Last night, the Musks held a Bitcoin confidence conference during the bear market

This article is sourced from Lydong BlockBeats, authored by 0xCC.

In the early morning of July 21, Beijing time, The B Word conference was held as scheduled. This event, perhaps the most important gathering in the cryptocurrency industry in 2021, attracted notable figures such as Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, and ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood, among other heavyweight KOLs in the Bitcoin space.

The timing of this conference was very appropriate. Similar to the retail investors following the lead of speculative capital in the A-share market, Bitcoin, backed by investments and trades from these well-known institutional companies, once reached a height that global commodities looked up to. Now that Bitcoin's market value has been halved, what its future holds is crucial for the secondary market.

And Musk and others seem to have not disappointed the audience. This was a Bitcoin rallying conference that injected confidence during a bear market.

Can Musk and SpaceX make a comeback this time?

At The B Word conference, the highly anticipated Musk once again released positive news: not only Tesla, but also his company SpaceX holds Bitcoin. "I personally own Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin. SpaceX and Tesla also hold Bitcoin." This was the first time SpaceX disclosed its Bitcoin holdings.

Musk stated that supporting Bitcoin could improve the quality of our management of economic information. "Overall, I support Bitcoin. Bitcoin could become the native currency of the internet." Cathie Wood also expressed a similar view, "Bitcoin does not need financial intermediaries, but its transactions can be verified by everyone."

In April this year, Musk stated on Twitter that Tesla had sold part of its Bitcoin holdings. This transaction generated approximately $272 million in net profit for Tesla. Although he has never disclosed how much cryptocurrency he owns, he has mentioned that even his one-year-old son owns some Dogecoin.

Due to his high-profile "pump" actions, there has been a lot of public criticism accusing Musk of manipulating the market for profit. At this conference, he responded to this, saying, "If the price of Bitcoin drops, I will lose money." He explained to the camera, "I might buy in, but I won't sell. I would never do something like pump the price and then dump it."

He stated that aside from stocks in SpaceX and Tesla, the only three "most meaningful" assets he owns are BTC, DOGE, and ETH, "Even after Tesla announced it would stop accepting Bitcoin payments, neither I nor Tesla have sold any Bitcoin." He even mentioned that Tesla is likely to start accepting Bitcoin as a payment method again.

Musk also admitted that he holds "far more" Bitcoin than Dogecoin or Ethereum. "Ironically, a cryptocurrency that started as a joke to mock cryptocurrencies has ultimately become the leading cryptocurrency." Additionally, Musk revealed that SpaceX's Starlink terminals might run Bitcoin nodes in the future. "I proposed placing a Bitcoin node in the SpaceX Starlink terminals to encourage more people to run Bitcoin."

Musk stated that SpaceX plays an "important role" in the future vision of Bitcoin, but he did not elaborate on how SpaceX is promoting this vision.

"I want to see Bitcoin succeed," Musk said.

The carbon footprint issue is not worth worrying about

Previously, Tesla had accepted Bitcoin as a payment method. However, in May this year, Musk canceled this initiative. Subsequently, Bitcoin's price fell below $40,000 for the first time since February. His explanation was that the carbon footprint issue caused by Bitcoin mining is not environmentally friendly. At that time, Bitcoin was deeply mired in public criticism due to its carbon footprint, and this issue was a key discussion point at this conference.

At the conference, Musk reiterated this point: "Cryptocurrency—especially Bitcoin—uses too much PoW, which is not necessarily beneficial for cryptocurrency. You need to pay attention to one thing: the environment." A debate ensued between Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and Musk regarding consensus mechanisms and energy consumption. Musk criticized the energy issues of PoW and leaned towards supporting PoS, while Dorsey firmly defended PoW, arguing that PoS is relatively centralized and less secure.

"It seems that Bitcoin is increasingly turning to renewable energy," Musk pointed out, noting that hydropower, geothermal, and nuclear energy could all be good energy sources for Bitcoin mining. Although positive trends have emerged, people need to be patient with Bitcoin. "It is impossible to increase the use of green energy by 1 to 3 times in such a short time."

"I want to do more due diligence to confirm that the proportion of renewable energy usage reaches or exceeds 50%, and that this number is on the rise. If so, Tesla is likely to resume accepting Bitcoin."

Nick Carter, a general partner at Castle Island Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that invests in startups in the public blockchain industry, also explained why Bitcoin's energy issues are not a concern at this conference. According to him, Bitcoin currently consumes only 0.26% of the world's electricity and 0.11% of all energy. Moreover, 39% of the energy used for mining is renewable. The returns from this consumption are substantial.

"As a neutral global currency network, Bitcoin has an effective claim to some social resources," Nick believes. He argues that Bitcoin's energy consumption is not without value. "This distributed ledger processes $10 to $20 billion daily, stores $600 billion in wealth, and can distribute synthetic goods fairly and without intermediaries to the entire world."

Cathie Wood, founder of Ark Invest, shares a similar view, stating, "Bitcoin is a solution to inflation. I am confident that Bitcoin will be more environmentally friendly than gold mining or traditional financial services. In many ways, it already is."

A study from Cambridge University shows that since Chinese miners began migrating in May, the U.S. has become a new hotspot for mining, now ranking as the second-largest country in terms of Bitcoin hash rate. The geographical distribution change in mining will significantly reduce the carbon footprint of cryptocurrency. By the end of 2022, the U.S. is expected to account for 40% of the global hash rate.

The U.S. has abundant energy resources, most of which are renewable. Whit Gibbs, CEO of Compass, estimated that over 50% of Bitcoin mining in the U.S. could be powered by renewable energy.

"In the long run, renewable energy will be the cheapest energy, but this won't happen overnight," Musk said. "But as long as the mining industry is determined and genuinely works towards renewable energy, then obviously Tesla will support it."

"I hope it creates world peace."

As a well-known Bitcoin supporter, Cathie Wood, founder and CEO of Ark Invest, continued to express optimism about Bitcoin during the live stream. "When I first read the Bitcoin white paper, I realized that Bitcoin is a very grand idea." He and other guests discussed the importance of Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation. "Many emerging markets are suffering from severe inflation— in other words, the purchasing power of these populations is declining. Therefore, they are maintaining purchasing power by moving funds into Bitcoin."

This initiative is equally applicable to institutions. Wood stated that companies should consider adding Bitcoin to their balance sheets, as incorporating Bitcoin into a company's balance sheet is "very useful."

Although many institutions currently hold Bitcoin, the environment for institutional Bitcoin holdings is still unfriendly. Under current accounting standards, when the price of Bitcoin drops, institutions must recognize the loss from the decline. Conversely, the gains from the increase in Bitcoin's price are only recognized upon sale.

Wood suggested, "The Financial Accounting Standards Board should reconsider how to classify Bitcoin, as classifying it as an intangible asset may help resolve this issue." If there is hope for a change in classification, it would be a significant positive for cryptocurrencies, "Just think about how explosive that growth would be."

"For me, we should take the actions most likely to make the future better, and Bitcoin is most likely to make the future better," Musk said during the live stream. He also expressed dissatisfaction with bank deposits. "Tesla's bank deposits in Europe are at negative interest rates, which means you pay the bank to hold your money. That's crazy!" He believes Bitcoin allows people to truly own their property. "People must own their private keys, rather than relying on banks or private companies."

Dorsey also holds a similar view, stating, "There are many problems with U.S. monetary policy, but Bitcoin could change all that. It allows assets to no longer be restricted by third parties, and Bitcoin enables you to truly own your assets." Musk is also optimistic about Bitcoin's monetary attributes, saying, "Bitcoin itself cannot become a base-layer world currency, but it has the potential to become a second layer, depending on how it is implemented."

Dorsey believes, "Bitcoin is resilient."

He pointed out that there are currently many monopolies, and Bitcoin may help improve this environment. "But this will take time." Dorsey has long been a supporter of Bitcoin, and his Twitter bio prominently features "#bitcoin." He introduced during the live stream that the reason for his abundant enthusiasm is the Bitcoin community, "What inspires me the most is that the community has driven the development of Bitcoin, which reminds me of the early internet."

Musk also posed an interesting question to him: Will Twitter consider accepting cryptocurrency for advertising fees? Dorsey replied, "Without a doubt." He pointed out that if cryptographic technology had existed at the dawn of the internet, the advertising model in social media might not be so prevalent.

"This is why I push myself to pursue this endeavor—I've learned a lot from the people who built Bitcoin," Dorsey said. "Now there is a lot of monopoly, and individuals are being eroded. What I hope for is to create world peace." The journey of Bitcoin has also influenced Square, which he founded, "Everything we create for Bitcoin, from hardware to software, will be open-source and completely transparent."

Undoubtedly, the three heavyweight guests in this discussion all expressed strong enthusiasm for Bitcoin, and they unanimously believe that Bitcoin will profoundly improve our economic system and create a more friendly financial system.

"I hope it creates world peace," Dorsey said.