Teslas $1.5 billion bitcoin purchase clashes with its environmental aspirations
Tesla, led by Elon Musk, confirmed that it purchased about $ 1.5 billion in bitcoin in January and expects to start accepting it as a payment in the future. | Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Tesla just gave bitcoin a big boost that’s likely to result in more greenhouse gas emissions from the energy-hungry cryptocurrency. After Tesla purchased $1.5 billion in bitcoin and announced that it will accept bitcoin as payment in the future, the price of bitcoin reached an all-time high.
“It’s hard to imagine, frankly a more credible endorsement than one coming from folks like Elon [Musk] who are inventing the future,” says Garrick Hileman, head of research at crypto asset company blockchain.com and visiting fellow at the London School of Economics.
When prices are high, bitcoin “mining” — creating new coins by verifying transactions — ramps up. But even though that mining happens...
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