Yesterday, various news websites including The Next Web reported that Elon Musk’s Boring Company was accepting bitcoin as a form of payment for its famous flamethrowers. However, it has now been revealed — also by TNW — that it is a fake website created by a scammer and that the real Boring Company is not accepting cryptocurrency.
The fake website is still live and displays a range of payment methods including cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, and litecoin. It also claims that all proceeds will be used to support Hyperloop technology. However, Musk hasn’t responded to the recent scam yet.
Elon Musk is no stranger to the crypto industry. Despite staying away from the crypto buzz, some crypto enthusiasts are convinced that he created bitcoin. It all started in 2014 when Musk said that bitcoin was a “good thing” and called it a “legal to illegal bridge.” He also clarified that he didn’t own BTC at that time.
In 2017, Sahil Gupta, a former SpaceX employee, published a Medium post speculating that Musk was Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. This launched a debate in the crypto industry with some supporting the argument, and others lambasting it as outrageous. Later, Musk rejected the theory and added that he had no idea where his bitcoins, sent to him by his friend, were. Earlier this year, he revealed that only 0.25 BTC were given to him by his friend.
Even so, Musk is often in the cryptocurrency headlines, primarily because he is the frequent target of crypto scambots found on Twitter.
Musk, like other celebrities, suffered from hackers hijacking various verified profiles to promote crypto scams. He even replied to a follower, “At this point I want ETH even if it is a scam.” These accounts use the targeted professional’s picture as well as their Twitter handle and comment below their tweets. Due to the prevalence of these scams, Vitalik Buterin changed his name to “Vitalik Non-giver of ether.”
Last month, Musk reached out to Jackson Palmer, creator of Dogecoin and product lead at Adobe, to solve this problem, saying, “[I]f you can help get rid of the annoying scam spammers, that would be much appreciated.” Palmer was able to create a script to block ETH giveaway scammers and help Musk in implementing it on his Twitter.
Featured Image from Joe Rogan Experience/YouTube
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