Palantir Buys Gold Bars as Hedge Against ‘Black Swan Event’
casual-dev 2021-08-18 05:35:28 +0000 UTC [ - ]
I had to read the headline twice. The name scheme chosen makes it almost impossible not to think that this isn't an IMDb news bit.
lamplovin 2021-08-18 03:42:03 +0000 UTC [ - ]
So they also accept payments in Bitcoin, and that's also a way to hedge against a 'Black Swan Event' ?
Finnucane 2021-08-18 03:45:16 +0000 UTC [ - ]
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.
weare138 2021-08-18 04:17:24 +0000 UTC [ - ]
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.
Proven 2021-08-18 12:16:42 +0000 UTC [ - ]
And you do not? If a black swan event made you earn extra income this year, would you donate the untaxed extra income to a humanitarian organization?
To the clownish comment about eating gold: money is gold, and nothing else.
geofft 2021-08-18 04:19:36 +0000 UTC [ - ]
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?
Rebelgecko 2021-08-18 05:20:58 +0000 UTC [ - ]
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
geofft 2021-08-18 14:28:56 +0000 UTC [ - ]
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.
canistel 2021-08-18 06:39:14 +0000 UTC [ - ]
(Or is my interpretation of prophet Taleb wrong?)
axelroze 2021-08-18 08:01:18 +0000 UTC [ - ]
The reason why these events happen is because humans simplify the world too much. I am an European. I see white swans my entire life. Hence black swans must not exist. Go to Australia. See black swans. Be shocked that statistics are essentially lies.
Our (humanity's) current understanding of gold is that it is scarce, hard to produce and it is valued by other humans. Thus under this model gold going to 100000x or 0.00001x of its current price is next to impossible. If it did we would think it is a black swan event.
But let's say someone out there finally learned the secret of alchemy and can flood the market with lots of gold making not scarce any more. For them the price tanking to 0.000001x is not a black swan but just business because they know the underlying reality. Also conversely if it turns out that only 0.0001% of the current gold supply is real while other is tainted in some way the price of the real could spike.
It is all about information asymmetry (human vs human) and naive simplification (human vs nature).
People usually buy gold to hedge against inflation of currencies. In a black swan case of alchemy this can be really bad but I guess someone at Palantir probably checked that the gold scarcity and demand is still a valid idea. Or not. People assumed the banks are good and we got 2007. Can't trust anyone.
brailsafe 2021-08-18 20:01:30 +0000 UTC [ - ]
karmakaze 2021-08-18 13:03:13 +0000 UTC [ - ]
Having too much of one thing puts one at risk of a black swan event.
anm89 2021-08-18 09:45:06 +0000 UTC [ - ]
Because otherwise it's not much of a counter to say "did you know it's possible that this might not work?"