By Susie Violet Ward · Forbes · 3 October 2023
In October 2023, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, described fiat currency as a “scam” during a social media discussion about normalised scams, echoing a long-standing argument in the bitcoin community that the traditional monetary system is flawed. The article explains that fiat currencies are not backed by a physical asset but rely on government authority, whereas bitcoin is governed by code and network consensus.
It recalls that Musk had announced in 2021 that Tesla would stop accepting bitcoin because of environmental concerns, and notes Bloomberg’s report that more than half of bitcoin mining used renewable energy, which the article suggests could open the door to Tesla accepting bitcoin again. At the time, bitcoin rose from around $27,000 to over $28,000, which the article links to several factors, including the prospect of ETFs from BlackRock and Fidelity.