Square is a Fintech and Digital Payment company that announced that the company wouldn’t be buying more bitcoins any time soon. The company’s CFO has also revealed the environmental effects of Bitcoin and said that this situation must be quickly tackled.
What CFO Amrita Ahuja Said in the Interview?
One of the most popular fintech companies Square has declared that the company won’t be purchasing any bitcoin soon. This announcement was made by the company’s CFO, Amrita Ahuja, in an interview with Financial News. The CFO said that currently, the company wouldn’t have any plans to buy bitcoin and it doesn’t need to re-evaluate its financial position.
Square’s History with Bitcoin
Square was among one of the first companies who invested in Bitcoin. The company holds 5% of its total cash in bitcoin. Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Square, is one of the leading investors of bitcoin. Last October, he bought Bitcoin worth $50 Million. Later on, in February, he spent $170 million in Bitcoin, which was almost double the amount he used in October. The first four months of 2021 have shown that the company has suffered a loss of $20 Million on its bitcoin investment.
Bitcoin’s Carbon Footprint
Carbon footprint is the negative environmental impact of any industry. Bitcoin has raised such concerns too. Many experts question its sustainability. Square’s CFO also raised this issue in an interview. She said that the company always realized the environmental impact that bitcoin is leaving, which should be dealt with soon. The company wants to be a part of making the environment cleaner and greener. This is an issue for the entire blockchain network, and there should be renewable and clean energy for this. The overall process, including mining and transaction, needs to be dealt with in a much environment-friendly way.
The company released a research paper last month. In this research paper, the company claimed that Bitcoin could be a catalyst for miners to encourage them to adopt new, green, and clean forms of energy for the long term.
The overall Bitcoin network has issues related to a clean environment. Mining is the process that is important to secure and do the transaction on the blockchain. Mining is an energy-consuming process. Because of these issues, many environmentalists have come together and criticized the mining process of bitcoin. According to these people, there are better alternatives to bitcoin, environment-friendly and less carbon footprint.
Square is not the only company that has shown a lack of plans for bitcoin investment. Tesla, the leading electric-automobile company, has already declared that they won’t be accepting bitcoin payments anymore. The company that started accepting bitcoin as payment methods for its cars has stopped accepting it because of environmental issues. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, said that he is a massive supporter of cryptocurrency through his Twitter account, but he doesn’t want the environment to be full of fossil fuels such as carbon.
