Elon Musk, the famous technology entrepreneur, tweeted this week that he would give one million Dogecoin, worth about $100,000, to anyone who could prove that an emerald mine his father claims to have owned actually exists. Errol Musk, Elon's father, has said that he helped fund Elon's move from South Africa to North America in the 1990s using money from an emerald mine he operated in Zambia. However, Elon has denied knowing about any such mine and called it a "fake emerald mine."
Despite Errol's insistence that Elon is aware of the mine, Elon announced on Twitter he would give a large amount of Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency, to anyone who could provide concrete evidence that the mine is real.
"I will pay a million Dogecoin for proof of this mine's existence!" Musk tweeted
Elon and his father Errol have a complicated relationship. Errol has given several interviews over the years claiming he once owned half of an emerald mine in Zambia and that the money from the mine helped fund Elon's early success. However, Elon has disputed this and said his father had almost no involvement in his success.
Errolwas an electromechanical engineer, while Elon taught himself computer programming and entrepreneurship at a young age.
Elon's latest tweet challenging anyone to prove the existence of Errol's supposed emerald mine is the latest chapter in the complex family backstory of the world's richest man. Despite their differences, Elon has said he still loves and respects his father, though they remain estranged. Elon has built his companies SpaceX and Tesla into worldwide brands and has amassed a huge personal fortune, making Errol's claims to have funded Elon's early success increasingly dubious. The promised Dogecoin reward is Musk's latest move to cast doubt on stories of his family's supposed emerald mine wealth.
