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Comment by dreyfan | Hacker News Reader

You've just described Tesla's entire business model. They sell carbon credits to enable polluters to keep polluting.

That's quite a disingenuous way to describe the situation. Without ZEV credits, the polluters would keep on polluting.

With ZEV credits, the polluters, for now, keep on polluting, but they have to subsidize the development of clean automotive tech, and fund their own competition. This is definitely a good thing, and give them a big incentive to stop polluting (as much) so they can stop paying for those ZEVs.

> but they have to subsidize the development of clean automotive tech

More like they subsidize bitcoin-created pollution.

I don't know if you meant it this way, but your statement comes across very negatively. Just a reminder that the carbon credits are doing exactly what they're supposed to do: give a leg up to green companies.

My mind is spinning with these carbon credit things right now.

You can trade them! Like a stock market!

If /wallstreetbets started buying all these up (not sure of the supply right now), they could fleece dirty industries.

There's a cap on valuation. You can buy them from producers or pay the ceiling cost per credit from the state (e.g. California).

Now, if the WallStreetBets folks want to go into clean mobility, I'll pop the popcorn and watch that show for a few days.

I couldn't find anything about a "cap on valuation" on (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_credit) or (https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=carbon%20credit%20valu...)

Would you mind pointing me in the way? Even if there is a cap, as long as the current price is below it, there's a market.

For anyone else who'd never heard of carbon credits:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkobayashisolomon/2020/03/13...

So, if these carbon credits exist, is it possible to coinify them and boost their value? Because it would seem the more valuable they are, the more financial incentive there would be to reduce carbon emissions.

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