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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

#961

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" 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.

What about when people DON'T want to live in a jurisdiction? So far even attempts are seastading failed due to traditional countries destroying them militarily (one italian attempt for example was just bombed until nothing remained, and an attempt the pacific resulted in nearby countries landing troops on the built islands and kicking people out)

"What about when people DON'T want to live in a jurisdiction?"

Then the Big Man with the most guns and the heaviest mates becomes the jurisdiction. And you don't get to vote for him.

Because when it boils down to it human beings are just Strategically Shaved Chimps.

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

#962

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If this isn’t resonating with you after the past year, I don’t know. On the contrary, it's made me more firm in my position: fiat is better than bitcoin because fiat is responsive to the demands of democracy, while bitcoin is responsive only to a protocol written in the late aughts. There's a lot of issues with American democracy, but it's still democracy. I can vote, and theoretically any root problems can be fixe…

It sounds like you would be interested in DAOs in the cryptocurrency space. Governance tokens are issued out and you can use them to vote on proposals.

That's a democracy where your voting power correlates with wealth, also known as feudalism.

No thx

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

#963
post #925

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I a "corpo merc" since I don't like crypto currency? What does that even mean?

corpo mercs are greedy opportunists HN is full of them pretending to be hackers, and who play upon hackers' collective sense of self to peddle investment schemes

peddle investment schemses, that sounds like cryptocurrency proponents to me...

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

#964

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since hackers can see climate change in action and don't think its smart to burn to a lot of energy for something which hasn't proven shit over its existence and still hasn't solved a real world problem. Besides buying drugs anonymosly through tor.

You should look into Ethereum.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/networks/ethereum-plans-...

Right now i can't get a graphics card because its much more efficient to use those chips for ethereum.

In parallel i'm still quite happy with how my banking account works.

So, why would i wanna look into Ethereum? Besides to wanna know why i can't get a graphics card?

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

#965
post #882

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Initially it was meant to be used as currency, but it's become more of an asset class now, mainly used as a store of value, similar to gold. Do you know how difficult it is to get millions of people to agree that something is a store of value, not only agree, but to put their money where their mouth is? THIS is why bitcoin is where it's at.

It happens periodically: tulips, Beanie Babies, etc.

Actually : better argument : how many bubbles poppings did tulips, Beanie Babies, etc. "survive" each (as a "viable" financial instrument) ?

Because I've lost count for bitcoin : it's about to have it's, what 5th or 6th, bubble-popping ? (Coming back stronger each time.)

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

#966
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 financial world is structured as it is because of its existing ~flaws~ regulation. > Bitcoin/crypto enables things that people don't know they need because they are now ~possible~ unregulated.

You mention the right things, but it's two separate ones. Sending/receiving currency in 1 hour - this is not impossible with banking technology today. But if you're sending $10000 this to avoid income taxes, fees or any other kind of regulation – then it's a different thing you're talking about.

You are still relying upon a 3rd party to run the ATM or the exchange – and the main differentiator here is – they are not regulated by KYC (Know Your Customer). This means, they are not yet obliged to check who you are, whether you are reporting this $1000 as your income, or the person sending it as service fee, whatever. It's basically black money. In your case – you might have as well transferred $1000 as ransom for releasing your family (god forbid).

The point at which you exchange BTC for your local government cash – can be enforced by the government at any time by mandating KYC. And then things will equalize. Or we can assume there will be no such point, and all the last mile purchases will also be BTC. This means no government cash at all, shops accept BTC directly, and since BTC wallets are encrypted – they can simply report whatever they want as income or expense. But at some point, they have to pay their suppliers. And then we can also assume this extends to the suppiers, and all the way up to the supply chain. No reporting anywhere.

If the entire money circulation becomes black money (unreported, untaxed), then there is basically no way for any government to function at all. Then the state actor has every incentive to simply shutdown power and take majority control over the ledger (remember: the state has impossibly more compute than anyone else).

TL;DR: Lack of regulation is not a feature. It's just a temporary state. We can enjoy it while it lasts.

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

#967

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 is a mystery to me

sorry about that. one day you will understand it

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

#968
post #489

Earlier 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 used Western Union? The experience is horrendous, and they charge very high fees. Maybe they have improved lately with competition, but when I had to use it a few years ago, it was horrible and I ended up not having money for the rest of my trip because they messed up my papers. Bitcoin is orders of magnitude better than western union.

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

#969
post #827

Earlier 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. And this is reason enough to replace all other currencies with btc ? Because it's fast ? If people thought a little…

« replace all other currencies with btc » What's up with this mindset that Bitcoin must REPLACE the existing system? As a Bitcoin user for 10+ years I always envisioned Bitcoin would simply co-exist with the rest. Your mind is too binary, my friend.

> What's up with this mindset that Bitcoin must REPLACE the existing system?

You tell me, I'm not the one who came up with it

https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/34920/deutsche-bank-pre...

https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-will-eventually-replac...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/investor/2019/08/05/crypto-is-r...

and hundreds of other articles...

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

#970

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You will never be able to price anything in Bitcoin, ever. It's volatile because deflationary currencies are inherently volatile. The future of finance is in some future crypto that provides for economic-growth-based inflation/deflation of the money supply. The Fed does this manually, and that's what keeps USD more-or-less stable.

I've got 50,000 chainlink that refuses to pump. Might be the first unintentional stablecoin.

What's so special about chainlink?
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