Elon Musk’s plan to buy the social media site for $43 billion in cash has not only sparked a heated discussion among Twitter users around the world but has also galvanized the blockchain’s billionaire club. In the most recent example, Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin has made his opinion on the matter public.
In a Saturday tweet, he stated that while he would not oppose Elon Musk owning Twitter, he does not support wealthy individuals or groups taking over social media companies through hostile bids. He argues the trend can go “extremely” wrong, giving the example of an ethically challenged foreign government.
Ethereum’s co-founder further stated that while someone with a 5% stake is ultimately weak, his capacity to affect policy increases by far more than 10x if his ownership increases to 50%, meaning that this scenario can be quite concerning.
Buterin’s comments come in the context of Musk’s bid to buy Twitter and the company’s Board’s efforts to prevent a hostile takeover. The ensuing conflict has taken the form of a discussion over free speech and the fairness of social media platforms. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) responded to Buterin’s first tweet by saying the “poison pill sounds unfair.” “There is more than what appears on the surface,” he concluded.
The interest of the blockchain community in Elon Musk’s takeover bid of Twitter was first expressed by Justin Sun of TRON, who offered a 10.7% higher price at $60 per share than Elon Musk’s offer of $54.20. Significantly, he said he supports the reforms initiatives of Musk and “would love to see Twitter becoming crypto-native and Web3 friendly.”
To add to this debate, FTX’s CEO Sam Bankman- Fried (SBF) offered to be part of Musk’s Twitter if he intends to take it on-chain. He also gave an idea of what on-chain Twitter might look like and how it can be monetized to better profit.
Taking the idea of a decentralized Twitter forward, whether or not Elon Musk’s bid is successful, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson offered to build a decentralized iteration of Twitter. Hoskinson’s offer to build an alternate social media a la Twitter, invited all sorts of reactions from the blockchain community, with some saying it may take 5 years or more to come on stream.
Elon Musk’s attempt to buy Twitter was disclosed in an SEC filing on April 14. Musk had purchased over 70,000,000 shares in Twitter a week earlier, which resulted in his appointment to the Board of Directors, which he refused to accept. Both Musk and Sun believe that Twitter’s full potential is far from being tapped, and they have the vision to take this social media platform to the next level of application and profitability.
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