How Elon Musk could add more crypto to Twitter
After months of dramatic back-and-forth, Elon Musk has taken control of Twitter Inc., igniting emotions ranging from hope to anxiety among users preparing to see how the billionaire will make his mark on the social media platform. Crypto Twitter is no exception.
Digital asset enthusiasts have long flocked to Twitter, where they’ve changed their profile pictures to photos of themselves with “laser eyes” as a signal of their crypto support, posted irreverent memes about rising (and then falling) coin prices, and retweeted threads from their favorite entrepreneurs.
Musk, a prolific tweeter himself, has had a complicated relationship with crypto, seeming to embrace it one minute and downplay it the next. That hasn’t stopped industry supporters from envisioning an expansion of Twitter’s blockchain capabilities under his leadership that would expand mainstream adoption. Their excitement is likely to have helped boost interest in Dogecoin, Musk’s token of choice, which has soared for several days before he finally sealed the deal.
Twitter has made its own forays into crypto. Co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey is one of the industry’s best-known Bitcoin bulls, and under his leadership, the company introduced a feature to allow users to receive tips in Bitcoin, built a Twitter Crypto division and started Bluesky, a project dedicated to building a decentralized social media network that is now an independent company. Since Dorsey’s departure last November, Twitter has added Ether tipping, non-fungible token profile pictures and USD Coin stablecoin payments for a select group of creators.
It’s unclear what will happen to those efforts under the leadership of Musk, who has been notoriously mercurial about crypto and could purge the platform’s digital assets team when other high-profile executives leave. While the Tesla Inc. CEO has highlighted Dogecoin on Twitter enough to earn the name “Dogefather,” he called the token “a hassle” when he hosted “Saturday Night Live” in May 2021. He also added the ability to pay in Bitcoin for Tesla’s electric vehicle in 2021, but ended the practice less than two months later, citing the cryptocurrency’s environmental impact.
By putting together the Twitter acquisition, Musk appeared to be wavering on his commitment to crypto. Binance Holdings Ltd., the world’s largest digital asset exchange, committed $500 million to Musk’s funding for the deal in May and is reportedly building a team focused on exploring how crypto can be useful for social media companies. In a flurry of text messages released as part of litigation over the Twitter deal, Musk first discussed using blockchain to promote free speech and reduce spam on social media, then later wrote that “Blockchain Twitter is not possible.”
But if Musk decided to let crypto play a bigger role on Twitter, here are some ways he could do it:
Bots and spam on Twitter are major pain points for Musk, and helped spark a contentious legal battle that put his acquisition of the company in jeopardy. The problem is particularly important in crypto, where spam accounts impersonate famous figures like Musk to promote scams involving fake crypto handouts. But some digital asset enthusiasts believe that using blockchain could help reduce bots on Twitter. A blockchain-based identity verification tool or an NFT passport could be options to advance Musk’s goal of wanting to “authenticate all real people” on Twitter.
Freedom of speech is close to Musk’s heart, and he intends to lift the company’s lifetime ban on users. These values align with those of many crypto-believers who are dedicated to the ethos of decentralization promoted by blockchain. They believe that a single entity should not make major decisions about how a platform is managed.
While Musk could potentially implement a token-based voting system that would allow users to have more say over what happens on Twitter, it’s important to note that his potential embrace of crypto is a double-edged sword. While adding more crypto elements to Twitter could expand the mainstream use of digital assets, it would further consolidate Musk’s influence over an industry that many want to be as decentralized as possible.
Musk has already expressed ambitions to turn Twitter into a “super app” and spoke admiringly of China’s WeChat platform, which can handle messaging, games, payments and video streaming. With other ambitious super app creators such as Revolut Ltd. expanding into crypto, it would make sense if Musk’s vision included digital assets as well. Allowing more cryptocurrencies for betting could be a first step, with Dogecoin a likely top candidate given Musk’s love of the token.
Other mainstream social media platforms such as Instagram are delving further into NFTs. Although Musk has derided these assets in the past, including Twitter’s decision to allow authenticated NFT profile pictures, he could introduce more NFT features, such as a marketplace or the ability for users to create a profile represented by an NFT that gives them greater ownership over their content – a practice already implemented by the decentralized social media platform Lens Protocol.
These measures could ensure that Twitter does not fall behind other social media giants when it comes to crypto adoption.
While integrating these blockchain elements would be a complex and closely watched business for Twitter, Musk’s new government still opens up the potential for them to become a reality.
