By: Sean Fontno, Elle Grant × Vaughn Lowery
Jack Dorsey always had a niche for technology. Back in 2000, he thought to himself, “What if you could share your status with all your friends really easily, so they know what you’re doing?” 6 years later, Jack Dorsey posted the very first tweet: “just setting up my twitter,” and became the company’s chief executive officer. In 2010, Dorsey started investing in the social networking company Foursquare and launched “Square.” Square lets people receive credit card payments through a mobile phone or computer. With his knowledge of social media and Square, it doesn’t seem like much of a surprise for Dorsey wanting to bring Bitcoin and Twitter together, creating something that can quickly connect people and their money.
What is Bitcoin? It’s a currency created back in 2009 by an unknown person using the false name of Satoshi Nakamoto. Have you ever been to the arcade or to the casino and received tokens or chips? Similarly, you must exchange real currency for cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is a digital currency that’s just like the normal United States Dollar (USD) but is protected by cryptography, which makes it impossible for scammers to attack this form of currency. It allows you to make payments online and money is easily moved place to place, account to account, with no credit card fees. With cryptocurrency being decentralized, YOU own that money.
Along a contributing factor to this evolution in currency technology are NFTs. NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are the tokens used to buy things in cryptocurrency. NFTs helps the owner, artist, etc, earn a percentage of all the sales. It protects the unique original work being sold because in this day in age, everything is being used for something and wouldn’t you want your rightly earned money for that? They create an immutable record, keeping note of every sale. It’s the new modern step to your work or business. All you need is a smart device and an internet connection, and with just those two things, Dorsey’s goal to reach a worldwide audience will definitely be achieved. Especially as there are already 192 million daily active users on Twitter.
Jack Dorsey sees a new chance to bring cryptocurrency into Twitter in the modern moment. Dorsey, who has been supporting Bitcoin for years, even discussed with his investors about the next steps. He told them it would help the company keep up with new market strategies. He explains how the native currency can help them move products like Super Follows, Commerce, Subscriptions, and Tip Jar. Dorsey sees this as an opportunity to “…reach every single person on the planet,” instead of doing the regular market-to-market approaches. So, Dorsey’s goal to always stay connected with people continues to be in play.
Bringing Bitcoin to Twitter seems like it will give businesses from small to big an option to increase profits and reach more audiences. With Bitcoin, you can create your own fees, avoid fraud, and kiss “three business days” goodbye! Having these benefits accessible on Twitter could be the next step for the social media of the future.
