Billionaire investor Chris Sacca believes cryptocurrencies’ environmental problems could spark creative solutions.
The founder of Lowercase Capital admitted to holding a variety of cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH).
“The climate impact bums me out,” he said, “but that is the market impetus for a lot of clean energy innovation.”
Sacca’s tweet in which he made these proclamations was prompted by a Twitter thread from Mark Cuban. Besides both being crypto enthusiasts, the billionaires appeared together on popular investing show “Shark Tank.” Sacca made these statements as qualifications when asking Cuban whether transactional utility drove his crypto selection.
Sacca invested early in bitcoin, stating that he had “bought bitcoin at $800,” in March 2014. A longtime bitcoin bull, he predicted it would become “institutionally mainstream” in 2017. Although, that same year, and in 2013, he described it as an “environmental disaster.” “I strongly believe in crypto, but it can’t drive a massive increase in fossil fuel use, especially coal,” he said.
Bitcoin’s environmental reputation
Tesla CEO Elon Musk echoed these remarks concerning coal use to mine bitcoin in his announcement that the company would no longer accept bitcoin as payment. “We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal,” the tweet read.
Despite currently putting bitcoin payments on hold, the tweet remarked that Tesla would retain its bitcoin holdings. It continued that the company intends to eventually use it for transactions, once bitcoin mining transitions to more sustainable resources.
Incentivizing renewable resources
This apparently indicates that Musk is optimistic in bitcoin’s potential to switch to a more sustainable path. A whitepaper commissioned by Square and ARK Invest also championed Sacca’s belief in bitcoin spurring sustainable innovation.
Apart from catalyzing sustainable innovation, bitcoin mining companies have also begun prioritizing environmental consciousness in their business strategy. For instance, Digihost is focusing on mining bitcoin in an efficient and environmentally conscious way. The company announced that 90% of the energy consumed by its bitcoin mining operations is from zero carbon emission sources.
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