Twitter launched the Bitcoin "reward" function: What are the opportunities and challenges?

Original title: "Twitter CEO's "BTC Plan": Promising, but also problematic"

Written by: Jeff John Roberts

This week, Twitter unveiled a BTC feature that could change the world — but only if the social media company gets people to actually use it.

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, has always been a supporter of BTC. On September 24, Twitter announced the launch of a "tip" tipping service to its 300 million active users, allowing anyone to share wallet addresses or use the "Strik" application to send Or receive Bitcoin. But most importantly, Twitter also announced a plan to let users connect their Bitcoin wallets to NFTs associated with their identities.

So, what does this mean?

First of all, this may be the first time in BTC history that it has a chance to be accepted by the masses and move towards the mainstream, because Twitter is not only a large social media platform used by political and sports figures, but also a major media force driving current news content. Linking all this could drive tens of millions of people to try out BTC.

The integration of BTC and Twitter also means that Twitter has completed something that other technology giants cannot do at present: build a borderless payment system in the application. You may recall that three years ago Facebook tried to launch a new stablecoin called Libra, but ultimately regulators all but killed the plan. Twitter is likely to avoid the fate of being "strangled" because it does not exercise Facebook's monopoly power, and they are not trying to "mint" their own "currency", but rely on the existing financial payment tool-Bitcoin.

Second, the Twitter Bitcoin “tipping” feature also coincides with the launch of many other new (non-crypto) Twitter products, including a newsletter and a live forum called “Spaces,” which allow artists and creators to communicate directly with connect with their audience. For example, comedians in Mexico can perform on Twitter and receive instant tips from viewers in Madrid, Buenos Aires and New York, and Twitter even has an invoicing system for such payment transactions.

The world had been waiting for something like this to happen, and Twitter did it.

Media and culture have been borderless for decades, but payments do. Sure, we've been able to use credit cards (and cryptocurrencies) globally, but there's never been an easy one-click tool that plugs directly into the apps we use every day—now, Twitter's Bitcoin "tip/tip" ” feature could change that, potentially even spurring YouTube, TikTok and other tech companies to follow suit. At the same time, adding NFTs as a form of identification could also help bring the crypto community mainstream, as Twitter has promised.

However, the ideal is full and the reality is very skinny.

If Twitter wants to achieve the scenarios described above, the premise is that people will use the functions they provide.

In fact, Jack Dorsey has to prove that he has the ability to get more people to use the feature he introduced, but there is still an open question. Twitter made the cryptocurrency world very excited by introducing Bitcoin tips, but the problem is that people in the encryption industry may know how it works very well, and many "outsiders" may not buy it, which will lead to Jack Dorsey's plan. .

On the one hand, the reliance on Strike for the "tipping/tipping" feature on Twitter could mean a hassle to use, as the app doesn't appear to be ready to deal with the regulatory issues associated with launching a global payments network . In addition, Strike is also a partner of the El Salvador government to launch a bitcoin payment service. The tax rules around bitcoin are still a mess, especially in the United States. Less "surprise" - these will lead to Twitter's "tip/reward" function cannot be widely used on a large scale.

Jack Dorsey, on the other hand, is a staunch supporter of Bitcoin, so he decided to only accept BTC for the Twitter "tipping/rewarding" feature, which obviously pissed off Ethereum fans. Decrypt founder Josh Quittner even suspected that Jack Dorsey ruled out Ethereum because he feared it would threaten Twitter's centralized governance. Frankly speaking, whatever Jack Dorsey’s motivations, this “choose only” Bitcoin has sparked opposition from the Ethereum community and DeFi supporters.

As a final note, there are some practical issues with Twitter’s “encryption plan,” especially with respect to NFTs. The Twitter company has said it will display NFT-based badges associated with their wallets on users’ Twitter accounts, but the bitcoin blockchain doesn’t appear to be up to the task, and Twitter has declined to explain how it will support the feature — opaque Never a good sign.

Twitter's Bitcoin initiative is extremely promising, but also fraught with danger, and perhaps only time will tell whether it will succeed.

Source link: decrypt.co

Source: Odaily Planet Daily

Disclaimer: Cointelegraph Chinese is a blockchain news information platform, and the information provided only represents the author's personal opinion, which has nothing to do with the position of the Cointelegraph Chinese platform, and does not constitute any investment and financial advice. Readers are requested to establish correct currency concepts and investment concepts, and earnestly raise risk awareness.