Former SpaceX Intern Claims Elon Musk Founded Bitcoin
One of the key mysteries surrounding Bitcoin, regarded as the first decentralized digital currency, is its creator who goes by the name Satoshi Nakamoto. However, since its introduction, no actual person or group has claimed to be Nakamoto which is why when a former SpaceX intern claims it's none other than Elon Musk, everyone is bound to raise an eyebrow or two.
Sahil Gupta, a former intern at Musk's private space firm recently wrote a Medium post making a case that Satoshi Nakamoto is none other than Elon Musk. Since the post's publication, the claims that the South African-born entrepreneur is in fact the enigmatic author of the cryptocurrency's source code has taken Reddit by storm.
What does Gupta have in terms of evidence? Nothing concrete so far his claims do add up. The original 2008 Bitcoin paper was written by someone with a deep understanding of economics and cryptography which Gupta claims Musk possesses. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO is also a master of coding language C++, the computer language used to write the cryptocurrency's source code.
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"Experience aside, Elon is a self-taught polymath. He's repeatedly innovated across fields by reading books on a subject and applying the knowledge," Gupta writes. "It's how he built rockets, invented the Hyperloop, and could have invented Bitcoin."
As of writing, the cryptocurrency has reached a jaw-dropping value of more than $9,000. This is a mind-boggling leap considering that when Bitcoin was released back in 2009, its value was next to nothing.
To attribute such a feat to Musk, while highly unlikely, is ultimately plausible. He is a visionary whose dream is to revolutionize the way humanity lives and creating a decentralized digital currency is one way to do it.
As for the name "Satoshi Nakamoto," Gupta has a particularly interesting theory on that as well. He wrote, "Would Elon choose a pseudonym that's an anagram for 'So a man took a shit?' of course."
It's definitely an interesting hypothesis, one worthy of debate. But unless Gupta provides evidence that points to Musk being the source code's author, his claims will remain just that, claims.
