Tesla’s Kimbal Musk says company was ‘very ignorant’ of environmental impact of its Bitcoin purchase

Kimbal Musk, brother of CEO Musk, said in an interview that the company had been ignorant about the environmental impact of the digital currency when it decided to purchase it.

We were very ignorant when we invested in Bitcoins. We didn't know about the environmental impact, we were like this seems like a good store of value and a good way todiversify assets. It didn't take long to get a million messages telling us what we were doing to the environment.

Kimbal Musk said that he hopes that the broaderBlockchain industry can move to more eco-friendly infrastructure.

Kimbal Musk, a board member of the company, talked about the future of philanthropic giving in an interview with Lucas Matney.

Kimbal Musk said that he did not agree with the environmental impact of the technology.

A major bull run for the criptocurrency was reversed months later by the company's announcement that it would no longer accept payment for its product.

In May of last year, Musk wrote on his verified account, "Cryptocurrencies is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at a great cost to the environment."

Elon Musk, Technoking of Tesla, orders a halt to bitcoin car payments 

It is clear that the network uses a lot of renewable energy sources, even though there is still a lot of missing data. Estimates from the energy tracker suggest that the total energy footprint of the mining operations has nearly doubled since Musk's statement. The site estimates that the network contributes as much carbon to the atmosphere as the country of Kuwait.

Since 2004, Kimbal Musk has served on the board of directors.