Live data from Hacker News

Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future

techcrunch.com

81–90 of 1001 posts

Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future

#81

That's not good for the environment.

Tesla is not about being good for the env. It's about making money.

Same thing with SpaceX not being about going to Mars. It's about making money too!

The going to Mars/ good for env stories are to get some public goodwill behind them from a certain crowd.

Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What percent of the electricity used by Bitcoin miners is generated by fossil fuels? My impression is that most miners are located to take advantage of locales with very cheap hydroelectric/geothermal or take advantage of subsidized/overbuilt renewables. But I could be wrong. Any data on this?

Even if that was the case, this excess power would very rarely go to waste. If bitcoin mining farms didn't pop up, then aluminium smelters would appear instead. Aluminium is pretty much electricity in a form that can be put on a truck.

[deleted]

Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future

#84
post #55

I bought $100 of BTC a while ago for fun. I watched it go up and down and mostly up. I got bored, and sold it for cash to donate... literally an hour before the big spike just earlier. I know about the fallacies of predicting the market. I understand 20/20 hindsight. But to actually experience it is such a strong lesson. To be flooded with, "ohhh I'm such an idiot!" and then think about how there's just no way I coul…

One should not ever sell Bitcoin, because it's a deflationary coin. Circulating Bitcoin is just lowering its value.

Only if you assume that demand cannot go down.

Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future

#85
post #45

I have been bearish on BTC for a long time, but when I realized a few years ago that the fiat system we have in place is unsustainable, I see it as a safe hedge against it and the inevitable hyper inflation which will happen in our lifetime. I know HN is highly skeptical of anything crypto and I agree that blockchain as a technology doesn't have any notable usages. But right now, Bitcoin is the safest deflationary as…

Why not buy something useful like real estate?

Who says I do not? There's always room for diversification.

Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future

#87
post #26

People paying attention to Elon's tweets [1] [2] saw this coming from a mile away. It'll be interesting to see if and when other big companies follow suit. In my opinion it's inevitable companies will start diversifying by a bit of exposure to Bitcoin but let's see how soon that will be. [1] - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-cryptocurrency/tesl... [2] - https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/29/bitcoin-spikes-20percen…

I think the tell that it was definitely happening was when he went to visit Larry Ellison in person in Hawaii right after Christmas. What could have possibly needed the approval or advice of a member of the board and was too important or sensitive to discuss over the phone.

Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fiat system costs a lot to run too, pretty sure this assertion debunked.

Good thing you are only pretty sure then because it's entirely false. Bitcoin needs several orders of magnitude more energy per transactions.

Both sides of this arguments are oversimplifications to the point of being meaningless.

Specifically: L2 like lightning, settlements on sidechains, and other things I won't go into here.

The long and short of it is that it's incredibly hard to quantify and compare and I am yet to see an attempt that gives any meaningful insight.

If Bitcoins proof-of-work and the consequences it has becomes a net loss or net win in terms of climate is a very open question. I would love to see more analysis of it but it's really not obvious either way.

Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future

#90
post #26

People paying attention to Elon's tweets [1] [2] saw this coming from a mile away. It'll be interesting to see if and when other big companies follow suit. In my opinion it's inevitable companies will start diversifying by a bit of exposure to Bitcoin but let's see how soon that will be. [1] - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-cryptocurrency/tesl... [2] - https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/29/bitcoin-spikes-20percen…

I believe MicroStrategy ($MSTR) was the first major company to buy north of $1B BTC and effectively peg its shareprice to BTC.
Post reply on HN