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Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Thursday emphatically ruled out joining Facebook’s Libra project, and reiterated his belief that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are the future of Internet money.
Dorsey was asked during a Twitter News Summit in New York whether Twitter would join the Libra Association, the suite of companies supporting Facebook in its cryptocurrency project.
“Hell no,” he replied, adding by way of explanation that Libra is not an Internet open standard that was born on the Internet.
“It was born out of a company’s intention, and it’s not consistent with what I personally believe, and what I want our company to stand for,” he said.
Bitcoin: the Internet’s national currency
Dorsey then took the opportunity to reiterate his belief in Bitcoin and other decentralized cryptocurrencies as the future of Internet money.
“I think the Internet is somewhat of an emerging nation-state in almost every way,” Dorsey said. “It almost has a currency now in the form of cryptocurrency and bitcoin.”
The Twitter CEO’s belief in Bitcoin runs deep. He’s an investor in the cryptocurrency’s scaling solution, Lightning Labs, and a fan of Tippin’, the add-on that allows Twitter users to tip each other in crypto. Earlier this year, he announced plans to hire engineers and designers to work on open-source contributions to the Bitcoin ecosystem, reporting directly to him.
Back in June, Dorsey gave several reasons for his belief in Bitcoin’s supremacy over other cryptocurrencies including the power of its brand; the purity of the principles laid down by its inventor Satoshi Nakamoto, its scarcity (only 21 million bitcoin will be created) and its resilience in the face of the challenges and attacks the crypto has faced in the 10 years since its invention.
Twitter vs Libra
During yesterday’s Summit, Dorsey further said that he had issues with Libra being described as a cryptocurrency. “They use that label liberally… I don’t know if it’s a gimmick, but cryptocurrency wasn’t necessary to make that thing work,” he said.
Earlier this week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was called before Congress, to answer further criticism of Libra. He provided assurances that: Facebook would withdraw from Libra, if it was not approved by U.S. regulators.
Zuckerberg also admitted that, as a big company, Libra did not live up to one of the key tenets that define cryptocurrencies, namely decentralization.
“As a big company, we are not going to do anything that’s decentralized,” he said. Later he attempted to backtrack somewhat, adding that decentralization was a future aspiration.