TIME names Elon Musk ‘Person of the Year’

Elon Musk has been named TIME’s Person of the Year. The publication noted the influence of the founder of Tesla and SpaceX on life on Earth and, possibly, beyond.

Elon Musk (@elonmusk) is TIME’s 2021 Person of the Year #TIMEPOY https://t.co/8Y5BhIldNs pic.twitter.com/B6h6rndjIh

— TIME (@TIME) December 13, 2021

“He is the person who aims to save our planet and help us populate a new one: a joker, a genius, a provocateur, a visionary, an industrialist, a showman, a rogue, a mad hybrid of Edison, Barnum, Carnegie and Doctor Manhattan from The Watchmen,” TIME said.

By the end of October Musk, with a net worth of $252 billion, became the richest billionaire in history according to Forbes. At the time of writing the figure stood at составляет $265.4 billion.

Musk is also known as a supporter of cryptocurrencies. In a TIME interview the entrepreneur described them as “interesting” and said he was prepared to support discussions on the concept of money as the “informational system for allocating resources”.

“I’m not a big opponent of fiat. But cryptocurrencies have advantages, since any government tends toward issuance, whatever it may be. I played an important role in creating PayPal. There are a few people who understand the monetary system better than I do,” he said.

On February 8, 2021, Tesla disclosed investments in Bitcoin totaling $1.5 billion. Musk called the move “quite risky”.

By late March the automaker began selling electric cars for Bitcoin, and by late April offloaded part of its digital gold for $272 million.

On May 13, the company halted sales of electric vehicles for the first cryptocurrency amid concerns about the environmental sustainability of mining. Later, Tesla, in its SEC filing hinted at resuming such a practice.

In July, Musk spoke about SpaceX’s investment in Bitcoin. He also disclosed that he personally owns Ethereum and Dogecoin.

In the same month the entrepreneur criticized the first and second cryptocurrencies for their inefficient transactions. In September, he noted the progress achieved by Dogecoin client developers in preparing the groundwork for future reductions in network fees.

In August, the head of Tesla joined the criticism of the plan for expanded cryptocurrency taxation in the United States. Musk urged the U.S. government to refrain from regulating the crypto industry.

As reported in September, TIME released a collection of 4676 NFT, granting “unlimited access” to his site until 2023.

Earlier the magazine sold in the form of non-fungible tokens three covers and began accepting cryptocurrency as payment for subscriptions.

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