Popular social media firm Twitter has started building up a new team that will explore the possibility of adding blockchain, cryptocurrency, and decentralized applications (dApps) to the platform.
The news was revealed on Twitter by Tess Rinearson, a council member of the Interchain Foundation, who was hired as the engineering lead for the team. In her Twitter thread, Rinearson not only revealed some of the plans the team will be focusing on, but also stated they will be working closely with Bluesky — Twitter’s decentralized social networking project — to “help shape the future of decentralized social media”. She tweeted:
Called Twitter Crypto, the new team will first focus on exploring ways to support the growing interest among creators to use decentralized applications to manage virtual goods and currencies, as well as support their work and communities. Later, the team will also look at how cryptocurrencies can help Twitter augment identity, community, and ownership on the platform.
Rinearson is now looking to hire additional members to her team, who have engineering and product skills. She also said she had no plans to leave Berlin, and that her team will be like “crypto itself”, distributed and cross-cultural.
The news came only a couple of months after Twitter enabled its users to send and receive Bitcoin tips through the Lightning network, using the Strike app. The platform not only allows users to add BTC addresses directly to their profiles, but is also working on a verification tool that will enable users to place NFTs as their profile pictures.
Twitter is not the only social media platform to try and implement blockchain and cryptocurrency tech. Reddit has already introduced a new blockchain-based Community Points system, and has also teamed up with Solana on a $100 million blockchain investment initiative.
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