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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

#301

Post by ehnto »

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…

I suspect it's the air conditioning and equipment cooling of datacenters that's the OP was referring to in regards to bitcoin's footprint, so not entirely unrelated.

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

#302

Post by MagnumOpus »

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?)

They are further monetising their biggest asset: Musk's ability talk Twitter followers into anything, including now buying crypto assets.

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

#304

Post by Robotbeat »

mromanuk wrote: post #280

Is Elon Musk hyping Bitcoin in Twitter and in parallel buying it, market manipulation?

On the contrary, he’s pointing out how even a meme currency has significantly better features than Bitcoin.

It’s weird to me to buy that much Bitcoin, but accepting it as payment makes sense as a lot of tech savvy types may hold a lot of Bitcoin and want to buy a Tesla.

It may make sense as a sort of digital inflation hedge. Inflation is a reasonable fear when the economy is still supply constrained and is getting a bunch of stimulus (stimulus which I support FWIW).

EDIT: But generally speaking, financialization can crowd out more productive uses of time and resources, and I often considered Tesla an exception to that where they’re building and investing in physical, useful things. I hope they get back to building out charging stations (with solar), factories, maybe even lithium mining, etc. Financial stuff should be done to facilitate trade and physical investment. When it goes beyond that it can be a net drain on the economy.

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

#305

Post by javert »

iujjkfjdkkdkf wrote: post #35

This is going to be one of those events that everyone points back to after the crash to show we had reached peak bubble. Like AOL buying Time Warner etc.

If you think this is a bubble, you should think that this is the very beginning, not the peak.

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

#306

Post by skizm »

ddtaylor wrote: post #258
graeme wrote: post #249

Earlier 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.

Why would you want to though? It takes at least an hour to confirm (~6 blocks) without a third-party and the fees are getting super high (costs around $13.50 / 30624 satoshis per transaction to get reasonable transfer times). So unless you're transferring a large amount, you're better off using a third party that can just hold all the money and flip a bit in their database saying the money is moved.

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

#307

Post by tekkk »

whitepaint wrote: post #264
graeme wrote: post #249

Earlier 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?

Why has gold prevailed over thousands of years while almost all fiat currencies went to 0?

What? Most nations are only hundred years old or so. Gold has retained its value because it's a tangible asset. Unlike bitcoin that becomes worthless without internet and network of miners. Even fiat currencies, thousand or more years old, retain some of their value as historical artefacts.

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

#308

Post by graeme »

RhodoGSA wrote: post #286
graeme wrote: post #249

Earlier 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?

Bitcoin unleashes a million possibilities and overall guides the market. Check out Ethereum, Polkadot and Cardano if you want to see a real use case - Until then the usecase for bitcoin is the same as gold. But one day Bitcoin will pour it's 'Gold' Into the broader crypto market.

Does ethereum in some way depend on bitcoin?

I could see there being some crypto use case I haven’t understood yet. But I don’t understand why bitcoin specifically needs to rise in value. It seems like a rent based system rewarding the original owners. And that would only work if other systems depended on bitcoin.

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

#309

Post by Miner49er »

altcognito wrote: post #283
febeling wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> This electricity often can't be put to any other use anyway. This is false. If there is surplus electricity, prices would drop, and you could expand availability. Government, especially the Chinese government is more than capable of shaping market demand. Furthermore, you could displace existing coal based electrical demand in the country. The value of currency comes from trust that you manage it well, not from the…

There exists energy where it's not economically viable to put on a grid, or really do anything with. Many mine Bitcoin with this energy. Even in the United States. The cost of transporting it is more then the energy is worth.

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

#310

Post by GeneralTspoon »

ddtaylor wrote: post #258
graeme wrote: post #249

Earlier 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.

True. But you can’t really buy anything with it.

Which means you need to cash out to fiat $$$. And then you need 3rd party authorisation while jumping through all the KYC hoops.

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