On Wednesday, May 12, Elon Musk announced on Twitter that Tesla won’t be accepting Bitcoin as payment anymore. Find out who founded Bitcoin and why did Tesla stop using it.
The Tesla CEO sent the internet and financial market reeling with his latest tweet about Bitcoin.
Elon cited environmental concerns as the reason for the company’s decision. The CEO stated, “We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions.”
Following Elon’s tweet, many unversed internet users want to know what bitcoin is and who founded it.
Who founded Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is currently one of themost popular cryptocurrencies out there. It was invented back in 2008.
Even after 13 years of its existence, Bitcoin still remains an enigma for many. For starters, we don’t know if it’s been founded by one person or a group of people.
The founder/founders behind Bitcoin, use the name, Satoshi Nakamoto. But it’s unclear if it’s an alias or the founder’s real name. It has also been suggested that Satoshi Nakamoto is a pseudonym.
In the years following Bitcoin’s invention, many individuals have claimed to be the founder, Satoshi.
What is Bitcoin and how does it even work?
According to bitcoin.org, cryptocurrency is actually a decentralised digital currency. It is operated without a central bank and does not have a single administrator at its helm.
Hence it can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without the help of any intermediaries.
However, this doesn’t mean that Bitcoin transactions aren’t verified. They are supervised by network nodes through cryptography.
Cryptography is a technique of secure communication, that takes place in the presence of a third party.
Furthermore, Bitcoin transactions are also recorded in what is known as a blockchain.
A blockchain is a constantly growing list of records. They are called blocks and are linked together using cryptography.
Each of these blocks entails a cryptographic hash from the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data of the cryptocurrency.
Elon Musk’s Tesla not accepting Bitcoin anymore
Elon’s tweet came as quite a shock to many as the billionaire business magnate has shown vocal support for cryptocurrencies in the past.
Elon’s tweet also read, “Crytpcurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at a great cost to the environment.”
He further stated that Tesla will start using Bitcoins for transactions once again, when its mining transitions to a more sustainable energy source.
Tesla’s website previously had a support page dedicated to Bitcoin. But lately, its CEO has been showing vocal support for another cryptocurrency, the Dogecoin.