at boosting the use of renewable energy in mining, according to more than a dozen cryptocurrency specialists. Musk and Tesla certainly have the resources to support existing efforts to fully move bitcoin to renewable energy. But such ventures could take years to get off the ground. Another potential route is for Tesla to shift from bitcoin to more eco-friendly digital currencies that don't rely on mega-computers spawning new tokens, according to experts. Yet this too presents major headaches, not least gaining broad crypto industry agreement for software changes and resolving regulatory concerns over smaller coins. Musk tweeted that while Tesla would no longer accept payment in bitcoin – two months after announcing that it