Bitcoin Forum

So Elon Musk finally went a little deeper on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, sharing his thoughts in a recent interview with the Third Row Tesla Podcast - Elon's Story - Part 1.

I mean in the past he did call Bitcoin "quite brilliant", while criticizing it for being "energy intensive", and even joking about pervasive crypto scams that were originated in his name. So in the course of this interview Elon compared money to an information system for label allocation (1hr:22min into the video) and while at it bagged on the banks as heterogeneous low security high latency databases.
To save you a lot of time, the Bitcoin bit comes at 1hr:33min into the video when one of the interviewers asks "You love code but you dont seem to be bullish about Bitcoin", so the Great One waffle a little first saying he is neither here no there on Bitcoin, calls it "pretty clever" but then takes us down a familiar road with the "there are these transactions that are not within the balance of the law" and reducing Bitcoin to a "legal to illegal" bridge. Gets a little better when he talks about crypto being replacement for cash, but not a primary database...

As a Tesla owner and Tesla/SpaceX/TeslaEnergy fanatic, and a bit of an Elon Musk fanboy, I was a little disappointed...

What do you think about this folks? Great visionary guy missing the point? I mean he is clearly up the speed on finance and tech, having co-founded PayPal etc..

I love Elon Musk and his innovative technology and keeps on with his research and development but funny enough, he has the right to express himself on any matter including bitcoin but his opinion does not really define the true state of bitcoin. Bitcoin as a technology is still evolving and will continue to attract criticism and praise.

Co-founded paypal so he like centralized financial system that is regulated and manipulated by private entities. He loves when people pays heavy fees on each transaction and people keep billions of dollar in their online payment account without getting any interest on it, those numbers are in billions. Imagine how much it will be in interest from billion dollar even when interest rate is low.

He might not make hate statement against bitcoin but for sure he dont like to support it because he havent thought of getting back to finance space anytime soon.

I wouldn't classify myself as a Elon Musk fanboy. I personally own a tesla car, and a tesla powerbank (actually pretty useful), but I don't follow Elon Musk and his interviews/videos/articles that often.

I've seen his previous thoughts on Bitcoin, and while we share some of the similar ideas (which is kinda cool), there are some disagreements that I have with him. I don't understand why he believes it's energy-intensive. When comparing the miner electricity fees compared to a lot of other businesses, it's minuscule. Banks spend a lot more electricity maintaining their systems, and bitcoin mining has seen a slow transition to more renewable energy sources.

Elon Musk doesn’t care for bitcoins and he only keeps on making these statements, because he keeps getting free publicity from the crypto community and the media. I personally feel we should stop paying attention to his statements, because he’s not helping in adoption of bitcoins. It’s pertinent to note that if he really wishes to help then he should accept bitcoins for tesla cars as that’ll push people to buy bitcoins.

Being one of the best businessman is great, it could possibly induce influence to allot of people and Elon Musk surely does have this influence over a wide of people. And the reason why I think you became disappointed is right in your statement. becoming someone to fund paypal and to basically be incorporated to financial businesses imposes risk when other asset could affect it. In this case, since paypal isn't utilizing bitcoin and cryptocurrency, there are some point that Elon Musk might saw bitcoin as a threat to their asset rather than a technology to be implemented worldwide.

kindly provide the video for everyone or at least for those who are interested to watch the whole interview.

I expected him to have his own views and opinion about bitcoin(some positive and negative) and I never really expect him to perfectly agree or totally on board with bitcoin.

A link to the video would be better.

Anyways, he is just saying the facts. Bitcoin is still used to pay illegal transactions that are hard to trace and identify. It does still make its objective, to be an alternative to cash system, but the way it cannot scale that much, and these shady transactions using the Bitcoin as a tool, is true and we cannot do much about it until all exchanges are subject to regulation and KYC. Which is where the dilemma comes in.

Why would you? Well he is entitled to his opinion, and as much as we wanted to hear positive things about Elon regarding bitcoin, we should understand where he is coming from.


He is still a great visionary, in my opinion. But I wouldn't change my thought about him just because he turns his back against crypto. We don't know, maybe down the line, we his change his perception about this whole thing and be positive.

I saw on his twitter account that he mentioned that bitcoin can be a replacement of cash in some circumstances. But it doesn't mean that we should get hyped. The problem is people are becoming hype when a celebrity or influential person talked about bitcoin. It is normal for us to see that they should have a care because awareness is gradually increasing. It is just a opinion of Elon Musk and we should not base our decisions about what he said.

The tweet series that he made about bitcoin. Just like the other known personality easily can tweet things about bitcoin but honestly, we don't know if they do really care or own a single bitcoin. I'm also an Elon Musk fanboy but I respect what he has to say.

Just because he's not bullish to bitcoin or said things that you don't like, this now will matter to you. It shouldn't be like that, just like those bearish people in bitcoin and keeps on telling bad words; they can say what they want to say.

Although illicit activity cannot be directly linked to Bitcoin and we can't say the majority of Bitcoin transactions are illegal, he does have a point in his statement.

He's probably talking about Bitcoin as a possible currency. Bitcoin transactions are 100% sincere, but illicit activity such as tax evasion, money laundering, sales of illegal substances etc cannot be blocked.

Therefore, part of the investors are afraid to state a positive opinion on Bitcoin due to the fact that most governments link it in one way or another to these activities. It's amazing, or "brilliant" as Musk says, but well-known personalities probably prefer to stay away from giving it giving it a precise opinion.

But for a celebrity like him, everything from him can greatly influence this market. I still remember in 2019 he tweeted something related to ETH, and immediately the price went up a lot. If he continues to care about the market in the future, it will help the market go up easier and become more popular.

I haven't watched the video yet. Was not interested with the interview at first. But since I have encountered several controversial tweets and topics such as this one, I might as well take a little time watching it, probably skipping to the portion where he expressed his mind on Bitcoin.

But considering only what is written in the OP, I guess Elon's idea of Bitcoin is so obsolete. There is truth in it but that was the Bitcoin as being portrayed during the time of Silk Road. Bitcoin indeed used to be more of a bridge from legal to illegal. Bitcoin used to have that impression; a currency in the deep web, a currency for people involved in illegal transactions, a currency for drug dealers, assassins, launderers, hackers, gamblers, pedophiles, and other despised mortals.

But that was long ago. He should have kept himself abreast of the latest developments with Bitcoin. Bitcoin is now a currency of the unbanked, of people who yearn for financial freedom, of people whose fiat currency is on the brink of collapse or has collapsed already, of people who has grown tired of being financially manipulated, and so on.

Why do people keep looking for validation from all these business celebrities - Musk, Gates, Wozniak, Buffet and lately Schiff? Do people only use stuff because its endorsed by famous and successful people, or do they actually do their own research do determine it themselves? I'll tell you a secret - all these famous guys didn't look deep at Bitcoin, they've just read some articles that had the usual narratives like "brilliant new technology but with high energy cost and criminals use it", and they just parrot it just like shitposters on this forum parrot what they read from news articles.

The "legal to illegal bridge" remark bugs me. He has a point, but he's basically implying that we should be enslaved to fiat, for all its flaws, effectively.

Eventually fiat will be used to determine who can buy or sell, with social credit system integration, a la the "beast system". Decentralized crypto offers an alternative to that kind of hell.

I think he is just cautious. He is funding projects that might compete with those of the government but don't cross them out and do make sure everything is legal. I would say he is neutral about Bitcoin, because he is not sure where it would go, and doesn't want to look like McAfee who made a ridiculous prediction and was probably (still in the future) seriously wrong. Elon is a smart guy, he keeps it cool and doesn't make statements that could be used against him in the future.

Sounds like good reason for pump

When you listen to these influencers and celebrities you can quickly spot who actually knows something about Crypto currencies and who

simply follow what is said in the mainstream media. Elon Musk is one of those people who actually know what he is talking about, because

he has his roots in the payment system development scene. So, when he gives his opinion on Bitcoin, you can take it more seriously than

people like Warren Buffett or Mark Cuban.  ::)  Some of what he says makes sense, but the legal/illegal angle is just flawed. (Fiat is still

used the most for illegal activities.)  ;)

That is cool and which Tesla car you own, i would like to own one but not financially that sound to purchase one.

The comparison is not that great as everyone wants to trash on the amount of electricity used to mine bitcoin and the wastage it creates, it is a competitive revenue structure and you cannot complain when the network will help the entire market.

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Elon has his opinion on how he views things, even i have my opinion thinking about his crazy SpaceX where they are planning to take tourist to outer space which is really crazy and not productive.

This makes sense but Elon Musk really does like the innovation but he is not an advocate of bitcoin and we have heard him giving his opinion when he is asked about bitcoin and rather than keeping silent he just responds what he thinks.

Two wrongs will not make them right, fiat is controlled by the government and even if that can be used for illegal activities how about a decentralized coin that will help them make things different, we have the answer in bitcoin where every transaction is edged in history in the blockchain unlike fiat. 

You're right. He is entitled to his own opinion, and at the very least he is making correct statements at the safest approach so as to not unintentionally offend anyone, which I think is great. He sees potential in the technology that is behind bitcoin. But bitcoin, I guess not so much, and I think that is okay, change is inevitable in life, after all.

Can you imagine him creating his own coin called the teslacoin so to use on the planet mars when he launches his SpaceX program to send space explorers off world? :D
I think I liked him better as the CEO of Dogecoin (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5127770) instead.
https://i.ibb.co/yYCstYy/ElonTusk.png (https://ibb.co/TbGh6b8)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5201880

Did you know he has become the first trillionaire of modern day (https://www.ccn.com/cult-of-elon-musk-predicts-tesla-ceo-turn-worlds-first-trillionaire/) society?  :o
Anyways here is the link to his interview. ;D
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ktorpey/2020/01/23/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-on-the-future-of-bitcoin-and-crypto/#131dadbc7500
https://bitcoinist.com/elon-musk-opens-up-on-bitcoin

It's very interesting to notice Elon's behavior as soon as the question of Bitcoin comes up.  First reaction is he crosses his arms, soon after I see him shifting in his seat uncomfortably.  I don't feel he actually said anything at all about Bitcoin and perhaps that was the intention? 
Elon is surrounded by many wealthy and powerful people. Those people will certainly have influence over him and quite possibly want to muzzle any significant conversation regarding BTC among other contentious topics.  If not, I'm sure Elon is aware of his own influence over the public and likely understands the repercussions that could come from commenting on Bitcoin and therefore does a hand-waive dismissal of the topic.
Disappointing surely but I understand how his hands are kinda tied here. 

That "legal to illegal" bridge is exactly what's stops Bitcoin.Musk is right about that.
Different countries,with different legislation regarding cryptocurrency,some countries don't even have such legislation.Millions of people worldwide know something about bitcoin,but they are too afraid to buy and use BTC,because it might become illegal.Other than that,I didn't see any valuable information from the interview with Elon Musk.

Oh well, I have the feeling that Elon Musk is just riding the popularity of bitcoin so I'm a bit of skeptic when he started to open his mouth about bitcoin or the rest of crypto. We can't never really trust such words from famous personality he has already set his eyes on SpaceX project so I doubt that he will dabble himself on other things, including bitcoin.

I'm not that disappoint at all, you just have to take everything with a grain of salt specially high profile personality such as Elon. I do hope though that scammers would stop using his name for fake giveaways now since he open up his stance on bitcoin.