0% read
Last updated:
Jackson Palmer
Jackson Palmer is an Australian technologist and marketer who co‑founded Dogecoin and is the Senior Director of Product Management for Adobe Cloud’s Growth & Data Science team, a role he has held since December 2021.[1] He is also known for his strongly critical public views on cryptocurrencies and the broader crypto industry, expressed in interviews and a widely discussed Twitter thread, and for hosting the Griftonomics podcast, which examines grifts and scams in crypto, technology, and finance.[6][11][16][17]
Early Life & Education
Jackson Palmer is an Australian technologist and marketer.[6] He studied at the University of Newcastle in Australia, completing a Bachelor of Management (Marketing) around 2008 before moving into marketing and product roles in the technology industry.[15]
Career
In February 2009, Jackson started working for Business Catalyst as a Marketing Analyst, focusing on managing content and market research. He worked there for 7 months before being hired by Adobe where his extensive career at the software development company began.[1]
Adobe
Jackson started at the Product Marketing Specialist position in August 2009 and moved up to becoming the Associate Product Marketing Manager in July 2012. He was then promoted to Product Marketing Manager in December 2013, where he was responsible for increasing the use of Creative Cloud (a collection of software provided by Adobe to subscribers), researching patterns, and analyzing members of Creative Cloud.[1]
In March 2015, he became Senior Manager, specializing in usage analytics for slightly over a year before he was given the title of Group Manager, coordinating a whole team to increase the engagement of Creative Cloud members. In January 2019 Jackson became the Director of Product Management, initially working on the Creative Cloud engagement platform and in December 2020 moving to the growth and data science sector. Since December 2021, he has been the Senior Director of Product Management, overseeing growth and data science for Adobe Creative Cloud.[1][2]
Griftonomics Podcast
In 2022 Palmer launched the Griftonomics podcast, a show focused on grifts and scams in the crypto, technology, and broader financial sectors.[16][17] As host, he discusses how speculative narratives and financial incentives shape online culture and investment behavior. He has also appeared on critical-crypto podcasts such as Crypto Critics’ Corner and in media outlets including Vice’s CYBER, where he talks about why many technology trends feel like scams and how this relates to crypto’s growth and promotion.[16][17]
Dogecoin
In late 2013, Jackson Palmer thought it would be funny to make a website of a meme and bought the domain name, dogecoin.com. Then a software developer at IBM, Billy Markus came across this website and thought he could take the joke further by creating a ‘meme’ coin in a way to make fun of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a whole. Billy reached out to Jackson and the two created Dogecoin.[3]
Dogecoin officially launched on December 6th, 2013, and finally dramatically gained popularity in January 2021 when the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk began tweeting about the coin. Despite the increase in the price per Dogecoin as it gained popularity, Jackson Palmer states that he never invested his own money into buying tokens of his creation.[3][4][9][10]
“I feel like I'd have a really messed up opinion of the world if I was on a private jet because of a dog on a coin”
After the release of Dogecoin, Palmer tried to “educate people around the technology and the pitfalls of it” but quickly came to realize that “nobody really cared about that, they just cared about making a buck”.[5]
With this negative view on crypto, in April 2015, Palmer announced his leave from Dogecoin and the community around it. Since then, Palmer has continued to comment on the people within the crypto community, criticizing cryptocurrencies and the technology behind them. He has especially shown his disapproval of Elon Musk, by stating that he is “really good at pretending he knows”, or saying, “ I think ego matters to him more than money” and more.[5][6][7]
Views on Crypto
Jackson Palmer has said he co-created Dogecoin as a joke and later became strongly critical of cryptocurrency; in a 2022 interview he stated that he "wishes it was the end of crypto" and that people are increasingly "making money off doing nothing".[6] In interviews given while promoting Griftonomics he has rejected the idea that the industry is in a true “crypto winter,” arguing instead that crypto moves in recurring speculative cycles in which promoters “wait for a fresh batch of fools” once earlier losses are forgotten.[6][18] He has described ICOs, DAOs, NFTs and initial game offerings (IGOs) as successive scam formats within this cycle and has framed the broader environment as “griftonomics,” where people are increasingly “making money off doing nothing.”[6][18] In a 2021 Twitter thread he outlined a strongly critical view of the crypto industry, describing cryptocurrency as an inherently right‑wing, hyper‑capitalistic technology that amplifies wealth through tax avoidance, reduced regulatory oversight, and artificially enforced scarcity.[11][12][13][14] Since 2022 he has reiterated in interviews that he does not expect an imminent “end of crypto,” instead comparing it to recurring speculative cycles that continue to draw in new investors and capital.[6]
“I think there’s going to need to be a crash. I think we’re well overdue for some sort of pop, and I don’t think it’s going to be a big boom. It’s going to be a lot more painful, and unfortunately, it will probably affect minorities and those [at the] lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum when it happens.”[6]
On top of this, he strongly states that he will not be returning to crypto because of the reasons stated before in a long Twitter thread.[11]
In the Twitter thread, he goes on to explain that the industry is controlled by a small group of wealthy individuals who have formed a "powerful cartel" that has ties to the centralized financial system they aimed to replace. He believes that the industry relies on "shady business connections, bought influencers, and pay-for-play media outlets" to promote a "get rich quick" mentality that preys on vulnerable and naive individuals.[12]
Palmer argues that the problems with cryptocurrency stem from its design, which he claims "is almost purpose-built to make the funnel of profiteering more efficient for those at the top and less safeguarded for the vulnerable."[13]
"cryptocurrency is like taking the worst parts of today's capitalist system (eg. corruption, fraud, inequality) and using software to technically limit the use of interventions (eg. audits, regulation, taxation) which serve as protections or safety nets for the average person."
Palmer also criticized the lack of accountability in the industry, saying "Lose your savings account password? Your fault. Fall victim to a scam? Your fault. Billionaires manipulating markets? They’re geniuses." He concludes by stating that, "New technology can make the world a better place, but not when decoupled from its inherent politics or societal consequences." He has continued to express his opinions on the crypto world in interviews and on social media, often describing crypto as enabling more efficient scams and using the term “griftonomics” to characterize the economics of grifts and speculative schemes in the sector.[6][16][17] In later interviews and podcast appearances he has continued to characterize the crypto ecosystem as enabling cult‑like or grift‑driven behaviour and has warned that regulatory gaps and celebrity promotion make it easy for new scams to emerge, while reiterating that he does not intend to “return to cryptocurrency.”[6][16][17]
See something wrong?
