Musk trolling like a boss: NO MOAR BTC!

[Risottia]

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57096305

Tesla's Musk made news weeks ago for openly buying loads of BTCs and then stating that Tesla was going to accept BTCs as form of payment.
Ofc, BTC's price rose and rose and thousand of investors started buying them as if there was no future.
And of course, now, entirely out of climate concerns, Musk states that Tesla isn't going to accept BTCs anymore. BTCs of course started plummeting (-10% right after Musk's tweet).

Do I hear the sound of bubbles bursting?

[Vassenor]

Almost like cryptocurrency is an inherently stupid idea.

[Risottia]

Not everyone recognizes "BTC". You mean "Bitcoin" right?

Ofc. Just like EUR, USD...

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

Sounds like market manipulation to me.

[Tinhampton]

Why now? The environmental effects of cryptocurrency mining have been known for some time now.

[Nakena]

Musk got some new game running.

[Resilient Acceleration]

Warranted. After all, BTC mining consumes more energy than the entire Argentina, which is still ludicrous even though admittedly 75% of its energy source comes from renewables. For the supposed future of the global exchange system, the fact that its value can be influenced by the whim of one billionaire smells like a bad deal for me. (Then again, British Pound 1992 comes to mind...)

[Vassenor]

Warranted. After all, BTC mining consumes more energy than the entire Argentina, which is still ludicrous even though admittedly 75% of its energy source comes from renewables. For the supposed future of the global exchange system, the fact that its value can be influenced by the whim of one billionaire smells like a bad deal for me. (Then again, British Pound 1992 comes to mind...)

IIRC the energy consumption of crypto mining has outstripped the production of all our renewable power generation.

[New haven america]

Musk got some new game running.

hes a rich guy whos having fun messing with the poors and their attempt to make money anyway they can while he plays with his private go-cart track under his multi billion dollar mansion

[Resilient Acceleration]

Almost like cryptocurrency is an inherently stupid idea.

I'm still not decided on that. Each unit of currency being unique seems like a good feature. Kind of pointless if one unit gets huge compared to other currency.

Requiring huge amounts of computer time to discover/create more of it, is a really terrible idea, and Bitcoin should have seen this problem (of increasing computer time as undiscovered units get rarer) before they even launched. If that was a physical product, I'm pretty sure they'd be liable for some sort of Ponzi scheme charge. Degrees of design obsolescence.

Problem is, how to ban Bitcoin (and probably some others) without banning all virtual currencies? Maybe just carbon-tax new bitcoins?

Although the technology is still obviously unclear, I do think that there's a great deal of chance that quantum computing will absolutely wreck and erase to total extinction 100% of existing cryptocurrencies in the planet today, replaced by a new form. When is another matter.

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

Almost like cryptocurrency is an inherently stupid idea.

I'm still not decided on that. Each unit of currency being unique seems like a good feature. Kind of pointless if one unit gets huge compared to other currency.

Requiring huge amounts of computer time to discover/create more of it, is a really terrible idea, and Bitcoin should have seen this problem (of increasing computer time as undiscovered units get rarer) before they even launched. If that was a physical product, I'm pretty sure they'd be liable for some sort of Ponzi scheme charge. Degrees of design obsolescence.

Problem is, how to ban Bitcoin (and probably some others) without banning all virtual currencies? Maybe just carbon-tax new bitcoins?

It would be neat if a way of creating it using humans with spare time could be developed.

[Necroghastia]

Even a stopped clock etc. etc.

[Vassenor]

Even a stopped clock etc. etc.

What was that Onion headline? "The worst person you know has good idea"?

[Necroghastia]

Even a stopped clock etc. etc.

What was that Onion headline? "The worst person you know has good idea"?

https://clickhole.com/heartbreaking-the-worst-person-you-know-just-made-a-gr-1825121606/

ah, a classic

[Risottia]

Sounds like market manipulation to me.

Nooooo!
It's not like Musk has ever done such a thing!

[Risottia]

Ofc. Just like EUR, USD...

Oh, I know now. I just mean your thread title as it is, will only get in people who respond to "Musk" and "trolling".

Yeah, while I'm criticizing the thread title, "like a boss" seems a bit dated and "MOAR" is painfully so. Carry on.

So you call clickbaiting?
I plead the fifth.

[Juristonia]

Why now? The environmental effects of cryptocurrency mining have been known for some time now.

Cause it's a pump and dump.
He played his little simp army (yet again) and probably made a lot of good actual real money out of it.

[Risottia]

Maybe just carbon-tax new bitcoins?

How just jailing those who evade taxes?

[Ethel mermania]

Sounds like market manipulation to me.

^ this.

[Forsher]

I don't like Elon Musk much at all, but there's nothing inherently wrong or even odd here. It took literally years for the "cryptocurrency discourse" to start incorporating the idea "actually, it's bad for the environment". In fact, I'm not even sure when the first one I read was... it could actually have been stimulated by the fact Tesla was getting involved with bitcoin. I mean, this article is post-Tesla and exists because of Tesla but I don't know if it's where I learnt about the argument or not. If it is, I read it on a different device.

Look, you'd expect that Elon Musk would look into things a bit more but I don't really see the point in getting hung up on it... if you were looking at Bitcoin as a financial thing, you likely wouldn't notice any asides about electricity use. Also, given that Tesla is in the electric car market, you'd think Musk would be primed to think "electricity... that's on brand!".

The point is... Musk/Tesla could very well just be responding in real time. I don't think calling it trolling is on point at all.

[New Jacobland]

Sounds like market manipulation to me.

Musk owns the crypto market. He says something good about Bitcoin, it skyrockets. He says something bad, it plummets. Same thing with Dogecoin, though even worse, woth fluctuations around 30%.

[Ifreann]

Why now? The environmental effects of cryptocurrency mining have been known for some time now.

Because he's jumping on a different cryptocurrency.

---

I don't like Elon Musk much at all, but there's nothing inherently wrong or even odd here. It took literally years for the "cryptocurrency discourse" to start incorporating the idea "actually, it's bad for the environment". In fact, I'm not even sure when the first one I read was... it could actually have been stimulated by the fact Tesla was getting involved with bitcoin. I mean, this article is post-Tesla and exists because of Tesla but I don't know if it's where I learnt about the argument or not. If it is, I read it on a different device.

Look, you'd expect that Elon Musk would look into things a bit more but I don't really see the point in getting hung up on it... if you were looking at Bitcoin as a financial thing, you likely wouldn't notice any asides about electricity use. Also, given that Tesla is in the electric car market, you'd think Musk would be primed to think "electricity... that's on brand!".

The point is... Musk/Tesla could very well just be responding in real time. I don't think calling it trolling is on point at all.

The idea that Musk has just now discovered that cryptocurrencies are shit for the environment and is correspondingly ditching just one specific cryptocurrency, and not saying anything about the other cryptocurrency he's been promoting lately, is hard to believe.

[Dumb Ideologies]

You can't judge Musk by human standards of morality, he ascended above such petty standards when his inner eye was opened by some visiting Martians decades ago.

[Esternial]

Sounds like market manipulation to me.

Musk owns the crypto market. He says something good about Bitcoin, it skyrockets. He says something bad, it plummets. Same thing with Dogecoin, though even worse, woth fluctuations around 30%.

Maybe people should stop getting their crypto advice from a meme'ing billionaire and the market wouldn't be so sensitive to his whims.

[Ifreann]

Musk owns the crypto market. He says something good about Bitcoin, it skyrockets. He says something bad, it plummets. Same thing with Dogecoin, though even worse, woth fluctuations around 30%.

Maybe people should stop getting their crypto advice from a meme'ing billionaire and the market wouldn't be so sensitive to his whims.

People likely to have the thought "Hmm, maybe I shouldn't listen to this rich weirdo" are already people who wouldn't invest in cryptocurrencies.