In a Q&A session, Elon Musk, billionaire Tesla CEO, discussed his plans for Twitter and crypto payments in detail with employees. In a leaked Q&A session with employees, Elon Musk provided further details about his plans to use crypto on Twitter.
A transcript of the meeting was released by . The billionaire Tesla CEO discussed how crypto payments are “critical” to Twitter and the ongoing problem of scams on the social media platform.
Musk stated that “Money” is fundamentally digital at the moment. Musk said that “it would be sensible to integrate payments into Twitter to make it easy to send money back-and-forth,” adding that this would include “currency and crypto.”
Musk stated that Musk’s goal is to “maximize the utility of the service”, and that “if one can use the service to make convenient payments that’s an increase for usefulness.” Musk stated that news, entertainment, and payments are three critical areas for Twitter in order to make it “so compelling that it’s impossible to live without it” and everyone wants it.
Musk’s suggestion for Twitter to integrate payments mirrors his earlier argument for the platform becoming a WeChat “super app”. The Chinese social media platform brings together multiple services, including ride hailing and food delivery, as well as payments.
Musk targets Twitter crypto-scammers
Musk addressed a persistent pet peeve in the Q&A: the widespread use of bots and cryptocurrency scams on Twitter. He said that there are a lot crypto scams on Twitter. However, he acknowledged that it has improved but that there is still some.
He said that “there are people who might not be bots but may still be operating.” One person can manage hundreds of accounts, trying to make them appear like individuals. But they aren’t.”
Musk stated, “In order to have trust and use Twitter, it’s essential that there’s transparency.” He reiterated his earlier suggestion that Twitter’s code be open-source so that “people can critique it, improve them, identify bugs or biases.”
Musk suggested that verification by payment was one way to solve the problem of fake Twitter accounts. He said, “Twitter would be able to identify you, at least from a financial standpoint.” Musk suggested previously, possibly in jest, that Twitter Blue subscriptions could be paid using his favorite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin.
Musk’s on/again purchase Twitter has been influenced by bot activity. The Tesla CEO stated that the purchase of the social media platform could not be made until Twitter provided information about how many fake accounts are on the platform.
Twitter granted Musk access a “firehose”, which includes every tweet on the platform, earlier this month to allow him to verify levels of bot activity.
