Tesla Will 'Most Likely' Restart Accepting Bitcoin As Payments, Says Musk

Electric-car maker Tesla will most likely restart accepting bitcoin as payments, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said at a conference on Wednesday. From a report: Musk's comments come after Tesla said in May it would stop accepting bitcoin for car purchases. "Tesla would resume accepting bitcoin, it is most likely" Musk said at the B Word conference, where Square's Jack Dorsey also took part. Musk said he personally owned bitcoin, ethereum and dogecoin, apart from bitcoin that Tesla and SpaceX owned. Musk added that neither he nor any of his companies are selling any bitcoin. "If the price of bitcoin goes down, I lose money. I pump but i don't dump. I would like to see bitcoin succeed," he added.

Translation:

[cyber_rigger]

Elon has already bought back in.

Re:

[timeOday]

Sure but that's the punchline - bitcoin is defenseless against this even if everybody is aware of it.

(Checks the price) - yep. A nice increase today. It still works.

Re:

[Carewolf]

No, he needs to cash out :D

Time to pump

[smooth wombat]

As Musk said, he does pump, and with the price of BC plummeting the last few months, he needs to get it above the $30K mark [barrons.com] for the next financial report. He's already facing a huge financial impairment [dailyhodl.com] on the loss in value.

Since Tesla's financial statements clearly show the company's profits come from selling carbon credits [cnn.com], not cars [autoevolution.com], he needs to crank up the price or risk a huge loss when they next report.

Quick newbie question

[Okian Warrior]

Since Tesla's financial statements clearly show the company's profits come from selling carbon credits, not cars [...]

Quick question: Isn't Tesla currently building out three new factories?

And doesn't the cost of those factories reduce their income to nearly zero?

And once those factories come online, won't the sheer volume of cars sold, without the expense of building new factories, catapult Tesla's profits into the stratosphere?

I'm a relative newbie to investing. Can you explain more clearly whether I should invest in Tesla assuming your statement is factual?

Re:Quick newbie question

[jellomizer]

While I wouldn't take investing advice from Slashdot, as it mostly either Russian tolls, heavily influenced by said trolls , and/or grumpy old men who hate all things new.

Tesla is a high risk and high reward stock.

Isn't Tesla currently building out three new factories? It is, however after they are built and demand for Tesla cars drop (competition from other companies jumping on the EV band wagon) then their investments in all that overhead will give them expensive mega factories that don't produce. However if they do get such demand and these factories can run at peak than that is a lot of revenue.

And doesn't the cost of those factories reduce their income to nearly zero? Most companies may even go into debt building up infrastructure. If Tesla has income at zero that would be a good thing.

And once those factories come online, won't the sheer volume of cars sold, without the expense of building new factories, catapult Tesla's profits into the stratosphere? If people want those cars. Traditional Automakers are getting into making EVs as well. They too have factories and a lot of infrastructure, that they had already paid for. So they may be making cars that people want. Tesla often takes risks, a lot of people dislike the Cybertruck look, even if it currently the best specs and price for a Pickup truck, the fact that it looks so odd may cause it to fail. The Roadster and Model S Plaid may be too fast for most people, as its speeds could cause people to blackout. Model 3 and Y tend to look a lot a like, and people may get board with them over time. The Semi, is all battery based, Hydrogen Fuel Cells may be a better use for Semi's....

I am not hating on Tesla. I am hoping to get a Tesla for my next car. However lets be honest Tesla isn't the safest stock to invest in. If things work out, you can make a lot of money, but things can go bad too, and bad rather quickly.

Re:

[DontBeAMoran]

The problem with "other automakers also making EVs" is that Panasonic and LG can't even supply Tesla, let alone all the other automakers. There's a reason why they're going to build their own batteries - to supply themselves. But once they have more capacity than they need, they'll start selling batteries to other car manufacturers too.

Tesla is more than just a car company. I can't understand why some people can't grasp that yet after all they've announced. I guess haters don't care about facts.

Re:

[ewibble]

And doesn't the cost of those factories reduce their income to nearly zero?

In accounting income, does not include expenses, what you mean is profit. and even so a capital expense like building a factory is not offset directly against expenses to make profit. You offset the depreciation of that asset for the year against income. For example if a factory cost 1,000,000 and will last 10 years so you offset 100,000 each year against expenses.

No

[raymorris]

To put it simply, no.

If a company has $1 million in nickels, they have $1 million.
If they have $1 million in real estate, they have $1 million.

If they trade their nickels for real estate, the effect on their income is - nothing. No effect.

If they trade $1 million in treasury notes for $1 million in factory equipment, they still have $1 million. Their assets have not changed. They show no expense on the purchase, so it doesn't effect their income.

Where they will see an expense is let's say the factory equipm

Not exactly

[rsilvergun]

Tesla loses money on every car they sell. They make the bulk of their money off of Cryto currency and carbon credits. Specifically the big car companies (Toyota, Ford, Honda, Nissan, etc) are required to meet certain emissions standards in their cars. The way they're meeting those (without actually spending the money on cars that meet them) is by paying Tesla to sell zero emissions electric cars for them.

It's actually really frustrating if you're a working stiff who doesn't make enough to buy a Tesla. B

Re:

[ghoul]

"Tesla loses money on every car they sell.". This is false. Tesla makes money on every car it sells. However Tesla is also building 3 new factories. When it adds in the cost of those factories (spread over 20 years), the car line of business seems to lose money.

If the only thing Tesla cared about was showing a proft in the car line of business they could easily do that by slowing down their expansion. That may be good for their balance sheet but not so much for the environment

Luckily Tesla does not ha

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Tesla loses money on every car they sell.

That is an outright falsehood. Teardowns by Munro & Associates reveal that even the cheapest vehicles are profitable to produce even without emissions credits, albeit not by much — which is to say, the margins are similar to those of other automakers, who also make jack shit on most vehicles.

Tear downs are debatable

[rsilvergun]

SEC filings are not. Last I checked Tesla is still not reporting profits from cars to their shareholders for the SEC. They're saying they will be profitable but that's not the same thing as being profitable.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

I don't know or care whether Tesla is reporting specific earnings to their shareholders because I'm not one of them. Sounds shifty, but irrelevant to the argument at hand. Tesla is making money on cares. They are spending money on factories. There's no reason why this shouldn't result in them not making a net profit at this time of expansion. The almost-space dick-rider who just got back with a stupid hat on his dick head founded his empire on making a loss for years in order to gain his position. Tesla is

Re:

[steveha]

Can you explain more clearly whether I should invest in Tesla

For what it's worth, I personally believe that Tesla is an outstanding buy-and-hold stock. I have no expertise at trying to time the market (buy on a dip, sell on a high) but IMHO the Tesla fundamentals are incredible.

Years ago, Tesla started investing in building battery factories and inventing new battery technologies. Now the big car companies are waking from their comas and trying to get into EVs, and wondering where they will get enough bat

Re:

[DontBeAMoran]

Your post contains the most complete and detailed list of everything Tesla does. I'm done trying to debate with trolls, I'm going to post links to your post instead from now on. If they still can't see the whole picture after that, it's their own damn fault.

Thanks.

Re:

[jellomizer]

Well this isn't a case of Tesla being any different than most other companies out there.

Most automakers have their own Financing banks, so when you get a Car loan say from Honda Financials, you Interest Payments goes right into Honda's bank account as well, which accounts for a good portion of its profits.

Apple makes a lot of its money for the Apple Store, and not from iPhone Sales.

Tesla is also in massive expansion phase right now, building 3 new Factories, Texas, Germany and China, needing to revamp for

Re:

[vix86]

Man, some of this shit just feels so disingenuous. You can go look at the 2020 Annual Filing [sec.gov] yourself, on page 61, they have a real nice table for ya.

They sold $24.5B in cars in 2020 and only $1.5B in regulatory credits, out of a total of $30B in revenue (they don't just do cars and credits). That means that in 2020 those emission credits only made up 5% of their revenue. Did the credits help them over the finish line of profitability? Maybe, but you could also argue that their services side or their energy

Re:

[byromaniac]

Since Tesla's financial statements clearly show the company's profits come from selling carbon credits, not cars, he needs to crank up the price or risk a huge loss when they next report.

If that were accurate, then they should quit making cars, and just sell credits! Except they can't get the credits without selling cars. It would be accurate to say that cars wouldn't be profitable without the additional revenue from credits. But, saying the profits don't come from selling cars is absurd.

Fallacy

[ghoul]

Its a fallacy to say Tesla doesnt make money on cars. It does. However it does not make enough money to be building 2 Billion dollar factories. So Tesla has a choice slow down the buildout and show a profit on cars or keep building out as fast as possible and use the carbon credits to keep in the Black. In this scenario the carbon credits are doing exactly what they are supposed to do - speed up the conversion of the transportation fleet to EVs.

How does this become a point of crtiicism? Unless you are a

Infinite loop

[DrXym]

while (people_are_stupid()) { buy_bitcoin(); tweet_positive_thing(); sell_bitcoin(); tweet_negative_thing(); }

Re:

[Sebby]

This seems to be the algorithm the Slashdot editors are using; but your implementation is missing the function that creates dupes.

Re:

[hawk]

congratulations: you just invented the crypt-fork-bomb . . .

[shudder]

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Flip-flopper!

[Gravis Zero]

I don't like that they take bitcoin because of the environmental impact but what I dislike even more is the on-again off-again crap. Seriously, take a position and stick with it.

Re:

[DontBeAMoran]

Seriously, take a position and stick with it.

That's what she said.
https://instantrimshot.com/ [instantrimshot.com]

 

Re:

[jellomizer]

Its environmental impact is proportional to its value.
When Bitcoin is high, the environmental impact is high, because miners have more intensive to use more power, to get the coin. If the price falls, than it will cost miners more money to mine, than what they will collect. So they will stop mining.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

The bigger issue is that Tesla is greenwashing. EVs are great, but with Tesla, their total impact caused by BTC proof of work should be added. I mean, EVs powered by coal power plants are bad enough (they're still cleaner than ICE), but now you have the dual hit from coal power plants powering the EV and the miners.

It sort of puts Tesla down in the game of legacy manufacturers that are kinda-sorta half-heartedly doing EVs not because they want to, but they're being forced to.

Too Volitile.

[jellomizer]

Being that it will take weeks/months/years to get your Tesla Car, buying with Bitcoin Is really a gamble (mostly for you).
So Bitcoin right now is down, but at 30k a bitcoin. So say I buy a Model S for 3 Bitcoin today. In about 3 months bitcoin can be valued at 40k. So When I get by car I would had paid 120k for a car vs 90k. Even if I pay bitcoin at delivery if I had 3 Bitcoin saved up, and the Price dropped to 25k a bit coin during that waiting period. Then I would be on the line for an additional 15k to buy the car.

The USD value is much more steady, So for medium wait purchases, say waiting a few months, my $90k may be worth $89,995 in that period. But Tesla may be apt to eat that $5 and or I wouldn't loose sleep having to pay an extra $5.

Guess Tesla still sits on a shitton of BTC

[Lisandro]

Gotta pump the dump, baby. To the moon! Diamond hands!

Only if the miner is powered by Tesla solar panels

[jfdavis668]

Bitcoins generated any other way are bad for the environment.

Re:

[yes-but-no]

Still it is bad because of economic opportunity cost of those panels/GPUs which could've been used to power say a remote hosptial/school. Also making those electronics cause environmental damage so are the e-waste at end-of-life of the product.

Fucking criminals

[Berkyjay]

Musk needs to be in jail for all the market manipulation he practices.

Re:

[ArchieBunker]

Sure, as soon as you list what laws were broken.

Re:

[yes-but-no]

For encouraging a behavior which to the best of his knowledge causes great human harm like environmental damage and lost opportunity cost of usage of expensive electronics [like solar panels, GPUs].

Yes, we may not have a law for it; in democracy laws always do catch-up. But someone who is seen as a leader in some domain should know better and do better.

The NRA school of scandal management

[GameboyRMH]

1. Pause things and quietly wait for the heat to die down a bit
2. Go right back to the problematic behaviour the scandal was about
3. Repeat as necessary until the public hits crisis fatigue on the issue.
4. Profit!

Cryptocurrency and global business.

[Maelwryth]

In lots of ways isn't cryptocurrency the wet dream of global business. They not only get to free themselves of being beholden to government controlled currencies and at the same time they can tell the banks to stick it as well?

Old times

[peppepz]

Ah, the good old times when people had shame...

Carbon Credits

[sudonim2]

Tesla makes more money off of selling carbon credits than it does off of selling cards. The carbon footprint of crypto is so huge, trading in it threatened to wip out that funding source. That's why they stopped. Elon won't be able to force his board into taking more crypto. What's curious is why Musk would want to. I'm guessing he has a large personal stake in more than one coin. Maybe even a mining setup.

market manipulation

[luis_a_espinal]

Musk is a market/coin manipulator. Ignore what he says. Ignore this at your own risk.

Re

[Ikatruna]

No wonder companies would want to work with something new like that after they understand how attractive it is to use features like cryptocurrency. I think after that many companies will look for a decent service to improve their businesses, so I recommend checking this platform [ironfx.com] if you're looking for a reliable broker.

Re

[Ultimer]

It's weird that Musk always supported crypto, but decided to cancel Bitcoin as a payment method in the first place. Also, even Musk approved Bitcoin, and people still believe that it's a whole world's conspiracy. I mean, I was the same, but at least I'm open to something new and decided to try trading on British Bitcoin Profit SA [british-bi...profit.com].