Tech

Elon Musk denies he is bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto

Key Points
  • Former SpaceX internet Sahil Gupta wrote a blog post in which he claimed that Elon Musk was "probably" the inventor of the cryptocurrency
  • Musk said this was untrue and that he had lost some bitcoin a friend sent to him some years ago
Musk says he did not invent bitcoin
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Musk says he did not invent bitcoin

Elon Musk denied rumors that he is the mysterious inventor of bitcoin on Tuesday.

Debate has been ongoing since the original bitcoin paper that outlined how the cryptocurrency would work was released in 2008.

A person or group of people called Satoshi Nakamoto are said to be behind it. But, to date, nobody knows who Nakamoto is.

In a post on blogging website Medium, Sahil Gupta, who is a former intern at Musk's space company SpaceX, theorized that "Satoshi is probably Elon."

Gupta, who was at SpaceX in 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile, said Musk could be behind bitcoin because of his deep understanding of economics and cryptography, grip on advanced coding languages, and the fact he is a "polymath".

Elon Musk denies that he is the creator of bitcoin
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Elon Musk denies that he is the creator of bitcoin

The former intern said Musk probably wanted to create it because it was 2008 during the recession and may have been motivated to "solve the lack of trust in banks by creating a currency that doesn't need them." In the blog post, Gupta laid out other evidence he believes point to Musk as bitcoin's creator.

But Musk denied this was the case, even saying he has lost bitcoin that his friend gave him a few years ago.

TWEET

The search for Nakomoto has been going on for years. In 2014, Newsweek said that the bitcoin creator was a 64-year-old Japanese-American living in California named Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto. And just last year, Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright claimed he was the founder, though this was called into doubt.

WATCH: Bitcoin's origin story remains shrouded in mystery. Here's why it matters

Bitcoin’s origin story remains shrouded in mystery. Here's why it matters
VIDEO6:2306:23
Bitcoin’s origin story remains shrouded in mystery. Here's why it matters