Twitter reveals team that will lead its decentralisation and crypto initiatives

The microblogging and social network firm hopes to get deeper into the decentralised internet with its latest initiative

The San Francisco-based social media company Twitter confirmed yesterday that it was moving forward with its digital currencies and blockchain project. The Jack Dorsey-led firm announced a cryptocurrency team tasked with developing crypto, Dapp and NFT technology on the platform. In a shared press release, the company said that the team would help establish the "strategy for the future of crypto at (and on) Twitter."

The team will be headed by blockchain specialist Tess Rinearson who has previously worked with Chain.com, Cosmos, and the Interchain Foundation. Rinearson also served as the Vice President of blockchain application platform Tendermint Core.

"I'm thrilled to share that I've joined Twitter, to lead a new team focused on crypto, blockchains, and other decentralised technologies—including and going beyond cryptocurrencies," Rinearson shared in a tweet.

Bearing the name Twitter Crypto, the project will involve finding crypto use cases on Twitter. The team will explore ways to satisfy the increasing interest of creatives in using DApps (and the Web3 ecosystem) to manage currencies and virtual goods. Rinearson explained that the team would also be interested in finding ways to variegate what the community can do with digital assets.

"First, we'll be exploring how we can support the growing interest among creators to use decentralised apps to manage virtual goods and currencies and to support their work and communities," she said.

Past blockchain initiatives

This is not Twitter's first rodeo on blockchain or cryptocurrencies, and so is the case because it is led by a vocal crypto enthusiast in the social media space. Jack Dorsey's Twitter profile speaks to this, let alone the fact that he already sold his first tweet as an NFT for around 1630 ETH.

At the end of June, Twitter offered a total of140 npn-fungible tokens, one each to a select group of its users. The company doled out twenty versions of seven NFTs in what was an experiment to join the NFT space at the time.

The social platform also dropped Bitcoin Tips in September, a feature that allowed users to send tips through the platform. The beta product had initially launched in May and allowed transactions via linked third-party apps, including Venmo, Cash App, Chipper, and GoFundMe. In Bitcoin's case, users leverage the Tip Jar by adding BTC addresses to their profiles or via the Strike app, facilitated by the Bitcoin Lightning Network.

Twitter is also reportedly attempting to decentralise social platforms through the Bluesky initiative – a project Tess Rinearson will also be involved with.