Panthers’ Russell Okung Becomes First NFL Player to Be Paid in Bitcoin | Hacker News Reader

Panthers’ Russell Okung Becomes First NFL Player to Be Paid in Bitcoin

coindesk.com

32 pointsdanso28 comments

When you have enough liquid capital (see: fiat) to not worry about day to day expenses.

I fail to see how this is any different then someone asking to get paid in another investment vehicle. Why not gold? Why not stocks?

^ This! He’s splitting $13M 50-50 fiat-btc.

Much more impressive would be random middle class person taking part or all their salary in btc.

s/impressive/foolish/

As a Bitcoin advocate, that is a 100% apt substitution. People shouldn't rely on it to feed themselves unless their own currency has pressing problems (USD has many, but it's not going to blow up tomorrow, like some other currencies might).

Random middle class person here! Been getting paid in BTC/ETH/Dai for ~5 years now!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHji4x5C1q0

The "different" part is that Bitcoin's value prop of being a store-of-value requires widespread adoption. This is a fairly big step in that direction, as Okung isn't just another tech entrepreneur adopting Bitcoin.

Getting paid in gold would be unremarkable, as that's been a standard for thousands of years (indeed, that's the entire point of gold). Stocks, likewise.

One person doing a stupid stunt is "a fairly big step" in widespread adoption? It's his money and he can do what he wnats with it, but I see no benefit over him getting paid in real money and then allocating a proportion of that to an investment in bitcoin.

Are you converting 50% of everything you make into Bitcoin?

Of course you aren't. Only people with stupid money would be making such stupid decisions.

Title: Panthers’ Russell Okung Becomes First NFL Player to Be Paid in Bitcoin

Article: Okung is still being paid in fiat.

"His $13 million yearly salary is being split 50-50 between bitcoin and fiat, Mallers said Monday in a phone interview with CoinDesk"

He is paid 100% in fiat and a service is used to convert half of it to btc.

Both of those are direct quotes.

I like how there's a typo in literally the first line of the article. Quality reporting.

If you're a wealthy celebrity, this is a spectacular way to become very well acquainted with your local, state, and federal IRS offices.

How does the US government perceive cryptocurrency from a global political POV? Is it a threat? Can it be harnessed? etc..

That sounds very unwise. How's he going to deal with huge swings in price? How's he going to reliably convert this to real money? What about taxes if his bitcoins collapse in price?

The article mentions he’s splitting half fiat half Bitcoin.

He’s making $13 million a year so even if half of that vaporizes (it won’t) he’ll still have plenty.

I'm sure he won't starve, but that doesn't address the fact that he'll still have to pay tax on the vapourised "money", and I'm sure he'd feel pretty stupid about having thrown away millions of dollars.

I'm afraid I simply cannot see any benefit. Why not get half his salary in gold or TSLA? If he thinks bitcoin is so good, why doesn't he buy bitcoin after being paid in real money?

Because buying bitcoin after being paid in "real" money doesn't generate as many "bitcoin to the moon!" news articles that contribute to driving up the price of bitcoin.

Is the right answer. I sure hope he's getting paid (in real money) to promote bitcoin enough to offset his risks.

How is he throwing away money? He still has to pay income taxes in USD no matter how he's paid. This is just him skipping the step of purchasing his own bitcoin.

I didn't say that. I was replying to a comment about the bitcoin being "vapourized" (falling in value substantially), and if that happened he's going to feel pretty stupid about throwing away half his salary. Versus being paid in real money and then deciding out of a basket of investments to put a small amount into bitcoin.

why doesn't he buy bitcoin after being paid in real money

It turns out that this is actually what he's doing. The headline is wrong/clickbait.

Athletes never make poor investments.

Next Year: 49ers court Russell Okung with state of the art crypto mining facility.

What a stupid fucking title

>Technically speaking, Okung is still being paid in fiat. Behind the scenes, however, is Lightning Network magic: Strike receives a direct deposit from his team, the Carolina Panthers, and then swaps dollars for bitcoin.

Alternative title: "Russuel Okung is being paid a fee to advertise for some bitcoin platform under the guise of being a private customer, NFL is not involved in anyway whatsoever and has given no indication it will in the future pay wages in any other currency than USD."

Apparently I am paid in S&P index fund shares because my company gives me a direct deposit, and then behind the scenes TDAmeritrade magically swaps dollars for SPY. Yikes.

On the plus side, if we butcher definitions like this then it's finally possible to be paid in Trident Layers.

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