Elon Musk's Bitcoin rejection despite SpaceX intern claiming he created cryptocurrency

Dogecoin: Expert discusses Elon Musk’s tweets

Mr Musk has become one of the biggest names associated with cryptocurrencies. Earlier this year he helped Bitcoin reach a $1trillion (£720billion) market capitalisation. While it enjoyed a surge, Bitcoin has struggled in April, losing over 10 percent of its value.

This is amid several warnings the "frothy" cryptocurrency market could be headed for a "major" correction.

Yet Mr Musk continues to tease both Bitcoin and, more recently, the meme-based cryptocurrency Dogecoin, which he this month spurred on to a $50billion (£36billion) market cap.

Much of the hype from Mr Musk revolves around tweets referencing cryptocurrency, although he previously said his Dogecoin posts should not be taken seriously.

Mr Musk is serious about Bitcoin, however, announcing in March that his company Tesla would directly accept payment in Bitcoins.

Elon Musk: The entrepreneur denied being the creator of Bitcoin

Elon Musk: The entrepreneur denied being the creator of Bitcoin (Image: GETTY)

Cryptocurrency: Musk has become one of the main proponents of cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrency: Musk has become one of the main proponents of cryptocurrencies (Image: GETTY)

The relationship between Mr Musk and Bitcoin has been poured over by experts, many claiming that he created the currency.

Satoshi Nakamoto is the person or persons credited with developing Bitcoin, founding the Bitcoin white paper, and creating and deploying Bitcoin's original reference implementation.

In 2017, a former intern at SpaceX, Mr Musk's aerospace company, wrote a blog post claiming that his previous boss "probably created Bitcoin".

Sahil Gupta set out a number of reasons as to why he believed Mr Musk was Satoshi Nakamoto, the first and most basic being that he is "probably capable of inventing Bitcoin".

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Bitcoin: Musk announced this year that Tesla would accept Bitcoin as a payment method

Bitcoin: Musk announced this year that Tesla would accept Bitcoin as a payment method (Image: GETTY)

Mr Gupta wrote: "The 2008 Bitcoin paper was written by someone with a deep understanding of economics and cryptography.

"Elon founded and wrote production internet software for Zip2 and X.com / Paypal.

"Bitcoin’s source code was written by someone with a mastery of C++.

"Elon clearly understands C++, insisting it be used at X.com and SpaceX.

"Experience aside, Elon has demonstrated the ability to learn and apply knowledge quickly.

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[ANALYSIS] 

Dogecoin: The meme-based cryptocurrency has become popular in recent weeks

Dogecoin: The meme-based cryptocurrency has become popular in recent weeks (Image: GETTY)

NASA: Musk recently secured a contract with the US space agency to return humans to the moon

NASA: Musk recently secured a contract with the US space agency to return humans to the moon (Image: GETTY)

"It’s how he built rockets and invented the Hyperloop (which he released to the world as a paper)."

Secondly, Mr Gupta said Mr Musk would have "probably" wanted to create the cryptocurrency: "It was 2008 (Great Recession), and he may have been motivated to solve the lack of trust in banks by creating a currency that doesn’t need them."

He went on to say that the original Bitcoin white paper sounded "somewhat" like Mr Musk, with his "hallmark reasoning from first principles," and the "order-of-magnitude calculations" added to his causal use of language.

Mr Gupta went on to observe a number of further similarities and interests that Mr Musk and the idea of a decentralised financial system share.

Rich list: Britain's richest people

Rich list: Britain's richest people (Image: Express Newspapers)

However, shortly after the blog post was published, Mr Musk denied the claims.

In a tweet responding to a link of Mr Gupta's work, Mr Musk wrote: "Not true.

"A friend sent me part of a BTC a few years, but I don’t know where it is."

Satoshi Nakamoto: The elusive person or persons thought to have created Bitcoin is Satoshi Nakamoto

Satoshi Nakamoto: The elusive person or persons thought to have created Bitcoin is Satoshi Nakamoto (Image: GETTY)

The search for Nakomoto has been going on for years.

In 2014, Newsweek said the creator was a 64-year-old Japanese-American living in California named Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto.

Two years later, Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright claimed he was the founder, but this was widely doubted.

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