I am certainly no Elon Musk fan, but it can't be denied that the success of Paypal, and then Tesla, are largely due to him.
No Sir, you got that wrong, the success of Paypal is due to ebay.
No, sir... you have that bass-ackwards. The only reason fleaBay hasn't gone swirling down the drain years ago is due to the thin veneer of respectability and trustworthiness that the PayPal name brought to their steaming cesspool of fraud and thievery. PayPal was a force in international banking and commerce long before Musk bought them; their business model brought secure international banking and purchasing to everyday people, not just the wealthy. For many people, PayPal is still the only banking option available.
eBay TRIED to do the PayPal thing on their own. People stayed away in droves; founding member eBayers like myself told them in no uncertain terms that if they tried to force us to use THEIR payment services we'd close our accounts. Literally thousands and thousands of eMail and support messages. We didn't (and most of us still don't) trust eBay as far as we could sling a piano.
That said... eBay and PayPal NEEDED each other. eBay needed the boost to their reputation; PayPal was overextended internationally and needed the huge cash influx that eBay represented to stay solvent while they completed their expansion. Musk's genius contribution was in SEEING how much these two arch-rivals needed each other, and fixing PayPal's obstinate board so that a deal with eBay could be made.
For most PayPal cardholders, eBay is literally the smallest portion of their PayPal spending. It is everywhere ELSE that PayPal is accepted and still provides their buyer protection that everybody relies on; and without them forcing the change, all the major CC companies would STILL be selling and charging extra for similar purchase protection.
As for HyperLoop... yeah, sure. About the same time as we resolve the technology for the Space Elevator. Oh, and resolve the moronic quibbling over pieces of paper and lines on a map... and basic elements like stupidity and greed...
![Face Palm :palm:](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/xfacepalm.gif.pagespeed.ic.EBDwh1hCfo.png)
mnem
*back to my usual insanity*