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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

#431

Post by hfsp »

alfl wrote: post #237

Regarding the environmental concerns raised in other threads: Energy production can cause emissions, energy consumption typically does not. We should be producing energy cleanly. There is an argument that more energy consumption causes more energy production, which typically uses dirty sources. Again: we should be producing energy cleanly. We should be consuming as much green, clean, energy as possible. Bitcoin mined…

Btc is predominantly powered by renewables like hydropower in non-urban areas, or uses otherwise wasted sources of energy.

Yes, there is carbon power use.

Compare the coin to current fiat system energy use, not stand-alone.

Btc is more energy efficient than fiat. Few understand this overall, and judging by the comments, few understand on this site.

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

#432

Post by speeder »

neilwilson wrote: post #402
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that's required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust.” -Satoshi Nakamoto Feb. 2009 If this isn’t resonating with you after the past year, I don’t know. I was forced to watch my government bungle a pandemic in the worst possible way and then asked t…

" Bitcoin is a way for me to step outside that debt I did not want or deserve" Try paying your taxes in Bitcoin. Then you'll find that it has nothing to do with trust and everything to do with avoiding having your assets stripped by the IRS. You want to live in a jurisdiction, then you pony up the tokens that jurisdiction demands. Or you lose your liberty and everything you own.

What about when people DON'T want to live in a jurisdiction?

So far even attempts are seastading failed due to traditional countries destroying them militarily (one italian attempt for example was just bombed until nothing remained, and an attempt the pacific resulted in nearby countries landing troops on the built islands and kicking people out)

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

#433

Post by valenterry »

EtienneK wrote: post #380

I love the idea of Bitcoin. But, as someone who's been working in banking for more than a decade - what problem does Bitcoin solve? Serious question; 'cause I'm failing to come up with a good answer. Edit: The closest I've come to answering this: To me Bitcoin is more a decentralized international payment protocol (such as SWIFT); not a store of value / currency. But I rarely see it being pitched in that way.

Instead of thinking about what bitcoin&co. save for a single average person (not that much in comparison to e.g. gold), think at bigger scale:

It forces states to be even more mindful about what they do with their currency.

Because, states have a lot of ways to prevent people from starting to avoid their currency. In particular they can increase tax on everything, such as real estate, income, or just wealth in general. However, taxing bitcoin (or even monero) is so much more difficult, that it can act as a sort of regulator - similar to gold, but even better in this point.

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

#435

Post by sygma »

BenoitEssiambre wrote: post #381

Oh noes, if this starts a trend, becomes widespread, and businesses start hoarding crypto tokens instead of investing in building stuff, it could cause a great depression pretty much the same way gold hoarding caused the economy to collapse in 1929. When people, businesses and banks start hording tokens instead of investing in building and maintaining the production capacity of consumables, the ratio of value of toke…

> businesses start hoarding crypto tokens instead of investing in building stuff

Share buybacks. Tech businesses are buying their own shares to pump the stock price (and their options' value) rather than investing in building stuff.

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

#436

Post by charcircuit »

eli wrote: post #386
sixQuarks wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Initially it was meant to be used as currency, but it's become more of an asset class now, mainly used as a store of value, similar to gold. Do you know how difficult it is to get millions of people to agree that something is a store of value, not only agree, but to put their money where their mouth is? THIS is why bitcoin is where it's at.

At least you can build useful things out of gold

and you can build useful things using cryptocurrency via smart contracts.

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

#437

Post by robjan »

buildbuildbuild wrote: post #201

Cryptocurrency is a blind spot where Hacker News’ normal optimism towards innovation has disappointed for a decade. May this thread be one we can reference years later as another example of “our collective opinions can be very wrong about technologies that were transformative in hindsight.” Innovators, follow regulations and go for it. Don’t let the HN crowd get you down. Few of these commenters have ever been unbank…

During a bull market the bulls say the bears are stupid. During a bear market the bears call the bulls stupid.

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

#438

Post by me551ah »

rzodkiew wrote: post #338

Bitcoin is a mystery to me. Somehow it's hailed as revolutionising the economy, by replacing currency with a worse kind of currency. It feels like this is where all the "how to get rich quick" book writers and other hustle bros went and created one giant financial pyramid, which works in quite simple way: - buy bitcoin - tell everyone around how revolutionary it is, so they buy it and what you holding increases in va…

I don't get why bitcoin is worth so much.Bitcoin is called a store of value like gold, but gold has inherent uses. If the price of gold went to zero then you could still use it to make jewellery or use it for electrical conductivity. If the price of bitcoin goes to zero then it's worthless. It's also not environmentally friendly and bitcoin mining uses up 0.21% of the world's power supply. And all of this energy is used to calculate billions of hashes per second out of which all but one will be discarded. There is also increased regulatory focus from governments who see it as a threat , with India even going so far as to suggest they would ban it.

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

#439

Post by pelliphant »

fasteddie31003 wrote: post #88

I don't understand all the Crypto hate on this site. Since when have hackers become the luddites to new ways of finance?

I'm a crypto hater, I consider bitcoin to be a pyramid scheme.

And also, I think that it is a positive thing that an institution that I can influence (government) is in control of deciding how transactions work.

This might also be a cultural thing, since I'm scandinavian, and "we" generally consider government regulation as something necessary.

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