Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future • Hacker News Board

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

#241

Post by bsaul » Mon, Feb 08, 2021, 2:11 PM UTC

Closi wrote: post #192

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 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…

I made a bet with a friend based on that same reasoning two years ago, i know owe him.

I believe the problem with market price in general is that there's no way to correctly evaluate if a price is "rational" or not. There are so many things plain wrong with the current state of the economy (from central banks monetary policies, to inflation, to interest rates) that i don't even consider bitcoin to be anything special anymore.

It all looks like a degenerate monster agonizing, making all kind of weird sounds and shapes while going down.

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

#242

Post by nly » Mon, Feb 08, 2021, 2:11 PM UTC

Waterluvian wrote: post #30

I bought $100 of BTC a while ago for fun. I watched it go up and down and mostly up. I got bored, and sold it for cash to donate... literally an hour before the big spike just earlier. I know about the fallacies of predicting the market. I understand 20/20 hindsight. But to actually experience it is such a strong lesson. To be flooded with, "ohhh I'm such an idiot!" and then think about how there's just no way I coul…

The thing I've learned investing so far: never sell anything. It really only ever makes sense to sell if doing so will positively change your lifestyle, or you have no alternative.

Examples of when selling might be a good idea are buying a house, retiring, going through hard times, loss of a job etc. Rebalancing is fine too, but I'd personally only bother to do that if your portfolio is massively distorted (like it goes from 5% to 50% bitcoin in dollar terms).

Like you, I've sold Bitcoin before this year for no real reason other than I got bored. I've also partially sold shares in a company that went up 10x in value and reduced by TR to about 3x... again, no real reason.

If you want to speculate on the future just change where your new investments/contributions go.

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

#243

Post by WA » Mon, Feb 08, 2021, 2:11 PM UTC

austenallred wrote: post #107

Pyramus wrote: 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/

TeslaCharts has been flatly and inarguably wrong about 100 times by now, especially around things they declare “impossible according to the laws of physics.” To me it sounds like a person with an obsession trying to scour the internet for anything potentially bad, and it’s just sad. Elon’s flaws are pretty transparent. You don’t have to dig for them that hard.

100 times? Name a few please. Exclude all stock price forecats.

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

#244

Post by remontoire » Mon, Feb 08, 2021, 2:12 PM UTC

Pretty disappointing to see the reaction this has received in this thread.

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

#245

Post by 0xmohit » Mon, Feb 08, 2021, 2:12 PM UTC

PunchTornado wrote: post #12

So this is legal and ok to do: - You buy a lot of bitcoin personally. - Then as a CEO you make your company invest in bitcoin. Make it news. Prices go up. - You've made a lot of money for yourself.

This is what analysts and institutional investors appearing on TV have been doing.

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

#246

Post by randomsearch » Mon, Feb 08, 2021, 2:13 PM UTC

RasputinsBro wrote: post #150

Pyramus wrote: 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/

"pedo guy" was the thing that broke the camel's back for me. When you have millions of followers and billions of airtime on you, it's absolutely inexcusable to call a random guy a pedo. When he did that my view of him went from a "fake it till you make it" type, to a dishonest and malicious person.

So when he insulted someone he was having a dispute with, you decided to discount his life’s work?

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

#247

Post by 3solarmasses » Mon, Feb 08, 2021, 2:13 PM UTC

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?

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.

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

#248

Post by Spivak » Mon, Feb 08, 2021, 2:13 PM UTC

baxtr wrote: post #204

knuthsat wrote: post #157

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…

Are you basically saying that going from fossil to electric vehicles won’t make a big difference?

It will make a noticeable difference but “big” is a ultimately a value judgement. Cars are small potatoes compared to industrial polluters. Huge companies that are actually meaningfully responsible for waste have been trying to put the blame on individuals for decades. Like in a tiny sense they have a point because they’re delivering products and services to individuals but they’re also pushing all the externalities of their waste onto individuals who have very little power to make systematic change while making sure that we can’t act collectively through government.

Non-energy example: trash. Jesus lord I am swimming in trash. Not because I consume in excess but because the everyday things I need come with stupid amounts of packaging that I can’t give back to them and isn’t recyclable or reusable.

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

#249

Post by graeme » Mon, Feb 08, 2021, 2:13 PM UTC

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…

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?

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

#250

Post by Miner49er » Mon, Feb 08, 2021, 2:13 PM UTC

cesarb wrote: post #125

Miner49er wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think at a certain point, the only profitable way to mine BTC will be with energy that was going to be wasted anyway.

That's only the case if the Bitcoin price is low. Each block gives the miner a certain amount of Bitcoin, so it's only profitable to mine Bitcoin if the cost of the energy used to mine that block is lower than the price of the Bitcoin the miner received. The higher the price of Bitcoin, the higher can the cost of the energy be before it's no longer profitable.

Yeah it's of course a balance. It depends on the difficulty, reward, and cost. The reward is constantly going down. I guess I just think there will eventually be a balance where it's only possible to mine with free/wasted electricity, but maybe not.