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

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

#171

Post by ArkanExplorer »

exabrial wrote: post #3

Legitimizing Bitcoin more than offsets the environmental benefits of electric vehicles.

You should blame Governments of the world, for holding interest rates at lower levels than the inflation rate.

eg. the USA inflation rate is 2%, whereas the interest rate is 0%.

Its inevitable that savings will flow out of fiat and into all kinds of other assets. This is the entire purpose of low interest rates - to inflate the value of assets held by retirees, pensioners, and the ultra-wealthy.

Bitcoin is unique because the supply cannot be expanded (beyond what is scheduled as rewards for miners) - unlike gold, shares, living spaces. Its also significantly more liquid and easier to transact than any of those assets because it is digital and global.

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

#172

Post by disruptalot »

marshmallow_12 wrote: post #147

honest question: why would tesla, a responsible company, gamble so much money on a "product" which is literally worthless? (is it because so much of their income is generated from selling credits?)

To answer your question, you might for a second want to consider that your ideas about Bitcoin are incorrect.

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

#173

Post by bhouston »

Pyramus wrote: post #77

2020 has completely changed my perception of Tesla and Musk. I had this image of a benevolent genius who is sometimes misunderstood ("funding secured", "pedo guy", "Autopilot"). Came across Teslacharts' podcast [1] (now the Chartcast) and oh boy was I wrong. This is only the latest in a long series of red flags around Tesla/Musk and however it ends, it will not end well. [1] https://thechartcast.com/

The issue with Tesla & Elon Musk is that he has a powerful reality distortion ability just like Steve Jobs did. He wills things to happen by force of personality and by believing it so, he convinces others to join him in making these things reality, which then becomes reality. He makes things become true by claiming them to be real before they are.

This is not normal and rare to be so talented in that aspect.

Hard to predict success/failure or bet against when you have someone like this.

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

#174

Post by troupe »

ben_w wrote: post #115
jC6fhrfHRLM9b3 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All EV's are worse for the environment than buying a used Petrol car.

Highly likely a used petrol car will be bought by someone even if not by you personally, so not a fair assessment. A fair assessment would be a new BEV versus a new petrol versus a new diesel versus a new hybrid.

> Highly likely a used petrol car will be bought by someone even if not by you personally

Well when the government gives people $3 billion to smash their used vehicles (C.A.R.S in 2009)rather than keeping them in the used market, it does tend to cause more new vehicle purchases.

I'm not disagreeing with your point that people will eventually buy a new car if used ones aren't available, but if every vehicle was kept on the road for 25+ years, it would lower demand for new vehicles.

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

#175

Post by ric2z »

knuthsat wrote: post #157
exabrial wrote: post #3

Legitimizing Bitcoin more than offsets the environmental benefits of electric vehicles.

Our biggest environmental footprints as individuals are heating and cooling. Having an electric car is nothing compared to it. Take one intercontinental flight and again, having a fossil fuel car for a year does not exceed the emissions of that flight. http://www.withouthotair.com/ Legitimizing Bitcoin has nothing to do with the environment in the large scale of things. It's like saying that you need to optimize fast…

> It's like saying that you need to optimize fast functions instead of slow ones.

I really like this analogy

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

#176

Post by UncleMeat »

Tepix wrote: post #112
cies wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Both companies were unlikely to succeed (and nearly failed). To me that is a strong indicator that profit is not the primary objective.

Most new companies are unlikely to succeed.

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

#178

Post by tomtomtom777 »

Hamuko wrote: post #76
yyy888sss wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin uses as much electricity as Chile and a single transaction has the same carbon footprint as ~700k Visa transactions. This may also be underestimated and account for around half of global data centre energy consumption as per a recent study. [1] [1] - https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption/

The Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index gives a much higher estimate (78 TWh vs. 117 TWh), which makes it about the same as the annual electricity usage of United Arab Emirates (pop. 9.9 million). https://www.cbeci.org/

It seems really weird to compare the energy consumption to that of a country.

"The total energy usage for the production of cars/yachts/fitness machines/musical instruments/toilets equals that of country X"

What does it even mean? How do you interpret it?

It seems more sensible to compare to total worldwide energy consumption of which Bitcoin takes roughly 0.05%

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

#179

Post by Pxtl »

Pyramus wrote: post #77

2020 has completely changed my perception of Tesla and Musk. I had this image of a benevolent genius who is sometimes misunderstood ("funding secured", "pedo guy", "Autopilot"). Came across Teslacharts' podcast [1] (now the Chartcast) and oh boy was I wrong. This is only the latest in a long series of red flags around Tesla/Musk and however it ends, it will not end well. [1] https://thechartcast.com/

For me the thing that soured me on him was his fixation on Tesla being the solution to all urban transportation problems and his loathing of public transportation.

He lived and worked in the Bay Area and L.A. - he's intimately aware of how pathologically bad car-oriented low-density city planning is, which is why the most economically successful place in the world is so hilariously bad to travel in.

But his hatred for transit demonstrates an almost absurdly opaque blind-spot for somebody who wants to get his businesses involved in urban transportation planning.

edit: corrected his experience with California commutes after reply informed me he was no longer involved in SF bay.

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

#180

Post by Clewza313 »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #119
PunchTornado wrote: post #12

So this is legal and ok to do: - You buy a lot of bitcoin personally. - Then as a CEO you make your company invest in bitcoin. Make it news. Prices go up. - You've made a lot of money for yourself.

I don't think that Elon Musk bought bitcoin personally, but of course I could have missed it. Do you have a source for this claim?

I suspect the previous poster was referring to MSTR, whose CEO appears to have done just that.
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