Elon Musk: Tesla Would Resume Accepting Bitcoin, Most Likely

Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey finally had their face-to-face talk about Bitcoin at “The B Word” event today. Joined by Cathie Wood and moderated by Steve Lee, their long-awaited talk was largely bullish all around – including on Bitcoins energy use, which Elon says he is now more optimistic about.

• The three began by citing what got them interested in Bitcoin. Elon saw it as an improvement to the “information system” that supports the economy as a whole.

• On Scalability, Musk admitted that while he would like to consider greater block sizes for Bitcoin, he believes that a well-implemented second layer, such as lightning, will allow it to scale so that it becomes the currency of the world.

• Moving on to energy use, Elon re-explained the initial reason why Tesla stopped accepting purchases in Bitcoin, referencing an increasing use of fossil fuels.

• However, he now said Bitcoin mining is moving towards majority renewable energy, due to many coal plants now shutting down in China. He’d like to do more diligence to confirm that energy use is at or above 50% renewable and establish that this trend is continued, but he noted that he will most likely resume Bitcoin purchases for Tesla now.

“I do believe that long term, renewable energy will actually be the cheapest form of energy, but it just doesn’t happen overnight. But as long as there is a long-term trend toward the use of renewable energy by the community, Tesla can support that.” according to Elon Musk.