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> Around 2001, Elon and Peter were at PayPal, and they had plans to build a similar digital currency. > In 2002, PayPal was sold, and that pretty much ended th

> Around 2001, Elon and Peter were at PayPal, and they had plans to build a similar digital currency. > In 2002, PayPal was sold, and that pretty much ended the digital currency plan. Instead, PayPal let users link their bank accounts and cards to make payments. This created a bigger dependency on banks. This doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Except PayPal wasn't invented by Elon or Peter. It was Elon's company's plan to build the digital bank but they were failing quite spectacularly at it. They merged with Confinity who'd already built PayPal, had a working prototype, etc. Elon lasted four months as CEO of PayPal, trying to convert it from Java to ASP until the Board didn't ask him to resign, but fired him, the morning he left on his honeymoon after getting married. PayPal is a complete red herring there. Elon had no participation in ideas on digital currency there.

FabHK 1y ago
> They merged with Confinity who'd already built PayPal, had a working prototype, etc. Interesting, need to read about it. So similar story as with Tesla? Existing opinion nicely confirmed.
- Suppafly 1y ago
  I've got a Confinity Paypal tshirt from a job fair I went to in 2000 or 2001 from back when they envisioned people using palm pilots to transfer money. I always think it's hilarious that people give Elon any credit for doing anything at the company.
  - pyman 1y ago
    The people who give him credit are the same people who sold PayPal for $1.5 billion in July 2002: Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, Luke Nosek, Reid Hoffman, David Sacks, Ken Howery, Jeremy Stoppelman, Russel Simmons. Elon was removed as CEO in 2000, but he remained the largest individual shareholder when PayPal went public.
  - kragen 1y ago
    I saw people using PalmPilots to transfer money on PayPal in 02001.
- bostik 1y ago
  Some of the history between the two companies is covered in a book, "Paypal Wars.[0] Among other things it happens to spotlight Musk's fascination with having "X" as the company name, especially for a bank. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_PayPal_Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_PayPal_Wars
  - everfrustrated 1y ago
    Yup. Also explains why X is trying to move into payments now. Elon seems to need to finish a vision he didn't get a chance to finish back then.
- shkkmo 1y ago
  > So similar story as with Tesla? Existing opinion nicely confirmed. How is that similar? Tesla was 2 dudes and an office with no IP and no product when Musk became the lead investor and chairman of the board. Whereas when Cofinity and X.com merged it was as two functioning companies operating in the same market. What similarity do you see?
pyman 1y ago
So you are contradicting what Luke Nosek, the co-founder of PayPal, said? Luke: "Many people don’t know this, but the initial mission of PayPal was to create a global currency that was independent of interference by these, you know, corrupt cartels of banks and governments that were debasing their currencies.” Why should we believe you and not the person who created PayPal? https://finance.yahoo.com/news/paypal-originally-aimed-create-global-084300203.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/paypal-originally-aimed-creat...
- FireBeyond 1y ago
  Uhhh... nothing I said contradicts Luke Nosek. Elon was working on a digital bank, not a global currency. His company was failing miserably. Confinity, who made PayPal, and had a first version working, merged with them. Elon gets no credit for a 'global currency' idea (nor do I think he and Thiel invented Bitcoin[1]), because Confinity was already working on that idea when they merged and became PayPal properly, in the four months before he was ousted. My argument was that Elon wasn't all about the global currency. [1] And Elon definitely didn't invent BitCoin. His ego would never permit him to have kept that a secret for a month, let alone a decade plus.
  - pyman 1y ago
    Context matters. The PayPal mafia (Musk, Nossk, Thiel, Levchin, Sacks, and the rest) spent years working closely, obsessing over banks, money, payments, and how to move value on the internet, questioning everything: What is money? Who controls it? How do you make it more efficient, global, and digital?

FabHK 1y ago

> They merged with Confinity who'd already built PayPal, had a working prototype, etc. Interesting, need to read about it. So similar story as with Tesla? Existing opinion nicely confirmed.

Suppafly 1y ago
I've got a Confinity Paypal tshirt from a job fair I went to in 2000 or 2001 from back when they envisioned people using palm pilots to transfer money. I always think it's hilarious that people give Elon any credit for doing anything at the company.
- pyman 1y ago
  The people who give him credit are the same people who sold PayPal for $1.5 billion in July 2002: Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, Luke Nosek, Reid Hoffman, David Sacks, Ken Howery, Jeremy Stoppelman, Russel Simmons. Elon was removed as CEO in 2000, but he remained the largest individual shareholder when PayPal went public.
- kragen 1y ago
  I saw people using PalmPilots to transfer money on PayPal in 02001.
bostik 1y ago
Some of the history between the two companies is covered in a book, "Paypal Wars.[0] Among other things it happens to spotlight Musk's fascination with having "X" as the company name, especially for a bank. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_PayPal_Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_PayPal_Wars
- everfrustrated 1y ago
  Yup. Also explains why X is trying to move into payments now. Elon seems to need to finish a vision he didn't get a chance to finish back then.
shkkmo 1y ago
> So similar story as with Tesla? Existing opinion nicely confirmed. How is that similar? Tesla was 2 dudes and an office with no IP and no product when Musk became the lead investor and chairman of the board. Whereas when Cofinity and X.com merged it was as two functioning companies operating in the same market. What similarity do you see?

pyman 1y ago

So you are contradicting what Luke Nosek, the co-founder of PayPal, said? Luke: "Many people don’t know this, but the initial mission of PayPal was to create a global currency that was independent of interference by these, you know, corrupt cartels of banks and governments that were debasing their currencies.” Why should we believe you and not the person who created PayPal? https://finance.yahoo.com/news/paypal-originally-aimed-create-global-084300203.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/paypal-originally-aimed-creat...

FireBeyond 1y ago
Uhhh... nothing I said contradicts Luke Nosek. Elon was working on a digital bank, not a global currency. His company was failing miserably. Confinity, who made PayPal, and had a first version working, merged with them. Elon gets no credit for a 'global currency' idea (nor do I think he and Thiel invented Bitcoin[1]), because Confinity was already working on that idea when they merged and became PayPal properly, in the four months before he was ousted. My argument was that Elon wasn't all about the global currency. [1] And Elon definitely didn't invent BitCoin. His ego would never permit him to have kept that a secret for a month, let alone a decade plus.
- pyman 1y ago
  Context matters. The PayPal mafia (Musk, Nossk, Thiel, Levchin, Sacks, and the rest) spent years working closely, obsessing over banks, money, payments, and how to move value on the internet, questioning everything: What is money? Who controls it? How do you make it more efficient, global, and digital?