Musk Pitches One-Click Payments On Twitter, Including Crypto
In the past, Musk has talked about creating "an everything app." Often teased as the "X" app, financial transactions will be a crucial element of that hypothetical app. At this point, it increasingly looks like Twitter is eventually going to evolve into that app. According to details of a recent meeting addressed by Musk that were shared by The Verge, he proposed the idea that Twitter will "also make it easy to do crypto."
Musk further added that users should be able to send money to each other "with one click." Now, Twitter doesn't allow peer-to-peer transactions, but it does allow a system called tipping. That latter lets followers send money – both regular currency and crypto tokens – to a content creator of their choice.
However, Musk's fascination with the cryptoverse is also well-known, in both good and bad ways. Details of his text messages that were unsealed as part of legal proceedings revealed that he entertained the idea of building a blockchain-based social media platform that allows Dogecoin payments.
In October this year, app reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong revealed that Twitter was working on a crypto wallet system that supports "crypto deposit and withdrawal." Binance, the world's biggest crypto exchange, recently emerged as an investor in Musk's Twitter with a stake worth $500 million. Even Musk recently teased on Twitter that users should be able to pay for a Twitter Blue subscription in Doge coins.
Payments, everywhere!
Twitter has had transaction-related projects under development, in the past, but none of them came to fruition. Musk, however, sees them as a major revenue vehicle. Musk reportedly told Twitter's employees that "the payments side of things will probably be more valuable than all the rest of Twitter combined." Whether those plans involve only fiat currency transactions, solely crypto tokens, or both, remains to be seen.
Ever since he took over Twitter's new CEO, Musk has floated a variety of ambitious plans. Among them is allowing longer, higher-resolution video uploads. Musk is reportedly targeting the video-centric social media landscape, one that is dominated by the likes of TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. And to achieve that, Musk is even willing to pay content creators up to a 10% higher fee compared to what they make from rival platforms.
Paywalled videos are another project that Musk reportedly sees as a potent way for creators to make a living off of Twitter. Musk is also hoping to boost Twitter's core communications appeal. To achieve that, he has reportedly greenlit encrypted direct messaging.
Plus, there are also plans of enabling voice and video calls directly on Twitter, all of which will be encrypted. All these tricks reek of premium features, and given Musk's enthusiasm for monetization, they will most likely be pushed beyond the Twitter Blue subscription paywall, which just might allow crypto payments in the near future.