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

Re:Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in ... by CapmCrackaWaka on Monday February 08, 2021 @12:51PM (#26067749)

I do think changing the BTC supply limit would affect the BTC/USD price because it would reduce trust in the protocol. The pump and dump you described was a large part of bitcoins initial run in 2017, but I personally see much less of that happening now. BTC has much less hype than it did in 2017. In 2017, people were discussing it replacing the USD, overthrowing 'the system' and leading to a golden age of financial equality. Discussion these days mostly centers around the 4 points I listed above. I think overall discussion much more mature now than it was.

I personally think BTC is useful, especially in times like these, mainly because it has no intrinsic value. People are scared of inflation. Interest rates are low. The market is extremely overvalued, trading at massive P/E ratios. Nobody really wants to be holding cash, stocks or bonds. So what do people do with their money when there is no alternative?

Disclaimer: I own $1500 or so in BTC.

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Re:Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in ... by eli on Monday February 08, 2021 @12:58PM (#26067819)

Did the price spike in the last 24 hours because a bunch of people suddenly realized the 4 points you mentioned? Or because Elon Musk created a bunch of hype?

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Re:Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in ... by CapmCrackaWaka on Monday February 08, 2021 @01:22PM (#26068116)

I feel that we are talking past each other. The 4 points I mentioned are simply what allow Bitcoin to have value at all. The price spike is obviously because Elon released that Tesla bought 1.5B worth of Bitcoin, but I never said that hype doesn't play a part in Bitcoins price. Depending on how you look at it, you could argue that 'hype' is the only reason BTC is worth anything. People simply want it. When you said:

> People are buying into bitcoin now because they see a graph going up and want it to keep going up. It could just as well be shares in a video game retailer.

You're absolutely right. People are only going to buy BTC if they think the price will go up, or remain stable, or whatever their goals are with their money. I don't think our opinions are at odds here.

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Re:Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in ... by BlueTemplar on Monday February 08, 2021 @05:20PM (#26071020)

Lol, 2017 : "initial" run ? More like 4th or 5th run... (I've lost count.)

And yes, "overthrowing the system" was indeed heavily discussed all the previous times, here's one example : https://m.slashdot.org/story/144938 Also remember how the creation of bitcoin was spurred by the 2008 financial crisis?

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