Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? The true identity of bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator remains the cryptocurrency’s biggest mystery (apart from “how high will it go before the bubble bursts?”). But one thing’s for certain: bitcoin’s very own Keyser Söze is not Elon Musk.
The idea that Musk is Satoshi has been doing the rounds recently, thanks to a blog post that detailed the Tesla supremo’s suitability in terms of technical skills, understanding of economics and style of self-expression. The post was written by Sahil Gupta, a former intern at Musk’s SpaceX.
Gupta’s post begged Musk to help bitcoin overcome its current network-congestion problems by offering guidance as the cryptocurrency’s “founding father.”
However, when someone on Twitter sent Musk a story covering the post, he responded that the theory was “not true.”
Not true. A friend sent me part of a BTC a few years, but I don’t know where it is.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2017
What’s more, Musk noted that someone had sent him part of a bitcoin years ago, but he had no idea where it was anymore.
Obviously Musk is a man with a lot on his mind, but losing bitcoin is not uncommon. As Fortune exclusively revealed a few days ago, somewhere between 2.78 million and 3.79 million bitcoins have been mislaid over the years.
With the current value of bitcoin being $9,924, that means as much as $37.6 billion worth of the cryptocurrency is in the wind.
