Elon Musk Shares His Thoughts On Satoshi Nakomoto's Identity

Tesla CEO Elon Musk denied rumours that addressed him as Satoshi Nakomoto, the anonymous inventor of Bitcoin.

Musk remains one of the most influential personalities supporting the cryptocurrency sector, known to impact the price of Dogecoin via his tweets. However, he clarified his stance on the identity of Satoshi Nakomoto in a podcast with Lex Fridman. Here, he said that the identity of the person is not as important as the ideas that led to cryptocurrency.

Here's what happened.

Musk Denies Satoshi Nakamoto Rumours

Elon Musk, in an interview with Lex Fridman, clarified in detail that he is not the real Satoshi Nakomoto. Instead, he stressed the fact that the ideas that led to the evolution of crypto should be prioritized rather than the person who invented crypto.

“You can look at the evolution of ideas before the launch of Bitcoin and see who wrote, you know, about those ideas,” Musk said to Fridman, who asked whether it's a feature or a bug that Nakomoto identity is still unknown.

Musk also credited Nick Szabo as the real reason that led to the evolution of ideas in crypto. He addressed him as someone "more responsible for the ideas behind it than anyone else.”

"Obviously I don’t know who created Bitcoin," Musk said. "It seems as though Nick Szabo is probably more than anyone else responsible for the evolution of those ideas.

“He claims not to be Nakamoto but he seems to be the one more responsible for the ideas behind it than anyone else.”

Szabo is known for inventing Bit Gold and smart contracts which later became an influential part of Ethereum. Szabo has often received questions about his links to Satoshi. He previously said: “I’m afraid you got it wrong doxing me as Satoshi, but I’m used to it.”

The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto is still shrouded in mystery after years of speculation. While some believe that he might be a single entity behind the invention of Bitcoin, others speculate Satoshi Nakomoto was a group.

Musk Predicts Mars Will Run On Cryptocurrency

However, it wasn't all about Bitcoin. Musk also touched upon the intergalactic potential of cryptocurrency in the podcast.

With SpaceX's DOGE-1 mission set to put Dogecoin on the moon, Musk considered what cryptocurrency on a habituated Mars - another project of his - would look like.

“I think Mars itself will need to have a different currency. I don’t know if Mars would have a cryptocurrency as a thing, but probably it seems likely, but it would be kind of a localized thing on Mars,” Musk further added. “The future of Mars should be up to the Martians.”

Read More: What If Bitcoin's Satoshi Nakomoto Came Back?