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> Elon Musk mentioned Nick Szabo on Lex Fridman's podcast as Szabo was also doing Bit Gold prior and is heavy into crypto and currencies. [3]

>> "Obviously I don't know who created bitcoin ... it seems as though Nick Szabo is probably more than anyone else responsible for the evolution of those ideas," said Musk, adding, "he claims not to be Nakamoto ... but he seems to be the one more responsible for the ideas behind it than anyone else."

Why do Elon Musk's speculations have any credibility here? It's not his field, and even in his field he has a track record of making confident public statements that turn out to be wildly wrong.

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He was one of the creators of PayPal, so digital money is his field. If you read the quote carefully, he is also not speculating on Nakamoto. Elon instead states that Nick Szabo contributed to the ideas behind cryptocurrencies. This generally is not disputed.

I think no matter how you feel about Elon Musk, I feel it can sort of be universally appreciated how insane of a pivot/second act he's had where being a part of paypal's early days is basically a footnote.

> He was one of the creators of PayPal, so digital money is his field.

He was one of four people listed as founders of X.com, which merged with Confinity, which changed its name to PayPal where he was fired as CEO; PayPal was then purchased by EBay, whereupon Musk took a big payday.

Judging by his involvement with Tesla Motors Inc -- he became chairman and CEO by investing 6.5 million into the existing company; a lawsuit brought by an incorporating founder resulted in an agreement whereby Musk and four others can call themselves founders -- makes me wonder what his contribution to X.com actually was.

Whatever else he may be, he's an extraordinarily good investor.

> Why do Elon Musk's speculations have any credibility here? It's not his field, and even in his field he has a track record of making confident public statements that turn out to be wildly wrong.

Actually it's very much his field. Elon Musk was one of the founders of X.com which eventually merged to become PayPal. He was interested in digital currency since the '90s and has been active in the cryptocurrency space as well.

Too bad his push of a meme coin is making him look less serious about it now.

Same thing with Bill Gates: they pay for advisory.

Nick is Satoshi. It pains me to type that out.

We were always supposed to look for Satoshi, never to find him.

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