Elon Musk stunned the world again today, but not by delivering on any of the new products he perpetually promises but never actually come to market. Instead, it was by completely reversing his recent decisions to accept Bitcoin as a payment option for Tesla cars.
In a Tweet, Musk cited environmental concerns as the reason for his change of heart.
Tesla & Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/YSswJmVZhP
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2021
Of course, cryptos dropped on the news with BTC trading as low as $46K as of this writing.
But Musk’s explanation makes no sense for two reasons. The first reason being that how in the world did Elon not know how Bitcoin worked in the first place when he decided to accept Bitcoin just a few months ago?
Did the self-described “techno-king” have no idea that Bitcoin miners used electricity? Did the man who has sold himself as a genius just discover how Bitcoin works despite promoting it on Twitter non-stop?
All of this makes Elon’s recent decision almost impossible to understand and calls into question his real reasons for making the Tweet.
Next we have the simple hypocrisy that somehow electric powered cars are good for the environment but electric powered Bitcoin is bad. How can this be, they are both powered by the same electricity coming from the same sources.
Elon Musk and Tesla have kicked off a huge rush to produce millions of electric cars in hopes of one day replacing a large percentage of gasoline powered cars. But how will all those cars be powered? By electricity, the same electricity Musk is criticizing for powering Bitcoin.
It simply makes no sense that he would believe one is good and the other is bad when they are both powered by the same electricity from the same sources. Not to mention, if electric car sales continue to grow around the world as they are, they will consume far more electricity on a daily basis then Bitcoin could ever dream of.
So what was really behind Elon Musk’s shocking move? Was he angry that his expansion moves his China have stalled and wanted to damage the mining community as some sort of petty revenge? We all know Musk has a petty side when his ego is slightly damaged. Remember how Musk attacked an expert rescue diver and called him a pedophile when he simply rejected Musk’s help during a cave rescue? Musk was later sued for that little exchange.
Regardless of his reasons, there is no explanation here that makes Musk look good. Every explanation makes him look either clueless, impulsive, or hypocritical for pushing his own electric powered cars while denigrating another electric powered product.
After a recent appearance on SNL and now this, it appears as though Musk has exposed himself. He’s no longer coming off as the genius he likes to portray himself as, but instead a clueless and wildly impulsive billionaire with a fragile ego.
SHARE