Elon Musk has been vocal about his vision to bring change to Twitter since he first hinted that he was interested in purchasing the social media platform this past spring. Now that he is officially the owner, a purchase that cost him $44 billion, the world is finally starting to see some of those ideas come to fruition.
Many of his goals for the platform seem to be lofty and will likely need to go through multiple rounds of testing before implementation actually occurs. Despite this, Musk has made it a priority to share his vision with users.
In a tweet posted on his account, Musk shared slides from a presentation called "Twitter 2.0: The Everything App." To become the everything app, Musk wants to see Twitter evolve its advertising into a form of entertainment, include better video functionality, support encrypted direct messages, offer users the ability to compose long-form tweets, and relaunch a new verification process. On his last slide, which stood out from the rest due to the lack of graphics, was just one word, "Payments."
What could Musk envision payment functionality looking like on Twitter? Considering he helped launch PayPal in its early days, Musk likely has enough knowledge to integrate some sort of payment feature that many users are familiar with today.
But that would be too easy for an innovator like Musk. Remember, this is the same guy who is trying to push humanity toward a settlement on Mars. Integration with PayPal or some other traditional payment app is low-hanging fruit.
If I had to guess, Musk has plans to bring about payments with cryptocurrencies. He is on record saying, "It is kind of a no-brainer for Twitter to have payments, both fiat and crypto."
Should crypto payments come to Twitter, which cryptocurrencies would make the cut? Remember, there are thousands of cryptocurrencies. All seem to promise some sort of solution, but it's likely that only a select few will be tapped for Elon's Twitter 2.0.
Beneficiaries of a crypto-friendly Twitter
One of the most compelling candidates has to be Bitcoin (BTC 0.10%). As the world's first cryptocurrency, it is also the most valuable. In the past, Musk has criticized Bitcoin for its energy-intensive practices, but new technology in mining practices is potentially changing that narrative for the better. In addition, Musk has disclosed that he owns Bitcoin and believes its structure is "quite brilliant."
There's another cryptocurrency that might be even more popular than Bitcoin despite its market cap being 25 times smaller. In 2021, thanks to a little help from Musk himself, the popular meme coin known as Dogecoin (DOGE 0.49%) took the world by storm and rose from less than a penny to an all-time high of $0.74 in May 2021. During that rise, Musk took to Twitter multiple times to promote and share his love for the cryptocurrency, which culminated with an appearance on Saturday Night Live where he referred to himself as the "Dogefather."
Not only does he own Dogecoin, but he has voiced support that it is one of the strongest candidates out of all cryptocurrencies to become a common medium of exchange due to its simplicity and relatively cheap price.
Although Dogecoin was originally created as a joke, Musk seems to think that the meme coin has true potential. In February 2021, Musk commented that it would be hard to rule out Dogecoin becoming the "currency of Earth in the future." He added that "fate loves irony," and the most ironic and entertaining outcome would be Dogecoin rising to a status equal to that of the dollar.
Payments on Twitter look to be all but inevitable. The company recently applied for registration as a money transmitter with the U.S. Treasury Department, the first step for any entity to facilitate transactions.
But the form this will take still remains hazy. Clearly, there is a little speculation here, but should Twitter unveil some sort of functionality that includes payment in Bitcoin or Dogecoin, it could serve as fuel for further mainstream adoption and a subsequent rise in prices.
This isn't to say you should put your life savings into Bitcoin and most definitely not into Dogecoin, but it's difficult to bet against Musk due to his past success. While an investment in Bitcoin would be more appropriate due to its longevity and longer track record, a small investment in Dogecoin at these prices could provide some profitable exposure if Musk does choose to give the meme coin another boost.
