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Elon Musk giveth and Elon Musk taketh away.

On Wednesday the Tesla CEO tweeted that the company would suspend car purchases using Bitcoin.

Before the tweet, the entire value of the cryptocurrency market stood atop a $2.43 trillion market cap, and less than two hours later, it lost more than 10% of its total value. That’s too much power for one man to have.

“We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel,” Musk tweeted.

There is a silver lining here: Musk concluded his tweet fury stating, “We are also looking at other cryptocurrencies that use <1% of Bitcoin’s energy/transaction.”

Altcoins 👀

So what are the implications of this unexpected report and what altcoins are best suited to work with Tesla in the future?

What is Bitcoin’s Carbon Footprint?

Facts don’t care about your feelings, as Ben Shapiro likes to point out, and Bitcoin maximalists were quick to defend their favorite cryptocurrency with the facts.

Morgan Creek Digital founder Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano tweeted that 75% of Bitcoin mining is done using renewable energy. Other Bitcoin bulls added that the gold mining industry, Christmas industry and banking systems each consume more energy than Bitcoin mining.

We’re not as bad as the other guys. — The Bitcoin Community

Certainly Bitcoin has made strides in becoming greener, but as the price of Bitcoin rises so does its energy expenditure. Game theory makes Bitcoin scarce — the 21 millionth and final coin will be mined in 2140 — but it also requires miners to use more resources to secure the network.

According to a recent study, a single transaction of bitcoin has the same carbon footprint as 680,000 Visa transactions or 51,210 hours of watching YouTube.

Many, however, believe Elon has an ulterior motive for making the sudden announcement. Regardless, Tesla is looking for alternatives, and these are the best altcoins pleading their case.

The Academic Project: Cardano

Cardano just broke $2.00. Holy smokes.

I remember watching this project when it was pennies on the dollar and scrambling to put in as much as I could. It paid off.

For those who don’t know, Cardano is a Gen III cryptocurrency. It has all the benefits of both Ethereum and Bitcoin while also making its blockchain faster, greener, and more lucrative due to proof of stake.

While Bitcoin and Ethereum set the world ablaze, Cardano played the slow game. The proof of stake project prides itself as an academic-first cryptocurrency with aims of providing crypto to underdeveloped countries in Africa.

Here’s the rub, Cardano is a match made in heaven for institutional investors. It’s the most stable cryptocurrency on the market and has a passionate community behind it.

Cardano needs one big break for it to go parabolic and eat away at Ethereum’s $500 billion market cap. And I do believe this year we’re going to see a mind-blowing corporate partnership with Cardano.

The question is, will it be with Tesla or somebody else?

The Most Successful Blockchain: Ethereum

Ethereum’s first mover advantage over smart contracts allowed it to develop the most successful blockchain on the planet. While Bitcoin does one thing really well — albeit better than any other cryptocurrency — Ethereum does 12 amazing things that Bitcoin can never dream of.

It’s as though Bitcoin knows how to juggle, and Ethereum knows how to juggle objects on fire while walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls.

Decentralized finance, Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Decentralized autonomous organizations, proof of stake, and unparalleled interoperability make Ethereum one of the best inventions this century.

Furthermore, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin voiced his distaste for Bitcoin’s wasteful mining operations —

“Bitcoin mining is a huge waste of resources, even if you don’t believe that pollution and carbon dioxide are an issue”, Buterin told IEEE Spectrum. “There are real consumers — real people — whose need for electricity is being displaced by this stuff.”

Bitcoin is a pocket calculator and Ethereum is a global computer. It made little sense for Tesla to choose the former over the latter in the first place.

Final Thought

In an interview with CNBC Pomp made an excellent point: Pay attention to what people do, not what they say.

Elon Musk is still long billions of dollars in Bitcoin. He isn’t selling — despite taking massive Bitcoin profits earlier this cycle.

Bitcoin’s future is certain and its supremacy as the number one cryptocurrency will continue. However, its flaws aren’t a secret to institutional investors. Institutional money is flowing to other projects; arguably better projects.

Bitcoin is bulky, and Ethereum and Cardano are Occam’s Razor slowly cutting down its market dominance.

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