Yesterday, Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey and Cathie Wood all spoke at the “₿ Word conference”, a virtual conference aimed at discussing the prospects and future of Bitcoin. At the event, the major reveal came from Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, who admitted that he, his companies – Space X and Tesla all own Bitcoin and do not plan on selling.
Key takeaways from the conference
Elon Musk stated that he believes money is the world’s information system for labour allocation. He looks at Bitcoin from an information standpoint and believes that the network is evolving through lightning. He ultimately confirmed that he is a Bitcoin supporter stating that he, Tesla and SpaceX own Bitcoin and they do not plan on selling.
READ: Elon Musk says Tesla will “most likely” resume accepting bitcoin
Asides from Bitcoin which he said has the largest holding in his cryptocurrency portfolio, he disclosed that he also owns Ethereum and Dogecoin. He stated that Bitcoin can become peer-to-peer cash if the network has a layer 2 solution like lightning emphasizing that Bitcoin in its current state cannot scale to global monetary system. He stated that his support for Dogecoin is borne out of his love for dogs and memes.
READ: Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey is considering hard wallet production
On mining, Musk stated that Bitcoin appears to be pivoting towards renewable energy and Tesla will “most likely” resume accepting Bitcoin payment. He also stated, “Bitcoin does not need to be clean as snow but it just can’t be using the dirtiest coal either.” Musk added that his hope for Bitcoin is for the network to improve the information system which we all call money.
Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter and Square stated that because of his experience, he has seen the predatory nature of many payment networks and concludes that Bitcoin has the potential to topple these networks. He stated that monetary systems cause a lot of distractions and cost which ultimately affects individuals, citing examples with nations like Nigeria and Ghana facing remittance issues.
He stated that the fact that there is no need for trust makes it a game-changer as users can verify through source codes. He gave an example of a girl from Ethiopia who was trying to build Lyft for the country but was hindered by the lack of a digital payment system that Bitcoin fixes.
READ: Elon Musk’s Starlink on track to deliver internet service to the world in August
On mining, he stated that he believes Bitcoin incentivizes renewable energy which is bringing a lot of innovation in the energy space. Jack stated that he is pushing for more decentralization, citing his decentralized social media called BlueSky. He ultimately concluded that he hopes Bitcoin can create world peace.
When Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Invest spoke, she stated that she is focused on disruptive innovation and believes Bitcoin is what the world needs for change. She stated that Bitcoin’s role in the financial system is more of store of value than any other function which includes means of exchange and unit of account.
Speaking on mining, she stated that there is a massive movement to embrace ESG (Environmental Social Governance) in large institutions and miners are pivoting into mining with renewable energy. When asked how big bitcoin could be, she replied with a question stating, “well, how big is the U.S Monetary system?” She also reemphasized that Bitcoin is in fact a hedge against inflation.
READ: Why China’s mining ban is good for Bitcoin
What you should know
Bitcoin is trading at $32,000, up 4.04% for the day, as of the time of writing this report. The flagship cryptocurrency has quickly recovered after breaking below $30,000 earlier in the week.
