Elon Musk Bullish on Bitcoin Lightning Network

Tesla CEO Elon Musk joins the Bitcoin scaling debate on Twitter saying that the layer-2 payments network Lightning is needed. Lightning network is a layer 2 solution built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain that enables faster and cheaper transactions by enabling user-generated channels for sending and receiving payments.

Bitcoin Lightning Needed for Now: Elon Musk

On May 21, Elon Musk joined a discussion on Bitcoin’s scaling debate on Twitter, saying:

“Layer count depends on projected bandwidth & compute, both rising rapidly, which means single-layer network (e.g. Bitcoin alone) can carry all human transactions in future imo.”

A single layer will be able to handle all future transactions due to rising bandwidth and computing power but Musk still believes that Lightning, a Layer 2 protocol, is needed for now.

Until then, Lightning will be necessary to provide the required bandwidth, he argued.

Musk has also been responding to a Twitter discussion about bitcoin’s energy usage explaining Tesla’s decision to dismiss the cryptocurrency as a method of payment.

He proposes that the top-10 mining organizations should report audits on the amount of renewable energy used in their operations to tackle the energy problem.

Elon Musk Vs Micheal Saylor

On May 20, the Market news editor of Financial Times shared an article on Twitter, tagging the Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, on Bitcoin’s growing energy problem.

Responding to this, a crypto user jumped in with an edited video of MicroStrategy CEO, Micheal Saylor debunking Bitcoin’s energy use.

In a now-deleted tweet, Elon Musk promptly rushed to mock the Bitcoin titan calling him Micheal “Gigachad” Saylor.

Everything @elonmusk ever wanted to know about #bitcoin‘s growing energy problem but was afraid to ask. An excellent @FT Big Read by @katie_martin_fx and @naumanbilly. https://t.co/nANx6fn3uB

— Adam Samson (@adamsamson) May 20, 2021

Samson replied back to the video with a statistical chart that says Bitcoin mining is indeed power-intensive to which Saylor himself replies:

“Bitcoin is electric money. Real cars use more electricity than toy cars. The article above is full of logical errors and falsehoods. Bitcoin is the most efficient technology for converting energy into prosperity we have yet to devise.”

Elon Musk subsequently tried to share a meme mocking back at Saylor’s hypothesis.

pic.twitter.com/l1g5bL1OMq

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 20, 2021