Could Elon Musk’s Halloween Surprise Involve Bitcoin

Elon Musk, a billionaire inventor, is well-known for his cryptic comments. TwitterHis latest tweet has already broken the internet. He refers to Neuralink as the AI neural interface company that he works on when not building electric cars or sending rockets into outer space. The tweet was short and sweet: “Neuralink progress update show & tell on October 31st (Halloween).” People began to speculate on what this could mean immediately.

Let’s not forget about Musk’s “Halloween Surprise”. Bitcoin (BTC 0.64%). Musk is a Bitcoin enthusiast as we all know. He has frequently discussed possible uses for Bitcoin. Many speculate that Musk may be Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious anonymous inventor of Bitcoin. Guess which date Satoshi Nakamoto published his famous white paper about Bitcoin? Oct. 31, 2008. That’s Halloween. Coincidence?

Cryptocurrencies and Neurocurrencies

A show and tell by Neuralink last year featured a chimp playing video games with its brain. The demo can be viewed on YouTube. It’s amazing: A Macaque 9 years old gets rewarded for playing a video game with its brain. Pong The video was displayed on a monitor. The video’s title was simply “Monkey MindPong”. Naturally, this led to a series of memes that featured monkeys trading Bitcoins, people sending Bitcoins to each other with the brains of others, and monkeys creating Bitcoin.

What can Musk do in 2022 to make it a memorable encore? One option is “neurocurrencies.” It is only a matter time before Neuralink can process your thoughts as a series digital 1s or 0s. Then, people will be able monetize, trade, and value those thoughts. A neurocurrency can be created from thoughts. What if Musk found a way to do it and it involves Bitcoin. The old saying “A penny for every thought” is still true. In the future, it might be “A Bitcoin for Your Thoughts.”

Bitcoin enables a new metaverse world

Musk interviewed Musk at the end 2021 and strongly dismissed the current metaverse. He saw the metaverse today as a collection of marketing jargon used by companies. He rejected the idea that people would wear headsets or masks to pretend they were in virtual reality. He suggested Neuralink as the future’s metaverse. All action would be performed inside your brain once you have a digital brain chip. Consider how our imaginations create fictional characters and environments every time we read a book. Or how vivid our dreams can sometimes be.

If Neuralink becomes the metaverse, then it will require some digital currency to allow people to exchange value. If Neuralink is able to create a digital, imaginary world similar to Mars, then you will need a token to purchase goods in Musk’s Martian world. It could be Bitcoin, why not? Every metaverse requires a digital currency. Think about the most famous metaverse worlds. All of them require an in-game token, which you can use to buy items in their metaverse realms. Musk may be developing a way to allow people to explore the metaverse with their own brains, and then purchase items using Bitcoin.

Connecting all of the dots

Whatever happens Oct. 31, I won’t surprise. Even if Musk claims that he’s Satoshi Nakamoto after all these decades, it wouldn’t shock me. He seems to be the brain behind all the breakthrough inventions of the past decade. So why not Bitcoin? Musk began his career at PayPalHe was a pioneer in the creation of digital currencies. His Tesla The first publicly traded company to invest in Bitcoin was also a car company. He still gets asked if he is Satoshi Nakamoto.

Musk is clever and witty so maybe the “Halloween Surprise”, may be a misdirection play. Some believe that this surprise will somehow be related to Halloween. Some speculate that Neuralink might reveal a zombie brain creation on Halloween night. Spooky!

However, I will suggest something even stranger and more bizarre: Musk will unveil a metaverse-like digital universe that runs entirely within our brains and is powered by Bitcoin. Remember Musk’s words last year: “The most entertaining result is the most probable.”

Dominic Basulto holds positions on Bitcoin. The Motley Fool recommends Bitcoin, PayPal Holdings and Tesla to its readers. The disclosure policy at the Motley Fool is available.