Twitter has announced that it’s launching a new division for “all things blockchain at Twitter,” called Twitter Crypto. The head of the division is Tess Rinearson, who has led engineering teams at cryptocurrency startups like Interchain, Tendermint, and Chain.
Tess said that the team will be exploring the growing interest on decentralised apps to manage virtual goods and currencies. She will be reporting to Twitter’s Chief Technology Officer Parag Agrawal, with the team’s goal being to push the platform towards decentralisation.
Looking farther ahead, we’ll be exploring how ideas from crypto communities can help us push the boundaries of what’s possible with identity, community, ownership and more.
— Tess Rinearson (@_tessr) November 10, 2021
“There’s massive and growing interest among creators to use decentralised apps to manage virtual goods and currencies,” said Twitter. Tess says that the crypto team will explore ideas from crypto communities on pushing the boundaries of identity and ownership. Twitter Crypto will also be working with Bluesky, an independent team funded by Twitter to develop a decentralised social media standard.
The move isn’t surprising seeing as how CEO Jack Dorsey is a big fan of blockchain and cryptocurrency. Twitter already allows users to tip creators using Bitcoin, and it’s working on adding other cryptocurrencies to that feature. The social media giant is also developing a way for collectors to display their non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on their profile.
(Source: Tess Rinearson / Twitter, Engadget)
