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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

#231
post #77

2020 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/

The issue with Tesla & Elon Musk is that he has a powerful reality distortion ability just like Steve Jobs did. He wills things to happen by force of personality and by believing it so, he convinces others to join him in making these things reality, which then becomes reality. He makes things become true by claiming them to be real before they are. This is not normal and rare to be so talented in that aspect. Hard to…

>In March 2020, Musk predicted that there would be "close to zero new cases in US too by end of April."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk#COVID-19

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

#232
post #77

2020 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/

Could you describe a couple of red flags?

Tweeting for the single purpose of bringing the price up of cryptocurrency

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

#233
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…

Bitcoin is economically set up such that its energy consumption will follow its price. With the price at the level it is now, the energy consumption is that of a medium-sized country.

An entire country's worth of energy is getting burned to run a network capable of a whooping TWO transactions a second.

Now that Tesla has bought these coins, they have so far driven the price up by another 10%. This will eventually be matched by an increase in carbon emissions of 10% of a medium-sized country.

This will most likely completely obliterate all of the carbon reductions that Tesla has managed to achieve so far.

Bitcoin, as it exists today, is a massive ongoing ecological disaster and probably a crime against humanity. And Tesla is now making it worse.

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

#234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Our biggest environmental footprints as individuals are heating and cooling. Having an electric car is nothing compared to it. Isn't Tesla aiming to electrify everything and then use clean energy as the source of the electricity? At the moment running heating or cooling should be clean as long as the energy is coming from a renewable source, right? > Take one intercontinental flight and again, having a fossil fuel…

Adjusted for your own seat, assuming a full plane. You can read about the calculation in the linked book.

http://www.withouthotair.com/c5/page_35.shtml

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

#235
post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue with Tesla & Elon Musk is that he has a powerful reality distortion ability just like Steve Jobs did. He wills things to happen by force of personality and by believing it so, he convinces others to join him in making these things reality, which then becomes reality. He makes things become true by claiming them to be real before they are. This is not normal and rare to be so talented in that aspect. Hard to…

>In March 2020, Musk predicted that there would be "close to zero new cases in US too by end of April." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk#COVID-19

I am not saying Elon Musk is perfect. Also I am not saying he can control things he definitely doesn't have control over. I am also not an investor in Tesla or BTC. But he does have an ability to make things happen, things that seem impossible, when he is in a position of influence.

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

#236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cryptos are purely a speculation vessel, they don't fix many of the problems they claim to fix and add tons of problems over other currencies I'm fine with cryptos as long as they're not pitched as something they're not

Fiat currency is fundamentally more speculative IMO because the value is more based on government trust that something not man-made.

Maybe in theory but not in practice. Just look at the past 10 years, btc &co are 100% driven by hype and speculation and still have 0 real world usage besides being a (semi)rich people toy and a good way to launder money / buy illegal shit online.

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

#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 in Iceland is emission free.

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

#238
Here is the key paragraph from todays 10k. It also mentions gold related assets. (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/000156459021...):

"In January 2021, we updated our investment policy to provide us with more flexibility to further diversify and maximize returns on our cash that is not required to maintain adequate operating liquidity. As part of the policy, which was duly approved by the Audit Committee of our Board of Directors, we may invest a portion of such cash in certain alternative reserve assets including digital assets, gold bullion, gold exchange-traded funds and other assets as specified in the future. Thereafter, we invested an aggregate $1.50 billion in bitcoin under this policy and may acquire and hold digital assets from time to time or long-term. Moreover, we expect to begin accepting bitcoin as a form of payment for our products in the near future, subject to applicable laws and initially on a limited basis, which we may or may not liquidate upon receipt."

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

#240
post #199
post #3

Legitimizing Bitcoin more than offsets the environmental benefits of electric vehicles.

Tesla's mission is to accelerate the adoption of renewable energy sources. This doesn't directly counter that. In fact you could argue that pushing the world to rely on massively energy-inefficient proof-of-work rather than a centralized authority for trust in the financial system is going to make the need for renewables even greater. If (and it's a big if) we can get to 10% renewable energy in the next decades, Bitc…

There is no lack of demand for energy. The world is absolutely ravenous for energy. The reason we don't have more renewable energy is absolutely not, in any way, because of there not being a big enough demand for energy.

No, what Tesla has done here will instead wipe out all the gains in reducing carbon emissions it has managed so far, out of pure greed.

This is a disaster.

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