Why there is so much negative PR going around about Bitcoin suddenly? I believe that people like Jamie Dimon trying to lower the price by creating these kind of stories to buy more.
Bitcoin will rise no matter what. Atleast for 5 more years.
... the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does
not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses.
They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton,
they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also
laughed at Bozo the Clown.
Carl Sagan
There must be a definition of rich and poor. It should not be devised by looking at the wealth. It should be devised by looking at the living standards, education system, environment, law and order, equality, zero racism. And where people can live an anxiety/depression free life. Where there is welfare, care, love grows everyday for each other.
Sadly, that defines one race countries. No racism possible when there are no races but one.
Personally, I think this definition is bad because it progress free. Anxiety free is has no scale. If you are massively anxious I. Country A, and mildly anxious in B, both fail.
There still seems a fair bit of racism in mostly one race countries, say Japan for example. There seems less in widely mixed places, say London or Singapore.
Yeah, London, where not being of the "correct" religion can get you killed in some areas!
(I know, religion is not a race, etc....my point is that mixed places are not necessarily more tolerant)
Whatever happened at Equifax was disastrous. But I really liked the way that they are containing it. Their CEO released a statement. They launched a specific site for security scans for their user for free. They are communicating it to their customers transparently.
With that I also saw that cyber security is and will be the biggest threats of the next decade. They are many cyber security companies these days but I didn't see a single company moving forward to support the Equifax team to figure out what happened and how it can be prevented.
Cyber security companies should have volunteered for the cause.
> But I really liked the way that they are containing it.
Please let this be sarcasm...
> They are communicating it to their customers transparently.
They knew well in advance that there was an issue and did not communicate it well. They have 3 higher managers that look to have sold their stock based on the knowledge. There are some reports that they knew up to 3 months ahead of their announcement.
> They launched a specific site for security scans for their user for free.
Things that are wrong with this site:
- The site screams "phishing" when you look at the URL.
- Asks for SIX digits of your SSN. If you know the state of the person filling out the form and they were issued their SSN before 2011, you only need to try a few numbers to figure out their whole SSN.
- Gives random results when you fill out the form
- You possibly forfeit being able to sue them by filling out the form.
- When you fill out the form they basically advertise their own product to you.
At this point, as a consumer, it feels like they are doing everything in their power to get away with not being held accountable for not storing this data properly.
8 in 10 US credit card holders have their SSN and possibly other information out there. This means that I'm at high risk to have my identity stolen in the future, not just the next twelve months that Equifax is offering me free Identity Theft Protection.
Last but not least, when you freeze your credit score, they give you a PIN to unfreeze it. But if you were to lose it, you'll only need some identification to get a new PIN and unfreeze it. But they've already released that identification and it's being sold around. So no luck there.
100% agreed to your advice. Starting small and maintaining the best quality is the most appropriate way to start. I hope this guys has patented this thing.
Still heavily investing in acquiring music licenses and expanding their business I guess?
That's the modern time, businesses don't aim to make a profit anymore, they aim to grow. AMD is a good example of this practice, it usually ends each quarter with a half a billion in losses [1], with some exceptions here and there. It goes from an almost 4 billion loss to a 1.3 billion profit. It's amazing it still exists, but that's what investor money is for I guess.
If you go to any neighbourhood media store, you will notice the Spotify logo on at least more than half of receivers, TVs, radios, media boxes and so on. They are still growing like crazy so I guess this is where all the money is going for now.
To fuel growth, they have been subsidizing the free tiers from the money they get from paid subscriptions. I believe they could actually make profit if they wanted to. Of course it might then hurt their future growth.
Scared by Tesla?
I believe that Tesla is far ahead of any electric car maker in the world right now. The three stage vision of making an affordable car by Elon Musk is now a reality.
Most of the elite car makers like Mercedes and BMW cannot price their units down to $35000.
Tesla didn't only think of making a car but also they have created a web of charging stations in US.
Well, I only saw a model X on Cebit, although the materials are good quality, the build quality is poor for the price. Then I saw a hybrid Porsche, and the X felt like a higher mid class suv in comparison. Worry not about German carmakers, they have infinite money to throw at any project. Once they decide to go serious about electric, Tesla won't be able to keep up with the competition. Don't get me wrong, I root for everyone, mainly for our future, but stop daydreaming.
German car makers don't have infinite money. They run huge operations on tiny margins and cannot afford to cannibalize the sale of their upper-end cars with cheaper electric cars.
The Model 3 is comparable to the C-Class in both price and size but vastly outperforms the C-Class on driving performance if the reviews are to be believed. The bling-bling leather, chrome and wood of the German high-end cars is more luxurious, but is not for everyone.
Let's see. My guess is as good as yours but I think the Germans will bleed if they don't transition to EVs very fast. If Tesla has the market for itself in all of 2018-2020, it might be too late for VW, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
Right now, they have plans and talk, but not a single competitive EV on the market, no fleet of hundreds of thousands of self driving cars recording and learning, no network of superchargers, no thousands of talented EV and AI engineers, no remote update, no battery factories.
I sure hope they wake up. Competition will only be good for us consumers.
I agree that the transition to EV is one of the biggest challenges the German car industry is facing.
Who would have known 15 years ago that a major industry (~ 800K jobs in Germany, directly or indirect) would have to face such a storm? Fierce international competition, technologies threatening to erode key value chains - one could wonder what big strategic consultancies have preaching to the car industry executives all years long, what the innovation departments have been doing, and how company culture and the connection of management with state politics has failed to make change.
To be fair, there have been large scale mobility projects in Germany, both in the EV field, and smart transportation systems e.g. interconnection the vehicle and road infrastructure with the user. So there has been very early efforts in experimenting with these concepts.
One thing is for sure: It will be an interesting case study afterwards.
Yup exactly this. Many people fail to understand that what Tesla built already the Germans did not even start to think about.
Sure they have a lot of expertise about building classical cars and engines no doubt about that. But TESLA is an entirely different product. It's not only a product it's a PLATFORM.
German car makers are building good machines but that's what it's about them. They give a sense a feel of luxury and high quality. Tesla built a product and additional services around their PLATFORM in the way american companies are famous for. The future generations of buyer/renters are tech savvy people not interested that much in the machine itself but about the whole range of additional services that come with the platform.
There are many other cars that could be compared to Model 3. Mazdas, VWs, Hyundais, Hondas. If we take only size, price, performance and interior quality into consideration then Model 3 is certainly not the best choice. But it's an EV. And others are not.
There's a lot of EV's comparable to the Model 3 in both price and range. There's a lot of EV's comparable to the Model 3 in range and price. VW e-golf costs about the same (or less) with comparable range and size. Hyundai IONIQ is cheaper with about the same range and size. Then you have the ugly EV's like Nissan Leaf and Kia Soul. Cheaper and with comparable range and size (perhaps a bit smaller trunk).
It's a GM, so it looks like it was made to appear in a Transformers movie and people trust a largely unproven manufacturer like Tesla to make something more reliable.
Range depends on driving style, speed, temperature and probably a million different variables. I think there's like three different standards of determining "range" and they vary quite a bit.
The German carmakers have great production facilities, technical abilities and deep pockets. Unfortunately, their mind set has been focussed on selling their dirty Diesel cars at all means. So I am doubtful to their current commitment to electrical cars, but who knows. Also, I don't see them build up battery capacities on the scale Tesla does. So, I really wish that they give Tesla a great competition, but so far I am not too optimistic.
Yes, they are cheap to buy, because they don't have a working exhaust cleaning and don't comply to the emission laws.
I think it is a big fallacy to claim that Diesel cars are so popular, if you consider how the public has been mislead about the illegal levels of pollution produced by the cars and that they have been sold without a working exhaust cleaning. Besides that affordable electric cars are a very recent thing, are Diesel engine cars going to be popular, if they are more expensive to buy (1-2k) and operate (regular AdBlue refill)?
>Besides that affordable electric cars are a very recent thing
They might not have been practical, but affordable lead-acid based EVs already existed during the rise of small diesel.
>more expensive to buy (1-2k) and operate (regular AdBlue refill)?
Adblue is pretty cheap and isn't going to be used up that fast, most people are more concerned about the filter blocking up because of short commutes not leaving enough time for it to fully warmup.
Well that's the thing they do not really have deep pockets or technical abilities. Building a platform, an electric future generation car is way different than building a car with classic engine.
And if you believe Elon Musk's own words, it's significantly easier ;)
Joking aside - Yes, German car makers are behind on electric vehicles, but all (except mercedes now) have one. They are late, they probably are at a disadvantage, but IMHO the game is not over yet.
> Worry not about German carmakers, they have infinite money to throw at any project. Once they decide to go serious about electric, Tesla won't be able to keep up with the competition.
If they have not come around by now, I seriously doubt they will make serious investments in electric cars unless the government forces them.
They have hybrids of current models so assume that they are hedging their bets and taking it slow. Heavy investment in the wrong direction could destroy a company even the size of VW group.
Tesla is a youngling with heavy investment and no guaranteed future. Like so many tech firms it could be gone in a flash. Once the Euro EV subsidies and tax breaks disappear as the have begun to do in Denmark Tesla will be on a level playing field. Expect the opposing teams to foul if it means scoring goals.
"hedging their bets"?????
Thats like falling out of an airplane and not pulling the paracute because you don't know exactly how far away the ground is and if its soft or not.
More like parachutes are deemed environmentally wrong and need to be replaced by something, so parachute manufacturers are coming up with wing suits and big bits of foam and then Parachutes_International are thinking were do we put our money and how do we change our 100 years of parachute manufacturing industry and what will SuperDryChutesJpn do and what do consumers want and where did I put my glasses?
Two "governments" already have, French and British governments will ban sales of combustion engine cars in 2040, those are two big markets for German cars.
I am German, I don't think that is actually government policy. The Green Party has made a resolution demanding that ban by 2030.
But one party asking for a ban on ICE by 2030 is not sufficient against the German car industry.
Just to be clear, I would be very happy to see the streets rid of petrol-burning engines as soon as possible. But I doubt it will actually happen by 2030, there is too much inertia in the industry that has done quite well with one-track thinking for about a hundred years.
Someone here on HN recently quoted a business consultant saying, "culture eats strategy for breakfast". This would explain perfectly why it took two outsider companies - Google and Tesla - to develop the technology for autonomous cars and electric cars.
I feel reminded of the story of Xerox and its PARC research facility - if Xerox had played their cards right, they could have been Microsoft AND Apple combined. But the inflexible bureaucratic hulking giant that Xerox had become was unable to adapt to the new technology. IMHO, the current car companies are facing a similar situation right now. If they do not get on top of that development now, they could quite likely end up like Xerox did with the computer market.
In short, odds are greater that Tesla will exist in a post-combustion world than established automakers.
I mean look at the battery supply chain alone. For them to deliver at Tesla's scale, they'd need enough batteries, which, right now, would require major investment a la Tesla's Gigafactory: which is set to produce more batteries at one factory than the entire world's current output... all to support Tesla products.
At what phase are the established automakers in their infrastructure investments? They're all years behind. And I'm afraid they won't catch up.
Isn't BMWs new battery production at a similar scale? The main difference between Tesla and big manufacturers is not necessarily factory size but marketing.
The gigafactory is huge as one building. As a car manufacturing plant it's not that big, compared to the cities that some of the other manufacturers have.
I somewhat agree on build quality, but the germans will loose infinite amounts of money, if the 3series etc loose out to the Tesla Model 3 in sales. Remember Nokia? Blackberry? Ericcson?
You are looking at $55000 if you want comfort levels comparable to a BMW 3 series? I'm in the UK and I don't know how these prices compare, but the $35000 version seems rather spartan.
This will not stop people buying the car though (including myself, I can only hope).
And what does a BMW 3 series cost, which competes with the $55000 Model 3? That price currently includes all options, including the enhanced auto pilot. I looked onto the BMW configurator this weekend, and depending on the options selected, it is somewhat cheaper or more expensive than the Model 3, on average, they are very competitive. If you don't need the high range battery, the Model 3 is likely to be cheaper even (if you don't count the basic BMW with a 3 cylinder engine and 129 hp).
Ah OK, I didn't really know how they compare. I suppose it is an attractive proposition if it really is an all-electric alternative to a BMW 3 series at a comparable price.
I love the minimalist interior of the Tesla, and I sure would love to own one.
> The truth is the Model 3 costs $40,000 if you want a standard version with autopilot
You don't need autopilot
> If you want a different color, add $1,000.
Yeah possibly, I can see this as something a lot of people would want
> And if you want a longer range ($9,000) to get over 300 miles per charge instead of 220
This is possibly worth the money, but 220 miles is still a damn excellent range. If you're prepared to accept the range limitation with buying a car 220 instead of 310 miles is fine for everything except long trips.
So it's not $50,000 it at most is $36,000 for a damn excellent car. I'll take it in Black, pretend I'm Michael Knight and blow the $1,000 on a leather jacket.
That's not before you get the incentives. In California that can take you down to $26,000 and in Belgium where I am, they still ridiculously allow all company cars to have 50% tax rebates, for electric cars its a 120% rebate. The UK has similar incentives (100% first year deduction and £4.5k grant [0])
Then you have to take into account the running costs of electric with something like 2-3 times the 'electric' miles per gallon vs a BMW 3-series and the cheaper prices of electricity.
Edit: Quote from MSDN over running costs:
> Tesla hasn’t yet released a cost calculator for the Model 3, but keeping Tesla’s current cheapest car, the Model S, juiced up costs approximately $601.50 a year in home energy costs if you drive 15,000 miles, according to Tesla’s own calculator. Fueling a gas-powered car that gets 30 miles to the gallon will cost you almost twice as much money — $1,105 — even at the current 12-year low of $2.21 per gallon. [1]
In Europe petrol prices are at least double that. So you're saving ~$1,600 per year in the UK on fuel costs.
So you're really not comparing it to even a BMW 3 series.
Ok, then the rest of that article:
> If you purchase a standard Tesla Model 3, the seats must be manually adjusted, as will the steering column. The side mirrors aren’t powered or heated, and there’s no auto dimming.
I've never understood the love for electric seat adjustment. The back I almost never adjust and moving the seat back or forwards is done much faster manually.
> There are no LED fog lamps
FOG lamps. That's FOG lamps it's whining about.
> If you’re looking for what you’ve seen in the Model S — a premium interior, autopilot, and around 300 miles of range in a color of your choosing — in a smaller form factor, well you’re not getting out without paying at least $55,000.
No that's not what I'm looking for, because then I'd buy a Model S. But saying that, for $35,000 you get almost all the cool factor of having a Model S. It still looks beautiful unlike say the BMW i8 vs the i3.
> The Tesla Model 3 isn’t a luxury car, it’s a midsized car masquerading as one.
No it's not, it's a midsized car masquerading as a midsized car. It just happens to look nicer, go faster, run cheaper and pollute less than all the midsized cars out there.
Wow, that is a thorough debunking of an article. My comment was kind of flippant but you have obviously researched this properly.
I'm in the UK, and I have been for a while, but it is interesting you mention Belgium. When I was working in the Netherlands my newly graduated Belgian co-workers (from Belgian companies) used to drive bigger company cars than most executives I met in Dutch companies, which was quite funny.
Hyundai, Chevy, and Nissan are doing sold work, too. Like it or not, the Leaf was the first mass adopted full size, purpose built EV available in the US at a reasonable price. It's a great car, and the next gen being released this week (!!!) has an estimated 200mi range[0]. Hyundai just released the Ioniq with 120 miles (200+ expected next gen) range, and the highest average KW/Mile efficiency of any EV ever made [1], at a price point < $30k sticker price before incentives.
All told, there will be 6 mass production EVs from 6 different manufacturers with ~200 mile range or greater at the $30k price point or below by this time next year. Exciting stuff.
The leaf is still ugly unfortunately, but in all other accounts it seems to be a great car.
This is one of the main differentiators that I've seen with Teslas, they actually make electric cars that look better than petrol cars, not freaks of nature. It makes them actually desirable rather than just doing it for the good of humanity.
Source? I wonder how much that's inflated by truck sales. I should re-phrase and say that 35,000 is expensive for a passenger car; The Ford Fusion and Honda Accord both start around $22,000.
Not sure about that. If you order one now, you'll have it delivered by the end of 2018, early 2019. And that's the best case scenario according to Musk.
Well, this time frame is based on the assumption that they roughly mange to deliver the 500k preorders till then. So the plan is to have about 1 million Model 3 built by 2020.
Bitcoin will rise no matter what. Atleast for 5 more years.