\n<\/p>\n
The co-creator of Dogecoin<\/a> \u2015 a cryptocurrency that was literally a joke<\/a> until Elon Musk<\/a> began to talk it up \u2015 does not think highly of the Tesla CEO billionaire.<\/p>\n In an interview<\/a> with the independent Australian news website Crikey, Jackson Palmer cast a skeptical eye at Musk, beginning with the first time they interacted.<\/p>\n The two exchanged messages on Twitter years ago, he said, when Musk inquired about a bot Palmer wrote to flag cryptocurrency scams on social media.<\/p>\n \u201cElon reached out to me to get hold of that script and it became apparent very quickly that he didn\u2019t understand coding as well as he made out,\u201d said Jackson, adding that Musk didn\u2019t seem to know how to run basic code.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter I gave him the script, I wasn\u2019t a fan of him,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s a grifter, he sells a vision in hopes that he can one day deliver what he\u2019s promising, but he doesn\u2019t know that. He\u2019s just really good at pretending he knows.\u201d<\/p>\n Palmer co-founded Dogecoin in 2013 as a satirical counter to Bitcoin \u2015 then a relatively new, obscure financial invention. (Unlike Bitcoin, of which a limited number can exist, the number of theoretical Dogecoins is unlimited, making their value particularly<\/em> questionable.)<\/p>\n Dogecoin remained a joke until early 2021, when Musk began hyping the coin on Twitter, sending the currency\u2019s value sharply upward<\/a>.<\/p>\n In one post, Musk shared a photoshopped picture of himself as Rafiki in \u201cThe Lion King,\u201d holding the Dogecoin mascot, a Shiba Inu, skyward.<\/p>\n In others, Musk praised<\/a> the coin as \u201cthe people\u2019s crypto,\u201d and not-so-subtly hinted<\/a> it was headed \u201cto the moon,\u201d a common refrain among cryptocurrency fans optimistic about their portfolio\u2019s trajectory.<\/p>\n \u201cAbout 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,\u201d Palmer told Crikey, pointing to Musks\u2019s promise of full-self-driving Teslas as evidence.<\/p>\n As for Musks\u2019 ongoing will-he, won\u2019t-he endeavor of buying Twitter, Jackson wasn\u2019t optimistic. \u201cHis play is to either dismantle all trust, or maybe he\u2019s delusional enough to think he can build an alternative,\u201d he said. \u201cThe other alternative is that he wants to drive it into the ground at a much lower price, and I think that\u2019s what he\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n