Tesla CEO Elon Musk Denies Being Bitcoin Creator

Tesla Inc. (TSLA
TSLA
Tesla Inc
307.54
-3.15%

) CEO Elon Musk, who makes countless headlines for his exploits related to electric transportation technologies, denied speculation that he created bitcoin. (See also: Elon Musk Biography.)

In a Medium post last week, former SpaceX intern Sahil Gupta hypothesized that Musk could be Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of bitcoin. In a tweet today, Musk denied he was Nakamoto. Musk said he had some bitcoin once, which he lost some years ago.

Not true. A friend sent me part of a BTC a few years, but I don’t know where it is.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2017

In his post, Gupta based his assertion on three points. First, Musk’s expertise in cryptography and economics, which helped him produce code for his earlier startup X.com, was useful for him to write Satoshi’s 2008 white paper. Second, the bitcoin whitepaper makes extensive use of C++. That's a language that Musk used in his previous startups.

Finally, Musk is proficient at learning about new fields, having taught himself about rocket science and transportation technologies. Consequently, the chances that he taught himself about cryptography and invented bitcoin are high, Gupta suggested.

This incident is just the latest instance of a hunt for the bitcoin creator. Some, such as Australian scientist Craig Wright, have even laid claim to the title, only to have their claims debunked. (See also: Self-Declared Bitcoin Creator Sees Company He Inspired Sold To Private Equity.)

The hunt to find bitcoin's creator has become even more important recently as the cryptocurrency’s price has skyrocketed. According to popular estimates, Nakamoto is the holder of 980,000 bitcoins. As of this writing, a single bitcoin is worth $9,906. That figure translates to a fortune of approximately for $9.7 billion for Nakamoto.

More importantly, bitcoin has been riven by opposing factions debating its future. As a result of differences between developers in bitcoin’s core community, the cryptocurrency implemented a hard fork in August 2017 to create a new currency - Bitcoin Cash.

In his post, Gupta argued that bitcoin could do with Musk’s guidance, noting: “Elon could offer guidance as the currency’s 'founding father.' (Vitalik Buterin plays this role for Ethereum.) Elon could coordinate changes in the block size and the lightning network and thus make bitcoin useful for more people."

Read more: Tesla CEO Elon Musk Denies Being Bitcoin Creator | Investopedia https://www.investopedia.com/news/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-denies-being-bitcoin-creator/#ixzz4ztu3bUMU