Pretty disappointing to see the reaction this has received in this thread.
Keep in mind there are a lot of sour grapes when it comes to Bitcoin. Critics have had so many chances to buy in, and Bitcoin price and popularity continues to grow.
Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future
271–280 of 1001 posts
Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future
#272So 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.
Bitcoin is notca security, so at least SEC has nothing to say about it.
Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future
#273Earlier quoted context omitted.
If he succeeds with SpaceX, I don't care if he's a lunatic. We must have a frontier. Also: The last round of space innovation was funded by two nuclear armed superpowers competing to show off while simultaneously threatening each other with a war of planetary annihilation. Before that the first rocket capable of reaching space was funded by Hitler. Going from blood soaked warlords to nutty manic billionaires is moral…
> We must have a frontier? Why? Who is “we”?
Probably redditors subscribed to /r/futurism.
Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future
#274If someone wants to learn more about Bitcoin, that is a good source:
Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future
#2752020 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/
On the scale of time and things, his endeavours are significant. It is of extreme importance that we colonise mars. That is the single maxim by which I will judge Elon. He might me manipulative but he's not on the wrong side of humanity.
Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future
#276Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are very few nations that don't have their own currency. That's because part of being a stable government is being able to have monetary control. Without that, it's only a matter of time before some expensive event (pandemic, war, drought, recession), people lose faith in government bonds, the government runs out of money, can't pay its workers, and a civil war ensues. Sure, some small island nations manage it.…
Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Ecuador, El Salvador, Zimbabwe. Then there are some areas like Costa Rica where it is a quasi-local currency.
All the EU ones have at least some monetary control over the Euro. They also get support when they start struggling due to lack of monetary control (eg. Greek Bailout and Debt haircut of 2012).
The other countries in your list (Ecuador, El Salvador, Zimbabwe.) I wouldn't say are bastions of government stability...
Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future
#277Earlier quoted context omitted.
What exactly is the bull case for bitcoin? I have not seen it clearly explained. I’ve got an open mind. In more specific terms you mentioned the unbanked. How does crypto solve the problems that leave them unbanked?
Anyone can send or receive cryptocurrency without third party authorization.
But why does that require a specific monetary value for bitcoin? And doesn’t this apply to any cryotocurrency?
Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future
#278Legitimizing 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 many environmental pushes in the US. They tackle the low hanging fruit that aren't actually going to fix the problem.
Electric cars and low flow showers / toilets are some of the environmental steps this country takes to make themselves feel good.
For water, domestic use tends to be a small part of the US overall use, around 7% I believe. I haven't dug further into that, but I'd imagine lawns are a big part. https://www.usgs.gov/special-topic/water-science-school/scie...
For air pollution, about 14% of worldwide pollution is from transportation. Even if we go full electric the number won't go to zero because electricity is not free. Depending on how electricity is produced and factoring it the initial energy cost of producing batteries, we make that number smaller (maybe 7%, I'm not sure we really know). I do have worries about the amount of rare minerals that you need for batteries and how their life spans aren't all that long. And given their higher cost to produce, they are not as economically accessible.
https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emiss...
If people honestly wanted to fix our environmental impact, we'd have to drastically change our habits like covid made us do. Or we just have to have fewer people on this planet.
I honestly look forward to the environmental studies that come out from how big of an impact Covid had on pollution. I think it will definitely feed our models in an interesting way.
Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future
#279Legitimizing Bitcoin more than offsets the environmental benefits of electric vehicles.
Bitcoin miners use surplus energy in remote places with lots of thermal or hydroelectric power. Remote China and Iceland. This electricity often can't be put to any other use anyway. The price of energy is probably enough to ensure this. Besides, the cost of maintaining Bitcoin has to be compared with holding up a fiat currency empire like the US. This requires lots of military, suppression of democracy and generally…
recently Iran was blaming bitcoin for blackouts, so perhaps not all bitcoin is mined from hydro/thermal power. Of course it could that Iran was just looking for an easy scapegoat.
Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future
#280Is Elon Musk hyping Bitcoin in Twitter and in parallel buying it, market manipulation?