Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s CEO, resigned Monday morning. He said that Twitter was ready to move on from its founders. This means that he will have more time for Square (the payments company he founded and runs) and his growing fascination with cryptocurrency.
Dorsey has been a long-time bitcoin fan. He attributes his passion for the largest cryptocurrency in the world to its function of ‘a foundational technology that isn’t controlled or influenced’. ‘
“If I wasn’t at Square or Twitter I’d be working on Bitcoin ,” Dorsey said to a crowd at Bitcoin 2020, , a huge conference that attracted tens of thousands to Miami in June.
Dorsey’s personal favorite is the decentralization of internet power. He was the leader of funding a project called BlueSky at Twitter. This project envisions openly publishing standards for social media companies so that users can easily communicate with each other. Parag Agrawal, the new CEO of Twitter has been central in pursuing this vision. This recalls how the internet was built upon common standards.
Dorsey is also a strong advocate for decentralizing the workplace. Twitter was the first company to offer employees the possibility to work at home indefinitely after the Covid-19 pandemic. Dorsey also discussed the possibility of moving to Africa part-time as a way to “work decentralized,” but he stopped talking about that option after the Covid pandemic became more severe.
CNBC was told by Tom Lee, Head of Research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, that Twitter’s changing guard is a ‘bullish sign for crypto.
Lee stated Monday that there is not enough capital to support crypto innovation. This is why it takes people like Jack Dorsey, who spoke on CNBC’s Tech Check.
Square pushes into crypto
Square has increased its focus on crypto-related projects this year. Many are eager to see what Square does next with the crypto tasks Dorsey is now free from his Twitter responsibilities.
In 2018, the company launched bitcoin trading with the Cash App. This app allows users to purchase and sell bitcoin. Square Crypto was established by the company in 2019. This team is dedicated to open-source bitcoin work. Square also launched the Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance last year. This non-profit group aims to pool patents to promote crypto innovation.
Square announced in July that it would be creating a new business to build decentralized finance (DeFi), applications for bitcoin. Dorsey called it an open platform that allows developers to create decentralized, non-custodial, permissive financial services.
Square CEO in October stated that the company might enter the bitcoin mining industry. Earlier this month, the payments company published a whitepaper outlining plans to launch ‘tbDEX’, its own decentralized exchange for trading and buying cryptocurrencies.
The payments giant is also creating its own hardware wallet to ” make Bitcoin custody more mainstream.
Square included bitcoin in its balance sheet. This was due to an alignment between values. As of September 30, the company had a fair value for its bitcoin investments of $351.7 million.
Square’s Chief Finance Officer Amrita Ahuja stated that they believe bitcoin will become a more widespread currency in the future. We will continue to participate and learn as it grows in acceptance. This investment is an important step in a company’s journey to build products that are more inclusive.
These investments come at an important time for the crypto sector.
Lee stated that he doesn’t believe the space has been over-invested. “Crypto is where technology and financial services intersect.” This is literally 60% of the economy.