Elon Musk Reveals Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin Origins Theory

<p>Admits He Doesn't Understand Ethereum And Makes A Mars Prediction For Dogecoin Amid Crypto Price Crash.</p> <p>Elon Musk, the Tesla (TSLA) billionaire who has both boosted and crashed the bitcoin price this year, has established himself as one of the most influential figures in cryptocurrency.</p> <p>The bitcoin price has plummeted significantly this week, wiping out over $100 billion from the combined cryptocurrency market. The price of ethereum has also fallen, with several of ethereum's largest rivals leading the market lower and the meme-based dogecoin losing nearly 10%.</p> <p>Now, Musk has weighed in on the Satoshi Nakamoto mystery, arguing that the true identity of the bitcoin inventor is less important than the evolution of ideas that led to it—and naming crypto pioneer Nick Szabo as the driving force behind that evolution.</p> <p>"You can look at the evolution of ideas prior to the launch of bitcoin and see who wrote about those ideas," Musk explained to podcaster and artificial intelligence researcher Lex Fridman, who had inquired whether the fact that Satoshi Nakamoto's identity is unknown is a feature or a bug—"It's an interesting quirk of human history that there is a particular technology with an entirely anonymous inventor."</p> <p>"Obviously, I don't know who invented bitcoin... but it appears as though Nick Szabo is more responsible than anyone else for the evolution of those ideas," Musk said, adding that "he claims not to be Nakamoto... but he appears to be more responsible than anyone else for the ideas behind it."</p> <p>Szabo is best known as the inventor of one of bitcoin's forerunners, Bit Gold, and digital smart contracts, which evolved into a critical component of the ethereum blockchain. Szabo previously denied being Satoshi Nakamoto, telling financial author Dominic Frisby in 2014, "I'm afraid you got it wrong when you doxed me as Satoshi, but I'm used to it."</p> <p>"Perhaps singular figures aren't even as significant as those involved in the evolution of ideas that resulted