Live data from Hacker News

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

techcrunch.com

651–660 of 1001 posts

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

#651
post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's because 98% of the people on here haven't actually used DeFi. The most they've done is bought and sold a little btc or eth on coinbase. The ah-ha moments come from real use.

I'd say the fastest way of making someone have a bad view of Bitcoin is to make them buy something with Bitcoin. I've actually had to buy Bitcoin in order to pay for something that was about $20. Talk about a hassle and fees upon fees.

Completely unrelated to what the parent was saying.

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

#652
post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't understand all the Crypto hate on this site. Since when have hackers become the luddites to new ways of finance? For me, it's because nobody can explain what the value offering of Bitcoin is - mainly the question 'what can I actualy do with a bitcoin?' . It's a bad currency because it is slow to exchange and costs lots of money to exchange - I can't use it to buy my coffee in the morning. It's a bad non-spe…

Bitcoin != Cryptocurrencies It's like using the term "COBOL" when you mean "programming languages", and then criticising COBOL's modern utility in that context. The parent comment was about crypto (short for "cryptocurrencies") in general, not Bitcoin, which is 12-year old technology, and broadly not fairly comparable to current cryptocurrencies or their applications. You are as correct that you can't do much with a…

Can I get paid in dollars for spare storage?

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

#653
post #489

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…

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…

The shitty American bank system doesn't make something that works slightly better a 'paradigm shift'.

https://transferwise.com/gb/send-money/instant-money-transfe...

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

#654

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…

> I was forced to watch my government bungle a pandemic in the worst possible way and then asked to pay for it for decades. No I don’t think I will. That has very little to do with currency and everything to do with you not wanting to pay taxes. You may think that COVID response has been a catastrophic waste of money but if you'd lost your job would you have claimed the increased unemployment benefits? I suspect the…

> That has very little to do with currency and everything to do with you not wanting to pay taxes.

Debasing a currency is not a normal tax. Currency debasement is extremely regressive.

- The poorer someone is, the more of their assets are likely to just be some cash in the bank.

- it is a permanent loss of quality of life for people on fixed incomes.

- it doesn’t exempt people a normal tax code does (low income, blind, high dependent count, etc)

> it's deliberate action to improve everyone's situation in the long term.

This is the justification for nearly every government action.

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

#655

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Western Union has been doing this for > 150 years.

Western Union is a nightmare to use. You need send and pickup in a physical location, sometimes the recipient needs specific forms of ID, and the fees are insane. I once sent $100 to someone in South America and it cost me $13. WU is a relic that targets and takes advantage of the less fortunate and those in 3rd world countries.

To be fair, the current average Bitcoin transaction fee is around $13 right now, so it would cost a similar amount, or even double if there’s two transactions involved (you -> recipient -> withdrawal exchange).

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

#656
post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many of us have been around crypto for a long time (meaning since 2010-2011) and have not seen any progress in positive terms. Most of crypto growth has been pure speculation/ crypto2crytpo related services/morally questionable uses. Positives * ... Sort of positive/sort of negative: Evading capital controls Being your own bank.. Big Negatives: * POW energy use - huge one * POS stakeholder issue * Hard to use for Joe…

What are the positive sides of "Evading capital controls"? Also, does POS here mean "piece of shit"?

Well, if the government is truly repressive evading capital controls can be considered a good thing.

I am still convinced that most people willingly holding Tether are trying to avoid paying taxes and skirt KYC.

That is the only sane explanation for this insanity.

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

#657
post #587

This comment is unlikely to win me many friends here, but it is worth considering that while Bitcoin is, nominally at least, decentralized and free from government control, internet access is not. A simple glance at the trend of governments to partially or to fully shut down internet services to certain areas in times of unrest or mass protest means, in the case of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies requiring collect…

Internet is not required [1] to sync a full Bitcoin node. There have also been numerous proof-of-concepts for transmitting Bitcoin transactions via radio. [1] https://blockstream.com/satellite/

Very nice initiative, but for first time users you still need to download 300GB+ of blockchain

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

#658
1. I see a securities fraud class action lawsuit coming up if (when?) that tanks.

2. Accepting Bitcoin as payment is not a big deal, really. It would be remarkable when they denominate things in BTC. Say, you can buy a Model 3 for 1.1 BTC (and, just to be clear, when BTC-USD changes, it still sells at 1.1 BTC, and whatever the then new USD price is). That would be something. That's not going to happen, of course.

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

#659

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…

Bitcoin and similar cryptocurrencies solve some real problems that most people don't actually have - they allow for verifiable electronic transactions without having to trust any single entity in the chain. The problem Bitcoin and other cryptos actually solves for most people is different. That problem is summarized as "I have (or can borrow, at a low rate) fiat currency, and want to get a much higher return on my in…

Yes but once they are used for tax evasion and underground economy they can become worthless in hands of people that deal with it as a legal asset. Governments can regulate any asset class.

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

#660
post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think of the crypto programmer who make it possible for poor Venezuelans to have an island of crypto inflation stability when their Bolívars are worth toilet paper. I don't know of any feel goody NGO where a Harvard grad could feel woke working at that could do that.

But is maybe the only inflation story anyone can come up with? Venezuela is misgoverned, but how do I know bitcoin governance is better? Bitcoin exchange rates are not stable. I can only hoard it, it's not an investment and not a currency.

He never said BTC. Bitcoin was not designed to be a stable currency. If you want a stable currency look at stable coins such as DAI, USDT, USDC, etc.
Post reply on HN