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The Australian co-creator of Dogecoin has described Elon Musk as a “grifter” who sells a vision that he pretends to understand while not even knowing how to run basic code.
Jackson Palmer is an Australian-born software developer who created Dogecoin, a meme-based cryptocurrency that soon became one of the world’s most valuable digital currencies. He stopped working on the cryptocurrency in 2015 and has since denounced the technology.
In a rare, wide-ranging interview with Crikey coinciding with the launch of his new podcasts about grifts, he spoke about Elon Musk, the cryptocurrency “winter” and the mainstreaming of rentier capitalism.
Palmer says he spoke with Musk over Twitter direct messages after he developed a script to automatically report cryptocurrency scams in a user’s replies: “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?”
Elon Musk has repeatedly promoted Dogecoin as part of his freewheeling, shitposting schtick, and mentions of the memecoin as recently as this week has sent its value spiking. But Palmer is no fan of Musk or other billionaires.
“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,” Palmer says. “They love the idea that they may also be a billionaire one day, and that’s the dream he’s selling.”
Palmer thinks that Musk’s Twitter attempt is a ploy to either destroy the platform or at least drive its value down further. He points to the billionaire’s frequent criticism — including amplifying some of the platform’s most cynical critics — since the takeover bid was announced, as proof.
“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,” he says.
Palmer also thinks that the current dip in cryptocurrency prices — a so-called “crypto winter” — hasn’t stopped a stream of major investment. He expects that there will be a bigger, longer bubble burst at some point in the future.
“It’s going to be a lot more painful and unfortunately it will probably affect minorities and those at the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum when it happens. So, when people who have been suckered in, people who’ve been sold on the [viral cryptocurrency-promoting] Matt Damon commercial and who put their [retirement fund] 401k in, those are unfortunately the people who are going to be hurt.”
One benefit of the current down period, Palmer says, is that more people are paying attention to the flaws of cryptocurrency and the community surrounding it: “There’s been an awakening. They’re realising ‘well, this is actually bullshit’. They’re seeing the cracks in the paint.”
He’s even seeing more support for his cryptocurrency scepticism from people still involved in the community. But their newfound self-awareness isn’t necessarily leading them to leave the cryptocurrency scene.
“When I say it’s a Ponzi scheme, the response is ‘so what, the world’s a pyramid scheme’,” Palmer says.
The world is beset with ghastly liars and grifters in business, politics, religous cults and more, doing a lot of damage yet consistently getting extraordinary levels of public support. Elon Musk is a fine example. There’s a good article on him by Edward Niedermeyer in Slate magazine, ‘When I First Saw Elon Musk for Who He Really Is: The CEO’s mythmaking often obscures an uglier truth. The public is finally reckoning with it.’
Guy who got rich off a Ponzi scheme calls a guy who got rich making things a grifter.
Ok.
It’s interesting watching a curious phenomenon such as when a person makes a business decision that involves technology that person is characterised as ‘technologically savvy’. Perhaps the problem is in the use of language such as ‘technologically savvy’ but recognising that there is money to be made by making and selling electric vehicles (as suspect as some of the Tesla technology may be) does not make a person ‘technologically savvy’ or an ‘environmental activist’.
Making that decision means that an opportunity to make money was recognised and taken, nothing more and nothing less. Unfortunately taking that opportunity often goes hand in hand with being a totally nasty dick.
It is, alas, a terrible irony – and yet further demonstration of the category error inherent of being a pattern seeking species – that bad people occasionally do good things.
As in being correct for incorrect reasons – in politics or personal relationships is it a ‘come on in, sucker’ ploy?
Bit of a puzzle, really.
I remember Malcolm Turnbull being described as “The inventor of the internet in Australia” because he made a pile buying and selling tech stocks.
Course, the person making the comment was Australia’s greatest thicko and liar.
and Turnbull himself could not manage his own email in the day resulting in that silly Godwin Grech trashing yet another unelected government.
Cam Wilson describes Dogecoin as “one of the world’s most valuable cryptocurrencies”.
It floated in Sep 2021 at $0.34, peaked at 0.36 in Nov 2021 and today is worth $0.11.
Strange concept of value.
This guy appears to be the ACTUAL grifter.I don’t regard his presence in IT or crypto any more than a Melbourne housewife’s arse hair.