Elon Musk – the South African entrepreneur behind such ventures as SpaceX and electric car company Tesla – is taking a lot of guff for the $1.5 billion bitcoin purchase he engaged in last February. However, he does have a loyal fan in hedge fund manager Anthony Scaramucci, who has come to his defense.
Elon Musk Is Taking Some Flack
Musk has done quite a bit for the world of cryptocurrency. Buying bitcoin in the way that he did allowed the world’s number one digital currency by market cap to reach a new all-time high for the month, while his constant reminders of why we should like Dogecoin has also helped the altcoin strike a new pinnacle.
But lately, some environmental enthusiasts think that the entrepreneur’s methodology has gone a little too far. They think that his purchase of so much bitcoin was the wrong thing to do in that owning so much of it adds to the carbon footprint that is allegedly left behind by digital currency extraction.
Scaramucci is hearing none of it. He’s claiming in a new interview that nobody has fought problems like climate change the way Musk has, and he’s defending the mogul’s decision to purchase bitcoin.
Scaramucci comments:
No living person has done more to protect the planet against climate change. [The] future of bitcoin mining is renewable energy… [The] answer to energy [fear, uncertainty and doubt] is Elon Musk.
He went on to claim that all fossil fuels will eventually be put out to pasture by renewable energy. He also stated that bitcoin would ultimately become the world’s primary store of value, and that it would replace equities, art and even gold.
As of late, bitcoin has been getting hit hard by several figures and industries who believe it’s bad for the environment. Bill Gates – the man behind Microsoft – has claimed that bitcoin “is not a great climate thing,” stating:
Bitcoin uses more electricity per transaction than any other method known to mankind.
Late last week, Bank of America issued a report saying that bitcoin mining now uses as much energy as American Airlines due to its heavy price. The report goes on to claim that every $1 million put into bitcoin uses as much energy as 1.2 million cars.
How Will BTC Shape the Future?
But Scaramucci is putting these arguments aside, claiming that bitcoin is the future of money. He wants to be right in on the action and is now filing the necessary paperwork for a bitcoin-based exchange-traded fund (EFT), hoping to garner a greenlight from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and introduce Americans to the trading product that Canadians have been enjoying for the past month.
His company follows a growing list of U.S.-based ventures looking to garner approval for crypto ETFs including Wisdom Tree, Van Eck and NYDIG.
Tags: Anthony Scaramucci, bitcoin, Elon Musk