Next to hundreds of delegates at a crowded Miami conference in June, Jack Dorsey pondered, “If I weren’t at Square or Twitter, I’d be working on bitcoin.”
Dorsey made decent solely on a single part of that on Monday, confirming his exit from Twitter for the 2nd time and turning over the CEO job to a 10-year veteran of the company. According to a person acquainted with his intentions, the 45-year-old businessman, who is sometimes characterized as a mystery with diverse interests ranging from meditating to yogic interests to fashion design, intends to follow his passion, which includes concentrating on managing Square Inc. and do more charity work. Dorsey had established the framework for his next chapter long before the surprising announcement, populating both businesses with crypto-related ventures.
Underpinning Dorsey’s bigger perspective is the philosophy of “decentralization” or the notion that technology and money should not be centralised in the control of a few gatekeepers, as they are now, but rather in the power of the many, either individuals or businesses. The idea has been realised at Square, which has created a section dedicated to working on initiatives and providing funds with the goal of increasing bitcoin’s global acceptance.
Dorsey seems to have been a long-time supporter of bitcoin. The attraction is that the cryptocurrency will enable secure and safe transfers, with bitcoin’s value unconnected to any authority.
The concept has also bolstered new initiatives at Twitter, where Dorsey utilised a top lieutenant – and now the company’s current CEO Parag Agrawal – to lead a team planning to create a decentralised social media procedure, which also will enable various social platforms to interact with each other in the same way that mail servers do. Dorsey unveiled Bluesky in 2019 with the goal of giving people discretion over the kinds of content they view online, easing the “burden” on firms like Twitter to maintain a global policy to combat misuse or inaccurate statements.
Bitcoin has also played an important role in both of his businesses. Square became one of the first publicly traded corporations to have bitcoin assets on its balance sheet, after investing $220 million in the cryptocurrency.
Square established a new business unit dubbed TBD in August to concentrate on bitcoin. The startup also intends to develop a bitcoin hardware wallet, a bitcoin mining system, and a decentralised bitcoin exchange. People on twitter may tip their favourite content producers using bitcoin. The company has been experimenting with non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a digital asset that enables customers to acquire one-of-a-kind digital art.
Analysts believe the shift bodes well for Square, the fintech network he co-founded in 2009. Square’s core Cash App has suffered slowdown in the most recent quarter, following a bull run in market share in 2020. It is also attempting to absorb its largest acquisition to date, the $29 billion purchase of Buy Now Pay Later operator Afterpay.
