SpaceX founder and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, seemed to have had a change of heart regarding the use of Bitcoin as a potential currency for colonizing Mars. Initially, Musk was not in favor of the idea, citing concerns regarding Bitcoin's lengthy transaction times, but he now appears to be more open to the concept.
Musk expressed his doubts about the practicality of Bitcoin on Mars, citing the extensive time required for transaction reconciliation as the major issue.
"It would make sense to use some kind of cryptocurrency on Mars; you couldn't use Bitcoin because the reconciliation is too long," the billionaire said during a Space session on X (formerly Twitter) titled "ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) Approved," which featured the American investor and ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood.
ARK Invest along with 21 Shares submitted a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which was one of the approved issuers of the crypto investment vehicle.
Musk is a vocal advocate of the idea that humanity must become a multiplanet species for it to survive and thrive, hence the Tesla CEO's vision of building a human colony on the red planet by 2050.
But, as the conversation progressed and after brainstorming verbally, Musk appeared to have reconsidered his position of using Bitcoin on Mars, noting the proximity of Earth and Mars to the sun.
"Perhaps you can use Bitcoin to some degree, but it would be difficult to use it a lot on Mars," Musk said, before adding, "Mars can be like twenty light minutes away. So, it is not easy, there would have to be a localized thing on Mars."
Elon answers what money he would use on Mars: pic.twitter.com/VJQeIM0qqJ
— Sam Callahan (@samcallah) January 11, 2024
In 2014, Musk made a public statement about Bitcoin during the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit. When asked about his thoughts on the digital currency, he commented that Bitcoin was "probably a good thing", but he also believed that BTC would mostly be used for illegal transactions.
In 2019, Musk expressed his support for Bitcoin during a podcast hosted by Ark Invest. He praised the cryptocurrency's structure as "quite brilliant."
In 2021, the 52-year-old SpaceX CEO suddenly changed his Twitter bio to feature only one word, "#bitcoin."
A few weeks later, his electric vehicle maker Tesla announced that it purchased $1.5 billion in BTC and planned to accept the crypto asset as payment for some Tesla products.
In May 2021, Musk announced that Tesla would no longer accept BTC as a form of payment citing its impact on the environment for its massive energy consumption when mining the token.
Tesla has not purchased any Bitcoin since 2022 and so far, it is the third-largest Bitcoin holdings for a publicly traded company, estimated at 9,720 BTC.
