Elon Musk missed the cut, won’t hold sway on Bitcoin Mining Council
The roster of the long-awaited Bitcoin Mining Council has finally been unveiled. Elon Musk isn’t in it.
The Bitcoin Mining Council — first announced by Musk and MicroStrategy chief holder Michael Saylor in May — has a mandate: “promote transparency, share best practices, and educate the public on the benefits of Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining.”
So far, the Council has assembled a neat group of US-based Bitcoin companies, including crypto mining firms Argo and Riot, and New York’s Galaxy Digital.
Saylor tweeted new details about the group on Thursday:
- All Bitcoin miners are supposedly free to join (provided they believe in the mandate).
- The group’s founding members are taking on all related expenses for the first year.
- A big part of the Council’s focus will be on Bitcoin’s energy usage, which it views as “a feature, not a bug.”
[Read more: Elon Musk apparently replaced Tesla stock tweets with Bitcoin bait]
What can the Bitcoin Mining Council do?
Tesla’s billionaire chief was synonymous with Bitcoin only weeks ago. Although, that was before Musk started pandering to Dogecoin fans instead.
But what’s Musk missing out on? Despite its goals, the Bitcoin Mining Council doesn’t really have much of a plan, at least none it’s made public.
Really, the most tangible target seems to be urging Bitcoin mining units to disclose exactly where they get their electricity from — a move to assuage mainstream fears that Proof-of-Work is a wasteful enterprise.
“The [Bitcoin Mining Council] believes that Bitcoin’s energy usage is a feature, not a bug, and provides tremendous network security. By providing a voluntary disclosure forum, miners can decide to share their energy sources, in hopes of promoting transparency.”
[Read more: Coinbase, Square, Fidelity form crypto ‘innovation council’ — but why?]
But overall, the group has kept things vague. “We’re all trying to contribute and build a decentralized economy,” and even admits it’s not designed to “have teeth” — or tell anybody what to do.
Critics have also pointed to the fact that much of the world’s Bitcoin mining takes place in China, which will give such an informal organization even less chance for real impact. Although, that looks to be changing.
Still, it may be a bit of a kick in the teeth for Musk, but he can always fall back on influencing crypto markets just by tweeting pictures of dogs.
[H/T: Financial News]