The Tesla boss has expressed optimism about reintroducing bitcoin payments. But the community doesn't really care anymore.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said a few words about Bitcoin again. During "The ฿ Word" conference, Musk said that the mining sustainability situation has improved since he first raised his infamous objections in May. Musk:
"It looks like Bitcoin is shifting a lot more towards renewables and a bunch of the heavy coal plants that were being used... have been shut down, especially in China."
At the time, the Tesla boss said: his company would no longer accept BTC as a form of payment because of concerns about the use of polluting fossil fuels in BTC mining.
Rightly or wrongly, many blame Musk for the 50% drop in Bitcoin's price from its all-time high. The sudden outburst of hostility has damaged his reputation in the crypto community.
The question is: Will the community forgive and forget now that Musk has seemingly flip-flopped?
Is Elon back on board with Bitcoin?
Regarding the supposed shift towards green bitcoin mining, Musk said he wants to analyse the situation further. If research shows that BTC mining uses 50% or more renewable sources, then Tesla could resume Bitcoin payments.
"I want to do a little more research to confirm that the percentage of renewable energy use is most likely at or above 50% and that there is a trend to increase that number," he said. If so, Tesla will most likely accept bitcoin again."
When all hell broke loose over Musk's bitcoin criticism in May, bitcoin cop Anthony Pompliano tweeted that the bitcoin network already uses 75% renewable sources.
Pompliano referred to a 2019 study conducted by CoinShares. According to the report, however, this figure has also dropped slightly compared to November 2018, when the share of renewable sources was estimated at 78%.
Nonetheless, if CoinShares' study is correct and still holds true in 2021, the 75% figure is already well above Musk's desired threshold of 50%.
This fact, combined with Musk's incessant Twitter provocations, has damaged his standing in the crypto community. But is it already too late for Musk?
The community remains frosty
Last month, sentiment tracking firm Awario found that attitudes towards the eccentric billionaire had sunk to an all-time low.
The research firm classified tweets mentioning Musk as positive, neutral and negative - and found that the percentage of negative tweets had risen dramatically after May.
In relation to his recent bitcoin about-face, analysis of social media comments shows an overwhelmingly negative tone towards him.
For example, one of the most upvoted comments on Reddit reads:
"Listen. Simple. On. About. Him. To. Write."
Scroll down for more similar comments, including the now famous "f*ck Elon". The phrase was coined by Bitcoin maximalist Max Keiser - who even went so far as to call his tour the "F*ck Elon Tour".
In short, even if Tesla resumes Bitcoin payments, the crypto community could already prove that it has evolved.
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