Elon Musk weighs in on Bitcoin’s scalability and energy use.

In the future, layer-1 networks will be able to process large volumes of transactions on their own. For now, layer-2 protocols, such as the Lightning Network, are needed for scalability, Elon Musk said.

Achieving truly decentralized finance – power to the people – is a noble & important goal.

Layer count depends on projected bandwidth & compute, both rising rapidly, which means single layer network can carry all human transactions in future imo.

For now, Lightning is needed.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 21, 2021

According to Musk, the decentralisation of finance is an important aspect, but for now the priority is solving the network’s scalability.

“The number of layers depends on projected bandwidth and compute, both rising rapidly. In my view, a layer-1 network in the future will be able to process all transactions. For now, Lightning is needed,” he wrote.

The founder of Tesla noted that Bitcoin mining energy consumption exceeds that of average countries. He proposed that the top 10 mining companies publish audited reports on the share of renewable energy in their operations.

I agree that this *can* be done over time, but recent extreme energy usage growth could not possibly have been done so fast with renewables.

This question is easily resolved if the top 10 hashing orgs just post audited numbers of renewable energy vs not.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 20, 2021

Musk added that in the Dogecoin (DOGE) network energy consumption should ideally be reduced to the level of 0.1 kWh, calculated as “the total energy used by the system divided by the maximum transaction processing speed.”

Earlier, the entrepreneur said that “I haven’t sold and won’t sell any DOGE”.

Yeah, I haven’t & won’t sell any Doge

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 20, 2021

Tesla said on May 13 that the suspension of sales of electric vehicles for Bitcoin due to concerns about the environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining. Against this background, Bitcoin fell to $45,700.

On May 20, Musk posted a photo of a Dogecoin-themed dollar bill on his page with the caption “Cyber Viking.” After this, the asset rose more than 20%.