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Comment by lamplovin | Hacker News Reader

So they also accept payments in Bitcoin, and that's also a way to hedge against a 'Black Swan Event' ?

Well, there’s events and there’s events. Bitcoin depends on there being at least some digital-industrial infrastructure being functional. Whereas if that all collapses, you can at least eat your gold bars.

Why does that involve accepting payments in Bitcoin instead of accepting payments in fiat and converting some amount of their choosing to Bitcoin after the payment has gone through?

Are they doing the Tesla method of handling refunds for Bitcoin purchases? That seems like a great way to hedge. e.g. if someone pays in Bitcoin, the seller reserves the right to either return the original BTC OR the original cash value. That way if BTC goes up you can issue refunds in USD, and if BTC tanks you can issue refunds in BTC

Why is that better than accepting payments in USD only, sending refunds in USD only, and converting some of the USD into BTC after you received it?

The number of people who a) buy a Tesla b) in BTC c) and ask for a refund has got to be so small that this doesn't seem like an effective way of hedging against BTC losing value relative to USD.

Accept payments for what though? Considering Palantir's business model and clientele they may have some ulterior motives in their eagerness to accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment. Peter Thiele has no problem with 'black swan events' as long as it benefits him.

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