Thinking: The convergence between Tesla, SpaceX, renewable energy, and Bitcoin mining

Tesla is a top 10 company in the Fortune 100 and is run by Elon Musk, one of the richest men in the world. In early February this year, Tesla moved $1.5 billion in cash into Bitcoin. Musk's move to buy Bitcoin shocked traditional investors, who now have to understand how their investment in Tesla will be related to Bitcoin?

Currently, Tesla generates most of its revenue from selling surplus renewable energy credits (RECs), which will be depleted in the coming years as competing automakers produce their own zero-emission vehicles and build RECs in states that require them.

In its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Tesla said it updated its investment policy to diversify and maximize returns on idle cash. As part of this plan, Tesla said it will invest in certain "alternative reserve assets, including digital assets, gold, [and] gold exchange-traded funds." The statement added:

“Since then, and pursuant to this policy, our total investment in Bitcoin has been $1.5 billion and we may purchase or hold this digital asset for the long term from time to time. In addition, we expect to begin accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment for our products in the near future, subject to applicable law and initially on a limited basis, which we may or may not convert into cash after receiving.”

The Bitcoin market has viewed Tesla's recognition and advancement of the cryptocurrency industry as institutional validation of Bitcoin as a means of storing value.

Bitcoin mining using decentralized micro-energy

Tesla's other business production includes selling solar panels, solar roofs and batteries, which are used in its cars and provide electricity storage for residential solar systems.

Residential solar systems can feed excess energy into the grid, and the local power company will pro-rate the customer's electricity bill based on the amount of power drawn from the system.

The Tesla Powerwall can store this surplus energy and power various things in the home, including air conditioning, and charge Tesla electric vehicles.

Excess energy from Tesla Micro Energy can be diverted to run cryptocurrency mining operations. Without cryptocurrency mining, excess energy would either be wasted or stored and then sold at a very low price. Now, Tesla and other energy companies can convert excess electricity into digital assets such as Bitcoin and make money instantly.

How SpaceX fits into this

Many speculate that Tesla's investment in and acceptance of Bitcoin as a form of payment is an important signal of Tesla's direction. As we know, Musk is also the CEO of SpaceX, which intends to build a colony on Mars in the next decade. However, fundamentally, the US dollar is not available on Mars. The extended communication time between Earth servers and Mars servers poses a lot of problems. There still needs to be a verifiable, trusted way to transfer value between the planets' economies.

Bitcoin offers a better solution for securely transferring value between planets on a trusted network, and 10-minute block times are ultimately a benefit rather than a hassle. SpaceX colonies can use a convenient local medium of exchange to conduct local transactions and securely transfer value to Earth without any middlemen or concerns about inflationary monetary policies on Earth. Bitcoin offers a more seamless way for people to integrate economies between planets. Therefore, colonies on Mars will likely utilize SpaceX's Starlink satellites to run Bitcoin nodes.

Decentralized server architecture, building a valuable Internet

The transition from an analog world to a digital native society requires programmable money. The current fiat banking system is outdated, inefficient, and unable to meet the needs of a technologically advanced society.

Bitcoin mining is the backbone of this transformation. Bitcoin is the most recognized digital currency in the newly formed decentralized economy. Bitcoin has developed a significant network effect and is a logical choice for a digitally native global reserve currency. The Internet of Value - where value is transferred as efficiently, cheaply and reliably as data is today - is not controlled by any single government or entity. Bitcoin can achieve this because of the decentralized architecture built into the Bitcoin protocol.

As more energy producers realize the benefits of converting excess energy into digital assets through Bitcoin mining, the decentralization of Bitcoin computing power will continue to improve.

Bitcoin mining is necessary to build the first layer of security for the decentralized economy, a function that central banks currently provide for the fiat-centric global economy. The decentralized economy is becoming more efficient and multi-layered. Bitcoin has the advantage of having the world's most powerful computing network to ensure the underlying security of the decentralized economy, and all other value transfer solutions are built on this foundation. We are witnessing the development of a new, decentralized financial ecosystem. One day, you might be able to send $20 to your buddies on Mars without having to think about how much it will cost to send it there.

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