Elon Musk has fired back at Dogecoin co-founder Jackson Palmer for his recent claims that the Tesla CEO doesn’t understand basic code. Instead, Musk insisted that it was Palmer that had the coding skills of a child, and invited him to share his coding prowess with the world.
Jackson Palmer on Blast
Musk’s comments were a response to a recent interview with Palmer, where the Dogecoin creator recounted a Twitter interaction he’d shared with Musk many years ago. Palmer had created script intended to automatically report cryptocurrency bots and scam accounts on Twitter, sharing it with the billionaire and others.
Such spam accounts are a critical crypto community problem that Musk himself has pledged to address upon taking over the platform. Yet by Palmer’s account, Musk didn’t even know how to run the code – nor was he as smart as everyone thinks.
“He’s just really good at pretending he knows,” said Palmer. “That’s very evident with the Tesla full-self-driving promise.”
Musk didn’t take Palmer’s words lying down, however. On Tuesday, the CEO claimed that Palmer’s “lame snippet of python” failed to get rid of bots, telling him to “share it with the world.”
“My kids wrote better code when they were 12 than the nonsense script Jackson sent me,” continued Musk. “Jackson Palmer is a tool.”
Further in the thread, Musk demonstrated that he did, indeed, have some coding knowledge. He promoted Python as the best form of code for AI while suggesting JavaScript for “web stuff”.
Less than 2 hours later, Palmer followed Musk’s suggestion and provided a GitHub link to his anti-phishing account code, which he’d published back in 2018. He clarified, however, that the code wouldn’t be as effective today since accounts have “evolved their tactics” over the years.
A Tale of Two Founders
Despite having founded one of the most popular cryptocurrencies in the world, Palmer is extremely cynical about the industry as a whole. Last year, he posted a thread on Twitter arguing that cryptocurrencies amplify the worst elements of today’s “hyper-capitalist” system.
By contrast, his fellow creator Billy Markus generally shows less distaste for the scene. Though he’s no crypto fanatic either, he’s highly interactive with the community that’s formed around Dogecoin, taking a more lighthearted attitude to the scene.
Unlike Palmer, Markus has a far more friendly relationship with Elon Musk – especially now that Dogecoin has become the mogul’s favorite cryptocurrency.
