Is Bitcoin Interesting to one of the Biggest Social Media Platform in the World?

Some must sink for others to surface and too often, the same concept has been proven true in business. In the case of cryptocurrencies, there is a general consensus that prices of individual digital currencies tend to follow each other. This is perfectly clear in the case of major cryptocurrencies including bitcoin and ethereum, which usually strictly follow the pattern of the biggest earner at that prolonged period of time.

While there are many variations on this and other possibilities in the short term, in the long run, all big cryptocurrencies have very similar trends. However, currently, a cryptocurrency that does not even exist might be doing a great service to bitcoin in particular. This cryptocurrency is Libra, a project of the social media giant Facebook.

Since its announcement, it underwent a prolonged and seemingly growing barrage of criticism from more quarters than one could count. This produced a climate where the entire project in its current form is completely shaken to its core and could even potentially be shelved. Yet, at the same time, this process allowed bitcoin to slightly stand out as a different kind of crypto story. Now, there is even a chance that another huge social media platform might see something that would be a big boost for crypto in the same blockchain network.

Jack Dorsey Statement

A couple of days ago, Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, emphatically rejected that his company will be joining the Libra project. While this adds to the pile of PR miseries for Facebook, Dorsey also stated something else that does help other existing cryptocurrencies. He said that he believed – as he stated previously – that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are the future of the so-called Internet money.

This topic came about on the Twitter News Summit in New York where he was asked about the potential of the company and joining the Libra association. This is an alliance of companies – now constantly shrinking – that are supporting Facebook in its development of the cryptocurrency project. Along with the rejection of that possibility, Dorsey also said that the Libra project was not an open standard that is available to everyone online. Instead, the protocol was born from the goals of a single company. He further stated that it is not in line with his personal beliefs and what Twitter as a company generally stands for.

National Currency of the Internet

The statement that the first man of Twitter made also included some interesting praise. Dorsey said that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that are operating on a decentralized basis are the future of what he called Internet money. In his view, the Internet itself is an emerging entity that is almost a nation-state in its own way. In that environment, the currency of choice is now bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The same will remain true in the coming years and become even more prominent.

In that setup, centralized entities like Libra stand only a limited chance for success and adoption. Dorsey is also a long-time fan of crypto. He is a Lighting Labs investor and a supporter of Tippin’, which is an add-on that helps Twitter users provide each other tips in crypto. He even recently hired a team of engineers, or at least plans to do so, who would contribute open-source solutions for the bitcoin ecosystem. The team would work on decentralized ideas and solutions, but be both hired and responsible to him directly.

Benefits of Bitcoin

In June 2019, Dorsey also presented several reasons why he believes that the bitcoin is the winning solution for any cryptocurrency need. These include the fact that the principles of the cryptocurrencies had been set by its creator Satoshi Nakamoto, the fact that its scarcity principle and finally, something that is regularly missed in mainstream media – the fact that over 10 years, bitcoin network survived all of its challenges and even attacks and keep functioning.

What is even more interesting is the fact that the network did not have any significant downtime in its history. Clearly, Dorsey believes that it has a lot going for it and from a historical and technical perspective, he is completely right. However, does all of this somehow point to the possibility of Twitter somehow integrating cryptocurrencies in their own platform?

Twitter and Crypto

Right now, Twitter is already the go-to platform for all things crypto. As a source of information, it trumps over all other social media outlets and not just because of Dorsey’s benign outlook on the same technology. More than anything, Twitter is geared towards the young and tech-savvy, allowing for space where esports players, technology enthusiasts and crypto traders can all find info and networking really fast and in an easy manner.

More than any other social media, Twitter is crypto-friendly in that sense. Yet, the notion that it will add cryptocurrencies to its basic operation might be a bit too optimistic and somewhat of a fanciful notion coming from those who would really like to see this actually happen. Right now, the safe bet is that there is little chance of cryptocurrency of any kind being integrated on Twitter and the same will likely stay like this for the time being.

Issue of Crypto Integration

The key problem of any kind of big change to the Twitter platform is that this company does not implement new elements easily. Instead, Twitter has always been about its core appeal of short messages in an easily accessible manner and that does not change easily inside of the same social media. A recent change in layout was cosmetic in nature but it still took up a lot of resources and the users did not approve of it at all.

That is why Twitter would likely spend years testing and checking any crypto integration before releasing it live. Otherwise, the fallout might be enormous especially if something similar to a failure would occur. If an actual breakdown of some kind took place, Dorsey would likely be looking for a new job. That is why right now, Twitter is crypto-friendly, but nothing near an actual direct supporter of bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency.