Crypto fans should get behind Elon Musk’s subscription model for Twitter

Like many people, I was originally dubious of Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter given his historic tendency to make bold promises but later back away. That said, there is merit to his idea of adding a subscription layer to Twitter and using it to both improve curation and diversify away from advertising. If you believe in the core values of crypto, you should believe in it.

To see why, we need to revisit the basics of Bitcoin (

Musk has also hinted at open-sourcing the search algorithm and someday paying content creators. These features would bring the Bitcoin analogy full circle. If Twitter lets anyone pay for a subscription, then redirects a portion of those revenues to the most popular creators and curators, it will better align incentives between content creators and consumers. In Bitcoin, the greediest miner is forced to become the most honest one. Twitter should work the same way.

To be clear, a centralized platform owned by private investors is still a far cry from a fully decentralized network like Bitcoin. But the idea of introducing a cost to doing the most important work, then rewarding those who do a good job is arguably the most important contribution crypto has made to society. We should applaud any attempt to port these ideas over to existing platforms, however limited they might be.

Someday we’ll hopefully have fully decentralized social media. Until then, we can use a better Twitter.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.