Science & Tech

Elon Musk called 'grifter' by Dogecoin co-founder

Elon Musk called 'grifter' by Dogecoin co-founder
Trevor Noah mocks Elon Musk's Twitter takeover
The Daily Show

Billionaire Elon Musk has been labelled a “grifter” by the co-creator of the memecoin-turned-crytocurrency Dogecoin.

Jackson Palmer who co-created the famous cryptocurrency has said that his interactions with Tesla CEO Musk have left him very underwhelmed and claimed Musk doesn’t know how to run basic code.

In an interview with Australian magazineCrikey, Palmer explained that he was in communication with Musk over Twitter DMs where it became apparent he doesn’t appear to know as much about tech as he claims.

They were discussing a piece of script Palmer had developed that automatically reported cryptocurrency scams on Twitter.

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Palmer explained: “Elon reached out to me to get hold of that script and it became apparent very quickly that he didn’t understand coding as well as he made out. He asked, ‘How do I run this Python script?’”

Palmer, who no longer works on Dogecoin or supports the technology, said Musk is a grifter but has so many fans because he’s aspirational.

He continued: “About a year ago when Musk was saying something about crypto, I said Elon Musk was and always will be a grifter but the world loves grifters.

“They love the idea that they may also be a billionaire one day, and that’s the dream he’s selling.”

It is also Palmer’s belief that Musk is intentionally trying to devalue Twitter after signing the papers to buy the company but stalling.

He said: “His play is to either dismantle all trust or maybe he’s delusional enough to think he can build an alternative.

“The other alternative is that he wants to drive it into the ground at a much lower price, and I think that’s what he’s doing.”

It comes as Musk is being sued by Twitter shareholders over claims he is tanking the company stock.

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