Elon Musk’s foray into crypto has been erratic, sometimes playful, and certainly unpredictable. He is once again reconsidering his wavering opinion on crypto, as you can soon buy Tesla merchandise with Doge.
In May of this year, Elon halted Tesla’s retail crypto program over climate concerns, which sent the crypto markets into a nose does.
This seems to be an experiment, if you buy Tesla merchandise with doge, he’s able to dip Tesla’s tires back in the crypto waters and see how people react. Here is his tweet:
Tesla will make some merch buyable with Doge & see how it goes
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2021
Of course this sent the price of Doge soaring, climbing from .16 to as high as .22… a 26.6% increase in price in less than 2 hours.
We’re left to wonder about why this change in sentiment toward the retail acceptance of crypto. Dogecoin, like Bitcoin, is a proof-of-work coin that uses energy intensive mining. In other words, the fundamentals behind Doge’s energy usage are very similar to Bitcoin’s.
Is Doge Elon Musk’s litmus test for gauging the market when it comes to Bitcoin and energy usage?
Because Tesla’s ambition is for clean energy solutions, any engagement with crypto is a political hot button, which could turn off his base customers, whom advocate for clean energy. His customer’s response is exactly why earlier this year Musk retracted on accepting Bitcoin for retail payments.
If Musk is perceived as abandoning his clean energy principles, he will lose credibility.
But now that you can soon buy Tesla merchandise with Doge, that is… with an energy intensive proof-of work coin, it’s bound to spark up the whole crypto and clean energy debate once again.
This timing for a new public debate is at a critical juncture.
Recently, Elizabeth Warren slammed Bitcoin claiming their practices are unfriendly to the environment. And the Biden administration appears to be stepping up efforts to regulate crypto. But these negative narratives around Bitcoin and energy have been debunked. In fact, Bitcoin is an Energy revolution that few understand. The infrastructure costs of fiat backed currencies far exceed the costs associated with proof-of-work mining.
And… Bitcoin can create a more efficient energy grid by using the grid’s excess energy to mine Bitcoin. Right now, excess grid-energy is just wasted and does nothing useful. If you use it to mine Bitcoin, it creates a process that will help secure the most powerful blockchain network in the world, thereby making the energy grid much more efficient.
I would guess that Elon Musk’s latest tweet shows a willingness to battle inside the public arena once again and debate proof-of-work coins on the world stage. Favorable to crypto or not, Elon’s voice on anything technology related moves markets. Let’s hope this time around he’s done his due diligence. Let’s hope he responds responsibly to the likely barrage of criticism over this decision to once again embrace a proof-of-work coin.
The question now is: Will Tesla begin accepting Bitcoin next?
