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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

#601

Post by CivBase »

So... what is Tesla going to spend that BTC on when the time comes? They can't use it to pay wages or purchase materials. What kind of assets could Tesla possibly trade $1.5B in BTC for?

I like the idea of cryptocurrency, but right now it seems to be more like a stock than an actual currency. There isn't much you can do with it still other than trade it back and fourth for other currencies. And I've never heard of a company making an investment like that in a stock. It'll be interesting to see how this play out.

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

#602

Post by asah »

thehappypm wrote: post #424

I am embarrassed by the industry. How many of our generation's best and brightest minds are doing crypto and day trading? Imagine if these minds were focused on societal problems -- energy, health, food. I know multiple Harvard CS graduates who went right into the crypto space. What a waste.

meh. Same for missiles, ads, porn and crappy derivative Netflix cooking shows. So what.

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

#603

Post by trimbo »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #371
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…

“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…

Not an economist, but IMO this might be the most effective emergency monetary policy ever enacted. Massive amounts of money printed with very little effect on average things people need to pay for. The inflation occurred, but it occurred in things like... Bitcoin.

Alternatively, if Bitcoin was our currency, we'd be in a deep depression because it'd impossible to increase the money supply and people would hoard. The government would have had to confiscate Bitcoin, like was done with gold in the 30s.

I have been skeptical of the MMT people but now wonder if they might be right. One way or the other, the policy will be taught in economics books.

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

#604

Post by Tepix »

RhodoGSA wrote: post #409
lottin wrote: post #322

This is very worrying. Don't they have financial advisors at Tesla? An automaker should focus on making cars. This is what they specialise in and what they are good at. They should not be speculating with financial assets. Tesla shareholders can do that themselves, if they wish to.

Tesla is not an automaker and i don't know why people keep calling it that. It is a technology company. It's designed chips, software, Cars, trucks, manufacturing lines, battery's, solar panels - And oh my god, if you saw the random products the engineering team designed in Keto Factory outside Fremont, you'd think very differently about Tesla as a company.

Tesla makes 93% of its revenue by selling cars and 7% with energy generation and storage.

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

#605

Post by bildung »

speeder wrote: post #432
neilwilson wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" 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)

Isn't that exactly what one would expect a free market for juristications to look like?

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

#607

Post by kseistrup »

noja wrote: post #561
mrb wrote: post #489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While away on vacation, I once sent $1000 in cold hard cash, on a Sunday, to an unbanked person in Los Angeles, in less than 1 hour, thanks to bitcoin and the recipient withdrawing it for cash at a Bitcoin ATM. There is not a single alternative service in the world that would have made this possible. If people thought a little beyond their personal use cases, they would understand the utility of Bitcoin/crypto for ma…

> There is not a single alternative service in the world that would have made this possible. Apart from any "send money to your relatives back home" service, sms banking in entire continents, or Hawala. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawala

I agree. I regularly send money from Denmark to unbanked friends in shanty towns in Zambia through World Remit — it works 24/7 as fast as an sms.

https://www.worldremit.com/en

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

#608

Post by fasteddie31003 »

RhodoGSA wrote: post #464

Nevada's new corp-building cities seemed mighty suspect originally. Tesla is the biggest employeer in Reno and yet not a single word from Tesla came to respond to the news. However, bitcoin company's responded. Elon always seems to have some long term vision that no one is thinking about. What if he builds a city in Texas and Nevada that pays and transacts in bitcoin? This whole threads arguments about the 'Use Caseo…

I've been thinking something along these lines too. If I were a billionaire I wouldn't be buying yachts, I'd found new cities. Personally, I'd pick the middle of Baja Mexico. With solar and reverse osmosis you could terraform a desert into an oasis there with a perfect climate.

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

#609

Post by rzodkiew »

bhupy wrote: post #367
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'm still forming an opinion on cryptocurrency. You mention that decentralization is a very important step that we should try to take as a society. If that's the case, then why isn't Bitcoin (or PeerCoin etc etc) a step function revolution?

Because they are not really decentralised. Vast amounts of cryptocurrencies as they are designed right now are disproportionately held by the early adopters, who will inevitably engage in rent seeking in one way or another (I wish I was wrong on this one).

Decentralisation has to happen through increasing trust between people, while cryptocurrencies are designed to replace trust. Yeah, current institutions controlling our monies are hardly worth the trust, but honestly bitcoin doesn't even remove that trust (it just shifts it to some random self-proclaimed experts at Tether, twitter gurus or god knows what else the crypto people are up to nowadays).

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

#610

Post by macspoofing »

cassianoleal wrote: post #574
bryanlarsen wrote: post #540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Western Union has been doing this for > 150 years.

I don't know where you are but in a lot of places to use Western Union you have to physically go to one of their stores. With BTC I can buy them via the internet, and the person on the other side can also convert to cash in their own account via the internet, then withdraw on any ATM. It's worlds apart. Edit: I guess if you only consider the parent's use-case where the other person went to a Bitcoin ATM it's not that…

For now. Cryptocurrency is still in the 'honeymoon' phase where it hasn't been fully targeted by governments and regulatory bodies. That will change soon enough. You can't skirt AML regulations forever.
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