Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and one of the most influential crypto proponents, recently bought Twitter for $44 billion, stirring up a lot of debates and opinions across the internet.
There’s considerable speculation surrounding Musk’s intentions for Twitter. While nothing is certain, we do know that changes often impact a lot of people, both positively and negatively. Since its launch, Twitter has cemented itself as a platform for influential personalities and newsmakers. Even though the platform has only a fraction of users compared to Facebook (now Meta), Twitter is still the go-to place to explore “breaking news” and stay in touch with daily trends.
The internet is currently divided, with some claiming that this “hostile” takeover is but another publicity stunt by the world’s wealthiest man. At the same time, some are speculating that this takeover will finally enable free speech and decentralization.
The Crypto Community Sees A Brighter Future
Despite varied opinions, Twitter’s crypto fanatics are rallying around Musk, primarily because they realize that a Musk takeover means that Twitter will ultimately adopt better crypto primitives. Most features that Twitter has added over the years have fizzled, either due to bad user experiences and interfaces or mismanagement.
For instance, Twitter earlier added the “crypto tipping” option, but it is limited to a handful of cryptocurrencies. Under the older management, the platform also rolled out the “verified NFT profile pictures” feature but only kept it limited to Twitter Blue subscribers ($3 per month). Besides, the eligible NFTs were only compatible with Ethereum and listed on OpenSea.
In this context, it is critical to realize that crypto adoption can only reach more mainstream audiences when not promoted from a maximalist point of view, limited to just the biggest token or NFT marketplace. The true value of cryptocurrencies lies in transparency, inclusiveness, and decentralization.
The crypto community is backing Musk because this is what he intends to do. In a recent TED event, the new owner of Twitter underlined that opening up Twitter’s source code on Github and enabling Dogecoin (DOGE) as another payment option for crypto tipping are among his top priorities.
Sharing his opinion on the future of Twitter, Narek Gevergyan, CEO & Founder of CoinStats, notes, “Some blockchain-centric products like NFTs and crypto tipping are already available on Twitter. Putting other products – be they DeFi, GameFi, or SocialFi – in front of an enormous active user base will help crypto gain even greater visibility. Moreover, it can open up profound new monetization avenues within the application, benefiting the user community and Twitter alike. In addition, if Twitter starts experimenting with cryptocurrencies, we may gradually witness the microblogging platform tap into the Metaverse and Web3 realms as well, encouraging greater decentralization and user ownership. Overall, this represents a definite win-win situation for both Twitteratis and the cryptoverse.”
He adds, “We should say that back in 2017-18 when the FB/INSTA/GOOGLE blocked everything related to crypto – Twitter was THE ONLY social media that did not follow this example and stayed loyal to crypto regardless of all the scams ICOs and the deep bear market. It’s important to note that 20% of CoinStats users, according to our survey, regularly use Twitter which has always been more crypto-friendly since the very beginning, that’s the reason Twitter is considered the only social media where the main activity about crypto happens. Crypto played a valuable role in broadening Twitter and bringing more people to use Twitter as Twitter is a crypto oasis for enthusiasts.”
Musk has been pretty clear about his intentions in the last few weeks, dropping plenty of hints on what he intends to change across Twitter. For instance, in one of his tweets, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO emphatically stated that he would “get rid of bot armies or die trying.”
If you use Twitter regularly, you might have noticed that companies and individuals (usually fake accounts) are spamming the microblogging platform with copy-paste tweets to make something #trend. While the feature was originally developed for the greater good, people have since exploited it to promote their agenda – be it propaganda, political bias, or shitcoins. If Musk actually finds a way to rid the platform of bot armies, it will bring a drastic change across the platform.
On top of it, there’s the quandary of centralization. Right now, the entire platform is regulated by a handful of employees (who may as well be biased in their outlooks), deciding on what you should see on Twitter. Since Elon Musk is an extremely outspoken proponent of free speech and decentralization, this “hostile” takeover may even solve the problem of centralization and censorship. Musk has already hinted that he plans to open Twitter’s source code, adding transparency while suggesting a gradual transition towards decentralization.
In the context of decentralization and freedom of speech on Twitter, Fluid President and CEO Ahmed Ismail explains, “There is a concern about one man owning this media goliath despite his good intentions. As Twitter’s owner, Musk could have full editorial authority on one of the world’s most powerful social media platforms without any regulatory oversight. This also applies to cryptocurrencies and price manipulation of assets. Any crypto held by Musk or promoted by him will receive a high awareness on the platform. It would be good to understand how his ownership of Twitter will give crypto projects a better and more level playing field and move away from Doge and BTC.”
He further highlights, “As Twitter is more of a one-way communication tool, it lacks intuitive interaction and is less valuable and impactful as a community-building tool. It’s also important to note that Twitter works best as a thought leader and executive profiling platform with notable figures such as Musk and Jack Dorsey for example. With crypto having many innovators, we’ll definitely see this type of content scale, and Twitter as a platform bear the fruits of higher engagement.”
The crypto community hopes that Elon Musk will play a critical role in broadening the platform’s capabilities from a technology standpoint. Between empowering users to pay in cryptocurrencies for ads, letting content creators earn in cryptocurrencies from the ads that run on their content, linking with other Web3 platforms and dApps, or adding DeFi primitives, there are many avenues worth exploring, each of which can definitively add more value to the platform and user experience.
While the future isn’t written in stone and all we can do is speculate, the words of Fluid’s CEO wrap it up perfectly: “A utopian outlook, but aren’t we all in crypto!?”
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