Twitter CEO Elon Musk has been looking for ways to further monetize the social media platform since he took over last October.
In November, it increased the price of Twitter Blue, the premium service that involves account authentication, to $7.99 a month.
At the time, Musk said it was an effort to combat fake accounts that post misinformation and hate speech. He reasoned that individuals or institutions running bot farms would be deterred from managing thousands of accounts if individuals had to pay for them individually.
Also in November, Musk made it clear in a livestreamed meeting with advertisers that he had plans to allow Twitter to be a vehicle through which users could spend money and withdraw funds to bank accounts.
At around the same time, Twitter had filed registration documents with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) that would allow it to process payments.
About two months later, the microblogging site is reported to be laying the foundation for such a venture.
It is speculated that part of the payment plan would eventually involve the use of cryptocurrencies.
Esther Crawford, Twitter’s director of product management, is working on the logistics of the payment system and has built a small team, according to the financial times.
The payment system would initially handle fiat currencies, but could be built to one day facilitate cryptography, according to the report.
If Twitter can finally handle cryptocurrency, it would give it a high-profile mainstream presence.
In the past, Musk allowed his electric vehicle company Tesla (TSLA) – Get a free report accept dogecoin for payments, so it wouldn’t be their first foray into using cryptocurrency.
The possibility that dogecoin could be used on Twitter would offer it a huge boost in visibility and perhaps an opportunity to compete more effectively with others like bitcoin.
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