decrypt.co
Parag Agrawal out; Elon Musk in.
With the world’s richest man—and chief Dogecoin enthusiast—now in charge of Twitter, the platform’s biggest crypto influencers are nothing short of ecstatic. Twitter's new "Chief Twit," as Musk now refers to himself in his Twitter bio, has made his plans for the platform clear.
And the new CEO’s commitment to free speech, plus his opposition to permanently banning users, have proven particularly popular within crypto circles.
Coin Center Communications Director Neeraj Agrawal likened Musk’s takeover to Batman villain Gane giving his infamous “Gotham is Yours” speech in the movie “The Dark Knight Rises,” while freeing prisoners from their cells.
Elon's first day at Twitter pic.twitter.com/v38ogb1sxL
— Neeraj K. Agrawal (@NeerajKA) October 28, 2022
MicroStrategy’s Executive Chairman (and staunch Bitcoin advocate) Michael Saylor, has also released a flurry of optimistic tweets on the matter. On Thursday, he shared a cartoon of Musk freeing Twitter’s iconic bird from its cage.
pic.twitter.com/fEg9f0egal
— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) October 28, 2022
The day prior, Saylor told Musk that free speech and citizen journalism could only be guaranteed if Twitter protected users from “the establishment above and bots below.”
Spam bots, which are especially prevalent on crypto Twitter, are another issue that Musk has promised to combat. Some users have already claimed that crypto-related hashtags are experiencing significantly less spam since Musk’s takeover, though there’s no hard data to back this up as of yet.
If @elonmusk was able to get the bots turned off within minutes of arrival, then there was clearly an attempt to jam and disrupt our communications.
It would be incredible if he could publicly explain who the attacker was and why the twitter board and employees were complicit. https://t.co/987u69qPs3
— Preston Pysh (@PrestonPysh) October 28, 2022
Crypto industry heavyweight Binance has also already promised to help eliminate bots from Twitter after backing Musk’s Twitter buyout deal with $500 million.
Musk was in close talks with industry leaders about how to find blockchain-based and decentralized solutions for Twitter prior to confirming his offer this year, including with the likes of Jack Dorsey and FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.
Twitter bots seeing Elon take over pic.twitter.com/vddbgzLnWx
— Alan Carroll (@alancarroII) October 28, 2022
Given the industry’s close involvement, Custodia Bank CEO Caitlin Long thinks Musk’s new role primarily represents an evolution in payment technology.
“Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter is about payments,” she tweeted on Friday, responding to Binance and Twitter’s partnership. “Banks—get ready to be disintermediated by far better payment tech.”
Many groups outside of crypto Twitter aren’t supportive of the change in leadership, or of Musk’s liberal attitudes over free speech on the platform.
Dogecoin creator Billy Markus believes Musk’s critics are being overdramatic.
“Why are people worried that Elon is gonna make Twitter worse, anyway? This place was already a hellish cesspool,” he tweeted on Friday.
and all the people who publicly said they are leaving twitter if elon buys it are like definitely totally leaving twitter now https://t.co/DKqrkRNq2t
— Shibetoshi Nakamoto (@BillyM2k) October 26, 2022