Author:
Last week, Elon Musk and Tesla shocked the entire crypto industry following an announcement that the electric car company will no longer accept bitcoin payments for “environmental reasons.”
A Hard Pill For Bitcoin Maximalists
Giving its reasons, Tesla argued that Bitcoin mining operation requires massive energy consumption, which is generated from fossil fuel, especially coal, and as such, causes environmental pollution.
The announcement caused a market dip which saw over $4 billion of both short and long positions liquidated as the entire capitalization lost almost $400 billion in a day.
For Bitcoin maximalists and proponents, Tesla’s decision was a hard pill to swallow, and that was evident in their responses to the electric car company and its CEO.
While the likes of Max Keiser lambasted Musk for his company’s move, noting that it was due to political pressure, others like popular YouTuber Chris Dunn were seen canceling their Tesla Cybertruck orders.
Adding more fuel to the fire, Musk also responded to a long Twitter thread by Peter McCormack, implying that Bitcoin is not actually decentralized.
Bitcoin is actually highly centralized, with supermajority controlled by handful of big mining (aka hashing) companies.
A single coal mine in Xinjiang flooded, almost killing miners, and Bitcoin hash rate dropped 35%. Sound “decentralized” to you?https://t.co/Oom8yzGRNQ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 16, 2021
Musk Working With Dogecoin Devs
Elon Musk, who named himself the “Dogefather” on SNL, created a Twitter poll, asking his nearly 55 million followers if they want Tesla to integrate DOGE as a payment option.
The poll, which had almost 4 million votes, was favorable for Dogecoin, as more than 75% of the community voted “Yes.”
Following Tesla’s announcement, the billionaire tweeted that he is working closely with Dogecoin developers to improve transaction efficiency, saying that it is “potentially promising.”
Tesla dropping bitcoin as a payment instrument over energy concerns, with the possibility of integrating dogecoin payments, comes as a surprise to bitcoiners since the two cryptocurrencies use a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm and, as such, face the same underlying energy problem.
Elon Musk: Dogecoin Wins Bitcoin
Despite using a PoW algorithm, Elon Musk continues to favor Dogecoin over Bitcoin. Responding to a tweet that covered some of the reasons why Musk easily chose DOGE over BTC, the billionaire CEO agreed that Dogecoin wins Bitcoin in many ways.
Comparing DOGE to BTC, Musk noted that “DOGE speeds up block time 10X, increases block size 10X & drops fee 100X. Then it wins hands down.”
Ideally, Doge speeds up block time 10X, increases block size 10X & drops fee 100X. Then it wins hands down.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 16, 2021
Max Keiser: Who’s The Bigger Idiot?
As Elon Musk continues his lovey-dovey affair with Dogecoin, Bitcoin proponents continue to criticize the Dogefather.
Following Musk’s comments on Dogecoin today, popular Bitcoin advocate Max Keiser took to his Twitter page to ridicule the Tesla boss while recalling when gold bug Peter Schiff described Bitcoin as “intrinsically worthless” after he lost access to his BTC wallet.
“Who’s the bigger idiot?” Keiser asked.
Who’s the bigger idiot? pic.twitter.com/YopCoat33W
— 🍊💊 Max Keiser (@maxkeiser) May 16, 2021
Aside from Keiser, other Bitcoin proponents such as Michael Saylor replied to Tesla’s CEO:
The world needs a decentralized, secure, deflationary store of value like #Bitcoin much more than it needs the more centralized, less secure, inflationary medium of exchange that you describe above.
— Michael Saylor (@michael_saylor) May 16, 2021
PrimeXBT Special Offer: Use this link to register & enter CRYPTOPOTATO50 code to receive up to $7,000 on your deposits.
