Earlier quoted context omitted.
At least you can build useful things out of gold
and you can build useful things using cryptocurrency via smart contracts.
can you, though?
Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future
581–590 of 1001 posts
Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future
#582Earlier 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…
If you look at the history of the gold standard, this comment doesn't really make all that much sense. The gold standard attracts a lot of people because of the naïve view that the government can't debase gold like it can fiat. However, that view is naïve: the gold standard doesn't prevent debasement, it just means that the government has to make a choice between maintaining the gold standard or pursuing the fiscal p…
"Yet, historically, when forced to make the choice, governments have almost always chosen continuation of fiscal policy over the gold standard. Many times (e.g., the early 1930s), governments chose the gold standard only for things to get even worse and instead opt for fiscal policy. In the long run, every country has ultimately abandoned the gold standard."
This. There's a lot of very very smart people who are totally lost among the trees on the technicalities of Bitcoin who don't get this 1 simple aspect. It's never happening.
Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future
#583The other day I was thinking about Tesla employing guy from the Wall street and now all it looks as they capitalizing on Elon fame, people gullibility and and inflating economic balloon by mimes. Basically idea is simple if you have a billion to spare, you buy something very cheap, then you say that that will be most important thing in the world. Many people buy it, and then you sell your share. Don't get me wrong I…
I think you fundamentally misunderstand why a business might buy an asset like Bitcoin. It's certainly not to participate in a pump and dump scheme - as you seem to be alluding. It takes time for a corporation to build up a position in something like Bitcoin. And it will take time to unwind that position. This is clearly a long-term hedge.
I hear you, the same way the GameStop was a long term position.
Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future
#584Earlier 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.
Sure, but what happens when that jurisdiction’s currency can no longer put food on the tables of its law enforcers?
Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future
#585Earlier quoted context omitted.
Literally mining gold is also not very environmentally friendly and uses a lot of power, probably not as much as Bitcoin though. And Bitcoin will always remain what it is now, a system for transferring bits in a decentralized fashion over the internet. Even if Bitcoin is worth $0, as long as there is a sender and a receiver (and at least one miner online), you'll be able to transact Bitcoin, this is hardly worthless.…
Gold is unique, few metals can match it's shine and electrical conductivity. But there exist many cryptocurrencies which can act as "a system for transferring bits in a decentralized fashion over the internet". Many also do a far better job than bitcoin. So shouldn't they be more valuable than bitcoin? Etherium, Monero etc Yes, but you really can't fight the government and run a parallel currency. If the government b…
Other coins will have to not only be technologically better than Bitcoin but also work to accumulate the same level of trust that Bitcoin has. We can see this already happening with the success of Ethereum
> Yes, but you really can't fight the government and run a parallel currency. If the government bans it then you cannot use it for any legal transactions.
But even in that situation, you would still be free to bring your money into the control of a different government instead, who has laws you find more favourable. You wouldn't be victim to currency controls and bank runs
Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future
#586Earlier 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…
Western Union has been doing this for > 150 years.
Have you ever tried to use Western Union while in a foreign country? I did it in Vietnam.
Everything was a barrier. Language, paperwork, carrying cash around safely, time and finally most importantly, fees.
No thanks.
Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future
#587This 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.
Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future
#588Bitcoin 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…
Do you really think this is a technical limitation of the current banking systems and a missing "feature"? Or is it the Bitcoin technology that "solves" this?
The whole reason that it is not allowed to send money to an anonymous person is... Well don't actually know where to start explaining it.
Anti money laundering? Counter-terrorism financing? Financial transaction reporting?
Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future
#589Earlier quoted context omitted.
Noo, you should not hodl something forever just because you bought it and it's precious to you. The thing about investing and stock market in general is, that people are constantly seeking the _best_ returns. If you have invested in something and it goes up by 10% in a year while a similar asset goes up 50%, you should probably re-evaluate your investment. I have noticed that companies and investments do roughly divi…
You're subscribing to trend-following strategy, which is your prerogative, but if your 50% return "similar asset" is really similar to something you already hold, then why didn't you hold it already as part of a diversified portfolio? If you had you would have shared some of the gain, whereas jumping ship you may find you missed the boat.
If you are buying individual stocks, you can't really diversify your investments too much. I myself also enjoy the feeling of "getting it right" and only invest in companies that I absolutely believe in (and when that stops, I sell them). I don't hedge my bets by buying their competitors in the case they might do well too.
Re: Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future
#590Bitcoin 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…
There’s utility in Bitcoin but also massive scaling problems that haven’t been tackled yet. It has long term potential, but you have to separate that from the asset bubble that’s inflating everything these days. If you don’t see the parallels between bitcoin’s price and Tesla’s stock price you haven’t been paying attention to what’s happening in the economy.
Hope this illustrates that Tesla’s commitment to clean energy is shallow, and their real commitment is to easy to manipulate financial securities.