Elon Musk wants clean power. But Tesla's carrying bitcoin's dirty baggage

So what's the problem, you may ask? Bitcoin's virtual, so it's not like it's made from paper or plastic, or even metal. The digital currency is created when high-powered computers compete against other machines to solve complex mathematical puzzles, an energy-intensive process that currently often relies on fossil fuels, particularly coal, the dirtiest of them all.

LONDON: Tesla boss Elon Musk (pic) is a poster child of low-carbon technology. Yet the electric carmaker's backing of bitcoin this week could turbo-charge global use of a currency that's estimated to cause more pollution than a small country every year.

Tesla Inc revealed on Monday it had bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin and would soon accept it as payment for cars, sending the price of the cryptocurrency though the roof.