Elon Musk's Biography Unveils Why He's Not A 'Blockchain Acolyte' Despite Having Fun With Dogecoin

Elon Musk’s new biography explores various aspects of his life and delves into his involvement with the meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin DOGE/USD. The book also sheds light on Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX, and his attempt to secure a role in the acquisition of Twitter, now known as X.

What Happened: The book "Elon Musk" is authored by Walter Isaacson.

According to the biography, before purchasing Twitter, Musk had discussions with his brother Kimbal and others about the possibility of integrating blockchain technology into the social media platform. 

However, despite his interest in cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin, Musk was skeptical about using blockchain as the backbone for Twitter. 

"Despite the fun he had with Dogecoin and other cryptocurrencies, he was not a blockchain acolyte, and he felt it would be too sluggish to support fast-paced Twitter postings," the excerpt seen by Benzinga read.

Bankman-Fried, on the other hand, was enthusiastic about incorporating blockchain into Twitter and saw it as an opportunity to rebuild the platform.

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Why It Matters: Michael Grimes, Musk’s primary banker at Morgan Stanley who was working on the financing for the potential acquisition, tried to facilitate Bankman-Fried's meeting with Musk. 

“I’m backlogged with a mountain of critical work matters,” Musk responded to Grimes. “Is this urgent?” 

Grimes informed Musk that Bankman-Fried was willing to contribute $5 billion to the deal and offered to fly to Austin the following day for a meeting. Despite the financial offer, Musk showed disinterest.

Musk responded with a “dislike” button. 

“Blockchain Twitter isn’t possible, as the bandwidth and latency requirements cannot be supported by a peer-to-peer network.” He said he might at some point meet with Bankman-Fried, “so long as I don’t have to have a laborious blockchain debate.” 

Isaacson spent two years interviewing and observing Musk, aiming to comprehend the complex nature of one of the world’s innovative minds.

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Image created using AI via Midjourney