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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

#851

Post by ardy42 »

vntok wrote: post #427
robjan wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has bitcoin actually solved that problem though?

Yes it has, anyone in the world can open their own "current account"/"deposit account" for free, right now. Barring hacking you, no government or authority can access it without your consent. None can prevent you from receiving money in it from someone else, or from transferring money out of it to someone else.

>> Has bitcoin actually solved that problem though?

> Yes it has, anyone in the world can open their own "current account"/"deposit account" for free, right now.

Maybe, but it simultaneously un-solves many problems around fraud and theft, because it's (for instance) impossible to reverse a transaction.

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

#852

Post by mercurial_sucks »

FDSGSG wrote: post #739
Closi wrote: 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 is an excellent currency for all sorts of illegal transactions. Buying or selling drugs online? Odds are you're using in bitcoin. Running a ransomware extortion scheme? Odds are you're using bitcoin for payments. Running an international wire fraud scheme? Odds are your drops are paying you in bitcoin.

Patently false. It is one of the worst currencies for illegal transactions. The last place you want your illegal money to be is a public ledger. Maybe monero or another private currency would be more common with criminals

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

#853

Post by [deleted] »

billylindeman wrote: post #725
afavour wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

It absolutely IS about currency. They're printing money to pay for shit they can't afford. That is in ADDITION to the taxes that will be levied. Big government spending is absolutely a waste of economic resources, and will make the situation worse. The REAL problem is that most americans don't have enough money saved to take care of themselves during hard times. Why might that be? The FED's influence has resulted in…

[deleted]

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

#854

Post by FDSGSG »

mercurial_sucks wrote: post #852
FDSGSG wrote: post #739

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin is an excellent currency for all sorts of illegal transactions. Buying or selling drugs online? Odds are you're using in bitcoin. Running a ransomware extortion scheme? Odds are you're using bitcoin for payments. Running an international wire fraud scheme? Odds are your drops are paying you in bitcoin.

Patently false. It is one of the worst currencies for illegal transactions. The last place you want your illegal money to be is a public ledger. Maybe monero or another private currency would be more common with criminals

Sure, Monero is technically better. But actual usage is what matters, and Monero doesn't have that.

There's one DNM pushing Monero, nobody on cybercrime forums is using it. Ransomware operators have tried it, but usually shifted back to Bitcoin.

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

#855

Post by mam2 »

mrb wrote: post #489
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…

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…

Revolut

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

#858

Post by boublepop »

blhack wrote: post #786

To the people on HN who constantly try to talk about how stupid cryptocurrencies are, or how it's all a pyramid that's going to collapse, it's all stupid etc. What do you know that Tesla doesn't know? If you could sit down with the board of Tesla and explain to them what they've missed, what would you tell them?

Your asking the wrong question. What does the board of Tesla know that the average investor doesn’t know? Obviously that no matter the value, news like this will spike the price of Bitcoin. So they just made a huge profit just by slowly aquiring a security, then pumping its price and eventually dumping it.

Quite an ingenious scheme there. You have to wonder how it will play out long term though.

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

#859

Post by tootahe45 »

trimbo wrote: post #603
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #371

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…

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 g…

Maybe things are different in America than they are here in NZ, but I don't think it's only the price of BTC rising. Having house prices rise 20% in a single year definitely screwed me over here.

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

#860

Post by Someone »

Why, o why? If they intend to be paid in Bitcoin, they don’t need to own any.

Unless they also intend to pay with Bitcoin, I also can’t see how this can be a hedge against exchange rate fluctuations (or do I overlook something?)

So, it seems this is gambling on Bitcoin becoming worth more. I don’t think that’s something a car company should do, as it can end badly. As an example, Volkswagen lost about $400 million in 1987 when some employees bet on the exchange ge rate of the dollar (https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1987/3/30/computer-fraud.... That wasn’t following management orders, to put it mildly, but if it had been, it would have ended similarly)

Also, it surprises me they have that much cash, but reading https://tesla-cdn.thron.com/static/1LRLZK_2020_Q4_Quarterly_..., they have almost $20 billion.

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