Bitcoin Forum

Elon Musk is selling his "boring" flamethrowers for Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum.

https://ethereumworldnews.com/elon-musk-sells-boring-flamethrower-for-bitcoin-ethereum-litecoin/

"This time, as spotted by The Next Web’s Hard Fork column, prospective flamethrower owners will be gaining access to Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC) payments to put up money for the crowdfunding effort. Along with the four crypto assets, users will be able to use Apple Pay, Google Pay, along with traditional debit and credit payments through Paypal.

Seeing that the Boring Company’s crowdfunding participants are likely to to be forward-thinking, the addition of a cryptocurrency payment option was likely welcomed. Now, consumers from all across the globe can buy Boring Company’s “Not A Flamethrower” for $500 a pop, which is reportedly a lower figure than the startup’s $600 pre-sale price. This translates to approximately 0.078 BTC, 2.48 Ether, 1.13 BCH and 9.5 LTC, it just depends on what cryptocurrency you want to spend."

The fact that the company is trying to promote use of crypto is not only great for its acceptance, but more easily allows global access.

Thoughts as to whether this will initiate crowdfunding in crypto as the new norm?

I don't know about the norm, but I have seen a recent crowdfunding project using crypto so it does exist. I think it may be awhile before it becomes mainstream

Well, there are some crowdfunding campaings based on cryptocurrencies but that is still rare. With crowdfunding people try to collect certain amount of money and cryptocurrencies are volatile so that makes it hardee because at the end you might miss some funds. Also, cryptocurrencies are still not great deal regulated so that is another issue. With time that might change but until then majority of crowdfunding will be still based on fiat.

Crowdsourcing is not that easy actually it needs study before it will be implemented. It should be a formidable form of project before asking funds from the crowd. However, using crypto in this matter is not wrong. Actually it is good especially if project later on will going to get a goog start until the project fully implemented. anyway I just do hope that crowdsourcing project will get better support from the communityand encourage everyone to invest in crodsoiring project.

I think this is a good idea to support with the use of the cryptocurrency right now but still, we have a struggle and this is the trust of the people because some of the developer and scammers are using this cryptocurrency to find a lot of victims because they are the most prone especially the newbies/beginners into the world of crypto, if we eliminated those persons and platform I think there is a chance that those platforms support the use of the cryptocurrency will now trust by the people because they know it is secured and no scam will happen and now the crypto may be the possible crowdfunding.


Those risk takers will survive on this crowndfunding but we don't push other people just those who want to risk their funds and take a large investment regarding with the use of the cryptocurrency.

A business accepting crypto for crowdfunding doesn't automatically mean it will be the future of crowdfunding. It's just another additional option out of many payment methods.

Also, a business accepting crypto != "trying to promote use of crypto". Don't get it mixed up.

Nothing wrong with being bullish, but at least be realistic and don't be too overly optimistic.

If crowdfunding using crypto is the future, what was the ICO nightmare where people transferred millions to "Whitepaper Devs" with the best ideas? Those were all basically crowdfunding drives except that the chance of having a product at the end was minuscule. The multiple scams perpetuated in the name of ICOs have shown that crypto is not an optimum source of funds for any respectable project. The backers maybe using their BTC wealth to finance whatever their 'dream' is but that doesn't make crypto any more or less suitable to crowdsourcing.

This was an old "fake news" and the boring company was never expecting crypto for "not a flamethrower". Link:
https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2018/10/18/buy-elon-musks-not-a-flamethrower-bitcoin/ (https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2018/10/18/buy-elon-musks-not-a-flamethrower-bitcoin/)

The thing is when you are using a visa card or something else and making sure that your money reaches some other part of the world , you have to wait for a while and let the company process your payment.

At the same time you have to pay additional charges for exchange of Currency.

Therefore when it comes to crowd funding campaigns with respect to cryptocurrencies it might mean a lot since it would essential:

Increase the adoption of cryptocurrencies
Fast and easy payments
People don't have to worry about time and conversion fee
Can see how their transactions are going about and even used

But :

Volatility is always a negative point which might effect a lot regarding the crowd funding campaigns.

(There are cryptocurrencies though which are not that volatile therefore they can be used)

This will not only provide  security but at the same time the  Transparency makes it an excellent choice.

_*_

But still it will vary depending on the user preference some users might not want to actually send money though cryptocurrencies and such .

It might fail , it might not , it depends on the crowd you want to attract, what kind of people actually integrates themselves with it.

He, them are just selling merchandise and using crypto as one of the payment methods, this is good marketing and bussines model. Nothing more. There is nothing about crowdfunding. How do you even tie this to crowfunding ..

It is a 2018 topic when ICO or you can call crowdfunding was trending and people were investing on any project that they thought would be a success.

Come 2020 most of these projects failed to deliver promised products or were just scams. In 2020 it is very hard now to go into the market and raise funds through crowdfunding. ICO and then IEO are not generating any funds for startups unless the product is unique and is already working.

I like to add, and unless they are having and IEO on popular exchange. That's actually the most important now as investors get hype on exchanges, and the fact that the coin is traded right away after the sale, they would love to invest as big exchanges provide good liquidity.

Also, people should not be confused with ICO and IEO as they are both crowdfunding, it's just done in different way.

yes i think the main problem is regulation in some country there's rule not too using crypto as a payment system.  :'(

but i think the crowfunding platform must start considering crypto as the one of their payment method maybe they can start with stable coin right

i think these 2 types of crowdfunding is getting less and less popular every day esp ICO. with the failed projects and scammed investors, they are now very cautious on investing these type of projects. most IEOs are successful depending on the exchange but we are seeing that most of them also lose their original value so fast. and now, the DeFi hype is on the works, obviously a lot of these projects will just rekt investors. as an investor, you should be vigilant with projects otherwise you will lose without a fight!

Crypto has already been used in countless crowdfunding.

No one can forget those months when so many ICOs were able to gather billions and billions in USD using crypto in their crowdfunding events. ICO is crowdfunding. Their private sale and main sale of tokens and coins are basically gathering money from people all over the world to fund their projects through cryptocurrencies. 

Are we talking about crowdfunding using crypto but then the funds collected are going to be used for non-crypto related? Then what makes it different for accepting fiat in the first place? Not viable solution in my opinion.

And as others have said, we have ICO craze in 2017 and we see it didn't ended good and up to know the enigma of ICO is still attached a bad reputation to crypto.

This is totally fake news. There is no such thing as that. If Elon Musk ever sold this boring invention for bitcoin or other kinds of cryptocurrency, it would be on the breaking news of Bloomberg, WSJ, etc. You are just put on a nonsense link from a trash website.

Right now, Elon Musk does not care about cryptocurrencies at all. He is focusing all of his mind and efforts on space adventures, Multi-continental internet as well as reuse energy. However, crowdfunding with crypto is being considered for many years by different people from different aspects. In 2017, there were likely thousands of ICOs which based on ethereum blockchains. Most of them were scam which made many people losing their belief in crypto.

This also resulted to millions of dollars fallen to the hands of fraudsters. But ICO, IEO, and DeFi now is the evidence that cryptocurrency is an effective way of crowdfunding because of its efficiency in terms of transferring funds with ease.

but the only problem today is the huge fluctuation of gas fees from ethereum blockchain especially to those who are putting small investment.

Crypto for crowdfunding doesn't automatical meaning it will be the future of crowdfunding, it's just option of payment strategy.with crowdfunding people put more effort to collect a certain amount of money, and cryptocurrencies  that volatile to make it harder at the end  you may miss some money.

Should say something very opposite. Crowdfunding is not a future of crypto and we've already seen that from ICO, IEO, now DeFi. They simply borrow the reputation and optimistic feeling on blockchain technology to do their crowdfundings more easily.

If you were in crypto back in 2017 and 2018, you will do catch my opinion. Cryptocurrency has many ways to get adoption and crowdfunding is only one of channels. Generally, it is not good for cryptocurrency if there are many scam projects that based on or borrowed the term and tech of blockchain.

Isn't it a bit late to say it? Crypto currency has been doing it for couple of years already and it has been known for it.
That is why there are so many people who got into crypto and cried because of the crowdfunding ICO,IEO and whatever else you might call it for me it is all the same crowdfunding.

agree...
It is technically true that crowdfunding and selling goods is aimed at raising or collecting some money, but the difference is clear that the purpose of crowdfunding is very different from selling goods or a flamethrower.

he uses bitcoin as a means of payment, it does not mean he has a goal to promote bitcoin, it is done only to provide options to prospective buyers who may already have bitcoin and are more comfortable paying using bitcoin

Many think that way since bitcoin is used for crowdfundings and many newbies though about that and sadly when they get scam they also call bitcoin as scam to. So I hope there's a information campaign brought by the government once there's a good adoption will came so that people will understand that this is a e-currency which people can select to transact online.

The link does not work, and I cannot see any new news articles on the topic of flamethrowers and Musk (only those more than a year old). As for crowfunding and cryptos, I don't think it's the future: it's the past. ICOs were essentially a way to crowdfund a project in exchange for their tokens to investors. Some got successful, most were a waste of time and lots of lost money. After that, it would not be easy to make crypto crowdfunding trustworthy again. As for Musk, he's just doing a lot of weird stuff and enjoying himself, and it's often nothing. Mashable called this thing "an overpriced joke product" (https://mashable.com/feature/boring-not-a-flamethrower-review/).

Crowdfunding with cryptocurrencies is just one of the options that help diversify the ways. It doesn't mean much in terms of funding qualifications. All must be based on the law, if the law does not allow it does not mean much. I realize that raising by cash or FIAT has some value but money is money nonetheless.

that defeats the purpose though. the whole point of using "decentralized" ways is that you no longer need to comply with anything including the "law". not that i'm suggesting anything that is bad but the fact that the "law" is not always right. for example there are countries that are immorally under sanctions and are effectively cut off from the world. the "law" here is illegal itself, but it is being enforced nonetheless.
that's the same reason why bitcoin was created. the "law" here is the banks, the federal reserve and all their corruption that have even drove the economy to the ground and destroyed it.

the only problem with crowdfunding using cryptocurrencies that i see is that the people aren't mature enough yet which means the only usage of crowdfunding so far has been to scam them. if we are to look at it as a viable option we first have to see people who demand better projects and actual work from those who ask for money instead of some useless token!

I wouldn't say it's the future of crowdfunding but it is certainly a way to go about it. And as with everything there are pros and cons. Just look at the ICO boom with so many projects crowdfunding using bitcoin and then exit scamming with the money they collected.

Crypto can be used for crowdfunding but at the same time, fiat is still usable when it comes to crowdfunding so I'd better say that crypto can be an alternative for crowdfunding.

We can't say that crypto is the only tool that will be used for crowdfunding in the future since fiat is there already. There are some business that is using crypto for crowdfunding. Take the ICO as an example of a crowdfunding with the use of crypto :). In the future, maybe more and more will use it.

All things considered, there are some crowdfunding efforts dependent on digital forms of money yet that is as yet uncommon. With crowdfunding individuals attempt to gather a specific measure of cash and digital currencies are unstable so that makes it harder in light of the fact that eventually, you may miss a few assets. Additionally, digital currencies are as yet not an extraordinary arrangement directed so that is another issue. With time that may change however up to that point dominant part of crowdfunding will be as yet dependent on fiat.

Crypto is not making crowdfunding process better. Do you remember ICOs? A lot of shitty projects and much more fucked investors

Yep, that’s why I think it’s not going to be anything normal. Elon Musk is just someone that likes cryptocurrency and he just did it because he wanted to, that doesn’t mean others will follow the same process. Everyone will have to put things in consideration, and whether it will be perfect before doing anything.

There is nothing like the norm, anyone can make use of anything they want as a funding source, it’s all about choice. That Elon Musk decided to make use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for crowdfunding doesn’t mean that others are going to be interested in doing the same. Every company knows what’s best for them, and that’s what they will use.

So does the law allow bitcoin or DeFi thats are becoming a trend of recent? I guess not. We're so brainwashed into believing what ever the government tells us without been curious.  Crowdfunding was definitely made more easier, faster and transparent with crypto and there is more yet to be uncovered.

That scammers were wiser and forsaw the advantage of the new technology doesn't mean we should discredit it as some project became a force in the industry as a result of the crowdfunding they had.

With some few innovation, the technology is capable of dominating the crowdfunding space. We can see IEO bringing in some credited since exchange are involves although this is making the process centralized which isn't healthy for the industry.

Yes, you ar quite right. Of course, it is great that different projects and companies accept Bitcoin even with such purposes, but taking into consideration the BTC''s price on the market and that the periods in crowdfunding may be different. So you may see on the start of investing one situation and quite another closer to the end of the term. And there are lots of nuances with law regulations and BTC, because crowdfunding imply making agreements between company and investors. Not so many companies or projects because of this reason take such high risks and use more dollars or euro for making agreements with investors, and avoid BTC.

Crowdfunding in general is a dogshit, when crypto becomes a prominent medium for crowdfunding, trust me a lot of scammers will flock to that hype, there will be legitimate but they will be so rare that many will soon label and generalize crypto crowdfunding as a scam like any other crowdfunding out there. The only chance that a crowdfunding will work is when there is a prominent figure backing the project and that one can still be subjected to scrutiny and skepticism. One search about crowdfunding disaster is enough to doubt any future endeavors that will do it.