Elon Musk hits back at dogecoin creator over his claim the billionaire struggled with coding: 'My kids wrote better code when they were 12'

Grace Kay

May 31, 2022 at 3:13 PM·3 min read

Elon Musk fires back at Jackson Palmer over comments he couldn't run code. — Elon Musk hit back at Jackson Palmer over claims that Musk couldn't run code.Associated Press

Elon Musk ripped into Jackson Palmer over claims the billionaire struggled with computer programming.
The dogecoin cocreator made comments critical of Musk to an Australian news outlet.
Musk responded to the article and said Palmer "never wrote a line of Dogecoin code."

Elon Musk criticize Jackson Palmer, a dogecoin cocreator, on Twitter after he called the richest man in the world a "grifter."

In an interview with the Australian news site Crikey, Palmer said he messaged Musk on Twitter several years ago after creating a bot that could help identify crypto scams on Twitter. During the exchange, he said it became clear that Musk "didn't understand coding as well as he made out." Palmer said Musk didn't know how to run the Python script.

"He sells a vision in hopes that he can one day deliver what he's promising, but he doesn't know that," Palmer said. "He's just really good at pretending he knows. That's very evident with the Tesla full-self-driving promise."

Musk responded to the article on Twitter with some harsh comments of his own.

"My kids write better code when they were 12 than the nonsense script Jackson sent me," Musk tweeted on Tuesday about Palmer's code from 2018. "If it's so great, he should share it with the world and make everyone's experience with Twitter better."

Palmer took the opportunity to share the code, which he posted on GitHub four years ago. He did not respond to a request for comment from Insider.

"I never said it was super complex, but this simple script definitely worked in catching and reporting the less sophisticated phishing accounts circa 2018," Palmer said on Twitter. "They've since evolved their tactics. I shared it with a lot of people, and it worked for them."

Palmer, who parted ways with dogecoin in 2015, citing a "toxic" culture, said in a Twitter thread that Jack Dorsey, Twitter's founder, had told him in 2018 that the social-media network was trying to run a similar script. Palmer added that the code wouldn't be as effective today, as scammer tactics had become increasingly sophisticated.

Musk, who is in the process of purchasing Twitter, didn't stop there. He questioned Palmer's involvement with dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that Musk has continually promoted. Musk's support for the meme coin on Twitter has repeatedly helped buoy the coin's value. Tesla and SpaceX have even begun accepting dogecoin as payment for some of its merchandise.

"Palmer always forgets to mention that he never wrote a single line of Dogecoin code," Musk tweeted.

In a since deleted tweet, Palmer called for his fellow dogecoin cocreator, Billy Markus, to respond to Musk's accusation.

"The people after us did exponentially more than either jackson or i did on the code base," Markus wrote on Twitter. "I think i wrote like 20 lines of code and copied the rest."

—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 31, 2022

Neither Palmer nor Markus work on dogecoin anymore. The two started the cryptocurrency as a joke in 2013.

Markus, a former IBM software engineer, and Palmer, an Adobe software engineer, hadn't even met when they created the meme token. Palmer tweeted about investing in "dogecoin" as a joke and bought the domain name dogecoin.com. Markus stumbled upon the site and got in contact with Palmer regarding his own efforts to program a digital currency that could appeal to larger demographics.

The two engineers launched dogecoin within the year. The cryptocurrency is now one of the most valuable digital coins.

Palmer is not the first person to draw Musk's ire. In recent months, the Tesla CEO has engaged in Twitter spats with the head of Russia's space agency and the Biden administration.

Read the original article on Business Insider

AFP
Plane with 181 on board crashes in South Korea, killing 47
A Jeju Air plane carrying 181 people from Bangkok to South Korea crashed on arrival Sunday, emergency services told AFP, with 47 confirmed dead and dramatic video showing the aircraft bursting into flames.Video shared by the local MBC broadcaster showed the Jeju Air plane -- a Boeing 737-8AS according to Flight Radar -- landing at the Muan airport runway, with smoke streaming out from the engines, before the entire aircraft was quickly engulfed in flames.
AFP
Salome Zurabishvili: defiant champion of Georgia's EU dream
Salome Zurabishvili was a French diplomat before entering the turbulent politics of her ancestral homeland, where she was elected Georgia's first woman leader in 2018 and became the beacon of Tbilisi's EU aspirations.In her 2006 book "A Woman for Two Countries", she wrote: "Now, I have to engage in a political battle, which has never attracted me, which I never practised, which is being imposed on me." im/sbk/dhc
AFP
Georgia set to inaugurate disputed president amid political crisis
Georgia is set to inaugurate on Sunday a ruling party loyalist as president, after his election was declared "illegitimate" by the outgoing leader and the pro-Western opposition.Opposition parties have refused to enter the newly elected parliament, while Zurabishvili has declared the legislature, the government and president-elect "illegitimate".
AFP
Japan's Wajima craftmakers see hope in disaster-hit region
Lacquerware maker Takaho Shoji hunches over his desk in the disaster-hit city of Wajima in central Japan, applying another layer of coating to a dark, wooden box.- Uncertain future - Among Kirimoto's staff artisans is Shoji, a specialist in coating.
AFP
One dead in Ecuador, Peru ports closed amid massive waves
Massive waves up to four meters (13 feet) high are pummeling the coasts of Ecuador and Peru, leaving scores of ports closed and at least one person dead on Saturday, authorities said.Waves were hitting four meters in Peru and 2.1 meters in Ecuador.
AFP
UNESCO-listed musical instrument stifled in Afghanistan
Wood shavings littered the floor of Sakhi's cramped workshop in the Afghan city of Herat as another rubab, the national musical instrument of his homeland, took shape under his deft hands.He repaired it the best he could, and still regularly tends to his "dear rubab", he said, gently running his hands over the instrument.
TODAY
Raccoon attacks infant inside his Idaho home
A raccoon attacked an infant inside an Idaho home this week as the baby boy was in a carrier, the state wildlife department said Friday.
AFP
For German 'sick leave detective', business is booming
Rising sick leave rates may be bad news for German companies at a time the economy is already ailing -- but for private eye Marcus Lentz, it has been a boon for his business.From auto titans to fertiliser producers, companies are ringing the alarm about the impact of high rates of sick leave on Europe's biggest economy.
Reuters
Chinese Salt Typhoon cyberespionage targets AT&T, but networks secure, carrier says
The Chinese-linked Salt Typhoon cyberespionage operation targeted AT&T's systems, but the wireless carrier's U.S. networks are now secure as it works with law enforcement and government officials, the company said on Saturday in its first acknowledgment of the attacks. While only a few cases of compromised information were identified, AT&T was monitoring and remediating its networks to protect customers data, and continues to work with authorities to assess and mitigate the threat, the spokesperson said. On Friday, U.S. officials added a ninth unnamed telecom company to the list of entities compromised by the Salt Typhoon hackers and said the Chinese involved gained access to networks and essentially had broad and full access, giving them the capability to "geolocate millions of individuals, to record phone calls at will."
TODAY
Here’s what to do if you win the Mega Millions jackpot
There are so many things to do if you ever win the Mega Millions jackpot. Here are a list of tips on how to handle all that cash if it ever comes your way.
CNN
The oldest living survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor dies at 105
Warren “Red” Upton, the 105-year-old World War II US veteran who was the oldest living survivor of the 1941 Japanese surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor, died on Christmas Day, according to Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors, a veteran’s organization.
CNN
At least 1 dead after severe weather moved through eastern Texas, officials say
At least one person is dead in northern Brazoria County, Texas, after severe storms passed through the area Saturday afternoon, according to the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office.
CBS News
15 injured after Brightline train collides with Delray Beach fire engine
Delray Beach Police said on X the intersection of East Atlantic Avenue and Southeast 1st Avenue is closed due to the accident.
NBC News
Winning ticket for $1.22 billion Mega Millions jackpot sold in California
Santa came a little late, but he brought one person a $1.22 billion Mega Millions jackpot as a stocking stuffer.
Associated Press
Plane burst into flames after skidding off runway at an airport in South Korea, killing at least 62
A passenger plane burst into flames Sunday after it skid off a runway at a South Korean airport and slammed into a concrete fence when its front landing gear apparently failed to deploy, killing at least 62 people, officials said, in one of the country's worst aviation disasters. The National Fire Agency said the fire was almost put out but officials were still trying to pull people from the Jeju Air passenger plane carrying 181 people at the airport in the town of Muan, about 290 kilometers (180 miles) south of Seoul. Footage of the crash aired by YTN television showed the Jeju Air plane skidding across the airstrip, apparently with its landing gear still closed, and colliding head-on with a concrete wall on the outskirts of the facility.
Reuters
At least 62 dead, two crew rescued in fiery South Korea airliner crash
SEOUL (Reuters) -At least 62 people were killed when an airliner veered off the runway and erupted into a fireball as it slammed into a wall at South Korea's Muan International Airport on Sunday, the national fire agency said. Two people were rescued, the agency said, and an official told Reuters they were crew members. The crash occurred as Jeju Air flight 7C2216, carrying 175 passengers and six crew on a flight from the Thai capital Bangkok, was landing shortly after 9 a.m. (0000 GMT) at the airport in the south of the country, South Korea's transport ministry said.
NBC News
'Death by 1,000 paper cuts': How 2024 became such an exceptional year for tornadoes
Experts say 2024’s tornado outbreaks set it apart, even in a year full of extreme weather. The U.S. recorded the highest number of tornadoes in a decade.
Reuters
Thousands of flights delayed across the US, one dead in deadly tornado as storms hit holiday travelers
Severe weather disrupted holiday travel on Saturday across the U.S. with deadly tornadoes in the southeast and heavy snow and wind on the west coast, delaying or canceling thousands of flights across the country. More than 7,000 flights in the U.S. were delayed on Saturday, according to the tracking site FlightAware, and more than 200 were canceled. About a third of the flights were delayed at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, according to FlightAware, and nearly half of the flights originating from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston were delayed.
USA TODAY
Tornadoes in Texas cause destruction: Watch videos as storms hit South
Tornadoes were caught on multiple videos in Texas amid severe weather.
NBC News
Trump says H-1B visa program is 'great' amid MAGA feud over tech workers
President-elect Donald Trump weighed in on a simmering feud among MAGA allies over H-1B worker visas, telling the New York Post that he supports the program, according to the outlet.

Latest Stories