You can now buy a Tesla with Bitcoin
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That doesn’t make it more legit on the long-term, right?
One of the most used critical points about Bitcoin has been that it has not been suitable as a medium of exchange or currency. When critics mention this, they point to merchants pretending to accept Bitcoin but in actual fact enrolling a payment processor to instantly convert it to fiat. In other words, they never received Bitcoin.
Not only are Tesla directly accepting Bitcoin here but:
- They do so using their own Bitcoin infrastructure meaning they trust the network
- Don't convert to fiat, meaning they trust the asset as a store of value/medium of exchange
That argument strikes me as something that doesn't take into account the fact that the fiat currency system is essentially a legacy system that some are trying to replace.
Of course the safest approach to this would be to try to decouple from the legacy financial system at the interfaces, like the payment gateways. Ship of Theseus style, the entire legacy system could be replaced in place with the participants able to continue trading in the meanwhile.
If your one of the few that made a 100k on coins this year, why not treat yourself with a toy from the car company that aknowledges your point of view, crypto is legitimate.
'Buying a lambo' was often memed as one of the ways to show you 'made it' with a cryptocurrency investment.
Tesla competes with Lamborghini in selling expensive status cars, especially with some of Tesla's higher-end models.
There are a sizable number of cryptocurrency investors with sudden wealth and disposable income. Bitcoin investors may be more inclined to buy from Tesla if they believe it's also helping nurture the bitcoin ecosystem.