Did you ever wonder who created Bitcoin? It’s been 13 years since Bitcoin was introduced. And since then, a lot became millionaire. On the other hand, many lost a lot of fiat money (learn how to invest wisely).
So far Satoshi Nakamoto is credited with the establishment of Bitcoin. But he is known to be an alias for either an individual or a group of folks. It seems like Elon Musk knows who is responsible for creating Bitcoin, or at least getting the block rolling. The SpaceX and Tesla founder revealed a lot during a recent interview.
Lex Fridman Poscast
While speaking on the Lex Fridman Podcast (via Futurism), Elon Musk was asked about a variety of topics and some of them involved pieces in the crypto space. This included theorizing on who created Bitcoin, asking Musk if he had a guess as to who might be responsible. Musk pointed to computer scientist Nick Szabo who is on record as one of the early pioneers in the space. Musk said, in part, “…you can look at the evolution of ideas before the launch of bitcoin and see who wrote about those ideas. It seems as though Nick Szabo is probably, more than anyone else, responsible for the evolution of those ideas.”
Before answering this question, Fridman did ask Elon Musk if he was actually Satoshi and if Musk has the one who had created Bitcoin. Musk was definitive in his statement saying, “I’m not.” To his credit, Fridman did ask Musk if the latter would even tell us if he was. Musk said he would, but who really knows on that front. The whole point of secrecy is to stay secret no matter the line of questioning. That being said, there is no evidence at all that Musk had a hand in the cryptocurrency’s creation.
While Elon Musk still says that he doesn’t know the actual identity or identities of Satoshi, he is giving Nick Szabo full credit for laying the groundwork for what would become Bitcoin in the end. Szabo is credited with developing the concept of a smart contract, the program that catalogs and records events on a blockchain. This is part of the basis and backbone of the Bitcoin ecosystem. And prior to the launch of Bitcoin, Szabo had been responsible for the creation of bit gold, one of the first decentralized currencies.
Though Elon Musk is crediting Nick Szabo as being something of the father of this space, possibly even Satoshi himself, Szabo has long denied claims that he is who created Bitcoin. He’s on record in multiple instances refuting the idea that he is who created the system. Again, considering one of the major points of Bitcoin is anonymity it would make sense that even its founder(s) would remain in the shadows, but there is no firm evidence Szabo is the dude.