Twitter to launch a dedicated crypto team

Twitter has created a new division named Twitter Crypto to handle “all things blockchain at Twitter,” and has hired Tess Rinearson as the team’s engineering lead to “define the strategy for the future of crypto at (and on) Twitter,” according to a statement released Wednesday.

“First and foremost, we’ll look at how we can support creators’ rising interest in using decentralized apps to manage virtual products and currencies, as well as to support their work and communities,” Rinearson stated on Twitter.

READ ALSO: APPLE HANDHELD CONSOLE TO COMPETE WITH THE NINTENDO SWITCH

“In the future, we’ll look at how ideas from crypto communities might help us push the limits of what’s possible in terms of identification, community, ownership, and more.” She went on to say that her team would be collaborating closely with Bluesky, an independent Twitter-funded project aimed at developing a decentralized social network standard.

Rinearson will report to Twitter Chief Technology Officer Parag Agrawal, and their yet-to-be-hired staff will support the firm’s efforts to decentralize social media, according to the company. Rinearson will focus on these concerns, “with a long term objective of examining how ideas from crypto may help us push the frontiers of what’s possible with identification, community, and more,” according to the business.

Twitter said in September that it would allow users to tip authors in Bitcoin, and the firm says it will look into crypto payments for additional features, such as its Ticketed Spaces, because “not everyone wants or is able to take traditional currencies.”

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who is also the CEO of Square, a financial services startup, has been an outspoken supporter of cryptocurrency, particularly Bitcoin. In March, he testified before Congress with a Bitcoin clock, and in July, he launched TBD, a new Bitcoin business unit for Square.