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- Jacky Bitcoin Leaves Twitter πͺ
Jacky Bitcoin Leaves Twitter πͺ
Matt George
January 02, 2022
Short, practical drops on culture and technology. π
Jacky Bitcoin β‘οΈ
The eponymous @jack has resigned his post as CEO of Twitter. In his internal memo to the Twitter team he gave 3 reasons why now is the right time: His trust in his successor, former CTO Parag Agrawal, his confidence in Twitterβs new board chair, Bret Taylor, and his confidence in the Twitter team as a whole (TBD on that one!).
We salute you sir. π
And now his watch has ended
β Morning Brew βοΈ (@MorningBrew)
3:47 PM β’ Nov 29, 2021
What does this mean for Twitter and Square? π
Big shoes are hard to fill. Sometimes it works out really well (Disney π Bob Iger), and sometimes the incumbent is teed up for disaster (GE π Jeff Immelt).
Changes came quickly. Soon after the announcement, Twitter added ethereum as a tip-jar payment rail π, and Jackβs Square rebranded to Block π (Square Crypto is now @spiralbtc). The latter (presumably) a nod to the proof-of-work blockchain that is bitcoin. (Iβll be doing a post on bitcoin soon for those new to the industry).
The TL;DR here seems to be that Twitter is becoming a crypto company and Square is becoming a bitcoin company.ο»Ώ
What does this mean for bitcoin? β‘οΈ
Jack has been a publicly committed bitcoiner for a long time.
The most notable integration of bitcoin π Twitter was enabling bitcoin tips via the lightning network. Any user that enabled tips and booted up a bitcoin wallet could be paid directly for their work, anywhere on earth, for essentially free, via their Twitter account.
Jack and Alex Gladstein had a live discussion at Bitcoin 2021 where Jack said:
βIf I were not at Twitter or Square, I would be working on bitcoin.β
Itβs early, but it looks like that time has come.
How did the market react? π
As with all things, mixed emotions! Prominent crypto/bitcoin figures wished him well and showed their gratitude.
Well done . Welcome to full time crypto? π
β CZ πΆ Binance (@cz_binance)
5:46 PM β’ Nov 29, 2021
You had a great run, Jack. Thanks for helping to build one of the most important platforms in the world.
Excited to see what you do next :)
β Pomp πͺ (@APompliano)
3:53 PM β’ Nov 29, 2021
Some were concerned that Jack was the last major proponent of free-speech at Twitter. Others like Cathie Wood and $ARKK gobbled up Twitter stock at what they see as a discount ($TWTR is π 8.25% this week).
Gratitude π
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I hope Boomerang continues to be the shortest, most practical newsletter in your inbox.
See you on the path.
- MG