Elon Musk responds to the Dogecoin creator's claim that he struggled with coding: 'When my kids were 12, they wrote better code

Elon Musk responds to Jackson Palmer's comments about his inability to create code. Image : Ap

Elon Musk slammed Dogecoin co-creator Jackson Palmer on Twitter after the latter called the world's richest man a "grifter."

Palmer said he messaged Musk on Twitter some years ago after inventing a bot that could help identify crypto scams on Twitter, according to an interview with Australian news site Crikey. He said it became evident during the conversation that Musk "didn't understand coding as well as he made out." Musk, according to Palmer, did not know how to run the Python script.

"He sells a vision in the hopes of one day being able to accomplish what he's saying," Palmer said. "He's just incredibly good at acting as if he knows what he's talking about. The Tesla full-self-driving promise highlights it."

Musk reacted to the post on Twitter with his own critical remarks.

Musk tweeted on Tuesday, "My kids wrote better code when they were 12 than the nonsensical script Jackson sent me," referring to Palmer's work from 2018. "If it's so good, he should share it with the rest of the world and improve everyone's Twitter experience," he continued.

Palmer took advantage of the opportunity to distribute the code he posted four years ago on GitHub. Insider reached out to him for comment, but he did not answer.

"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 tweeted. "Their strategy has since evolved. I told a lot of people about it, and it worked for them."

Palmer, who left Dogecoin in 2015 due to a "toxic" culture, claimed in a Twitter thread that Twitter founder Jack Dorsey told him in 2018 that the social media network was running a similar script. Palmer, however, noted that the code would be ineffective today because scammer tactics have become more sophisticated.

Musk, who is currently in the process of obtaining Twitter, did not stop there. He questioned Palmer's involvement with Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that he has consistently promoted. Musk's Twitter support for the meme coin has repeatedly boosted its value. Tesla and SpaceX have even started accepting Dogecoin as payment for some of their products.

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

You’re humble bro.

Billy’s sense of humor & irreverence is a big part of why people love Dogecoin.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 31, 2022

While Palmer and Markus are no longer working on Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency was created as a joke in 2013.

Markus, a former IBM software engineer, and Palmer, an Adobe software engineer, had never met before developing the meme token. Palmer made a joke about investing in "dogecoin" and purchased the domain name dogecoin.com. Markus came across the site and contacted Palmer about his own efforts to create a digital currency that would appeal to a wider demographic. 

Within a year, the two engineers launched Dogecoin. The cryptocurrency is now one of the most valuable digital coins in the world.

Palmer is not the first person who comes under Musk's criticism. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has had Twitter spats with the head of Russia's space agency and the Biden Administration in recent months.

source