After being one of the most influential platforms for cryptocurrency prices, Twitter itself has decided to get down to form a team dedicated to crypto assets. The social-media giant announced on Wednesday the formation of a team called “Twitter Crypto” focused on crypto, blockchains, and other decentralized technologies, including and going beyond cryptocurrencies.
The team would specifically focus on generating ways for creators on the app to earn money or accept cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin for payment, and other ways to use blockchain technology.
The team is being led by a new hire, software engineer Tess Rinearson, who will report to Twitter’s chief technology officer. Though the team did not mention how many vacancies exist, it is looking into filling new roles. Twitter said the new team will “set the strategy for the future of crypto at (and on) Twitter.”
Twitter already lets people tip users with bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency. And it recently announced a way for users to verify they own a nonfungible token, or NFT, that they post as a profile picture. But the company wants to explore decentralized apps, which run independently and not through a server owned by a company, giving users more control over privacy and over what they can post.
A Twitter spokeswoman declined to give specific examples of what the company might build, but added that it sees “an opportunity to help creators participate in the promise of an evolving, decentralized internet, directly on Twitter.”
Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey, who has been a long-time fan of bitcoin, sold his first tweet as an NFT in March for about $2.9 million.
Twitter Crypto will work closely with a nascent Twitter-sponsored initiative called BlueSky, which aims to build an “open decentralized standard for social media.” In the same way that no one bank controls cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum, there would be no one social network that would control the BlueSky protocol, even though its development is driven by Twitter.
The announcement comes after Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook said earlier this week that the company is looking into digital currencies. While the company has no immediate plans to accept cryptocurrency on Apple Pay or as a means of tender for its products, “there are other things that we are definitely looking at,” Mr. Cook said at a conference on Tuesday, without offering further details.
Twitter isn’t the only major social platform exploring blockchain technology. Just this week, Discord’s founder and CEO Jason Citron implied in a tweet that Discord is working on an integration with MetaMask, a popular crypto wallet service. Meanwhile, Reddit is hiring engineers for an NFT platform.
PayPal Holdings Inc. has said it is looking to expand its business of enabling customers to pay merchants with cryptocurrency assets. And payments company Square Inc., which like Twitter is also led by Mr. Dorsey, said last year that it acquired about $50 million worth of bitcoin for its corporate treasury.
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