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In an interesting observation, the Angel investor and co-founder of Earn, Balaji S. Srinivasan, courted the idea of Crypto-Twitter. The thought was floated by Srinivasan on Twitter, and in response, a number of comments came from his followers – some appreciating the idea while others are identifying issues in the idea. Of course, the underlying mechanism for the Crypto-Twitter (if it fructifies) will be based on the open-ledger and the application programming interface (API) that is used in the blockchain technology.
Twitter and the blockchain are both timestamped public feeds of events.
Of course, Twitter is a trusted, mutable, and centralized feed.
But there are enough similarities that a crypto-Twitter might start with the same API on a decentralized mirrored event feed.
— Balaji (@balajis) December 11, 2019
Crypto-Twitter
Drawing a comparison between Twitter and hypothetical Crypto-Twitter, Srinivasan emphasized that the centralized and mutable nature of Twitter is something that makes the micro-blogging platform a bit conservative in its conversational approach. The idea behind Crypto-Twitter is to come up with a platform that will be completely decentralized and using the open-ledger technology for recording the feeds of its members. The immutable nature of blockchain is definitely going to be a big positive as nobody will be able to change the record, thereby bringing high safety aspects to the table.
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In reaction to Srinivasan’s tweet of the crypto-twitter idea, many responded positively while some expressed their concern related to the requirement of resources, especially when the platform is conceptualized to take decentralized structure. Questions related to the resources involved in creating the database, network bandwidth, and meeting other requirements popped up in the responses. These concerns are legitimate ones and any step in the direction of launching Crypto-Twitter need to address these issues first.
Twitter working on the principles of cryptocurrency and blockchain curry favors with many, although the practical difficulties are aplenty in achieving this objective. While the concerns related to safety and security might be addressed through the immutability and temple-proof technology of blockchain, people may not like the idea that they are not in control once they tweeted about any particular incident or topic. The open-ledger and immutability characteristics of blockchain will take away the control that users and Twitter authorities have on tweets and operational procedures.
Conclusion
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In sum, the concept of crypto-Twitter is sure to ruffle feathers as decentralization and weaning off authority will comprehensively change the scenario. Among the promoters, this is not going to go down very well as they have to cede the control. On the users’ side, though, the concept of crypto-Twitter can bring a host of advantages, including the rock-solid safety and security aspect.
