Twitter’s Jack Dorsey has previously endorsed the adoption of cryptocurrency, blockchain, and other decentralised technologies. The company is now assembling a dedicated team to look into development in the crypto space led by seasoned blockchain engineer Tess Rinearson. Twitter Crypto, according to Rinearson, will serve as a “centre of excellence for all things blockchain and Web3” at the social media network. Rinearson will be reporting to Twitter’s Chief Technology Officer, Parag Agarwal, and brings a lot of experience of working in the space.
Rinearson took to Twitter to reveal plans for what the crypto team she now leads will focus on in the short term. The first focus area for the team will be to grow decentralised apps (dApps) for creators to manage virtual goods, currencies, and ways for their fans to support their community. Rinearson hinted that her team will then try and look to crypto tech to augment identity, community, and ownership on Twitter.
I’m thrilled to share that I’ve joined Twitter, to lead a new team focused on crypto, blockchains, and other decentralized technologies—including and going beyond cryptocurrencies.✨ pic.twitter.com/HaP0k5hUOq
— Tess Rinearson (@_tessr) November 10, 2021
In addition, Rinearson notes that her team will collaborate with Bluesky, Twitter’s decentralised social networking project to “help shape the future of decentralized social media”. Things appear to be falling into place for the social media giant that also appointed Jay Graber, the creator of Happening, to lead its Bluesky initiative in August.
Looking farther ahead, we’ll be exploring how ideas from crypto communities can help us push the boundaries of what’s possible with identity, community, ownership and more.
— Tess Rinearson (@_tessr) November 10, 2021
Rinearson informs there’s more hiring to be done for the Twitter Crypto team.
Twitter Crypto will underpin all of this work, and serve as a “center of excellence” for all things blockchain at Twitter. We’ll be hiring for roles in engineering and product. If this sounds exciting, please get in touch! My DMs, as always, are open. ✨
— Tess Rinearson (@_tessr) November 10, 2021
The addition of the crypto team comes more than a month after Twitter implemented a method to tip creators with Bitcoin via the Lightning network and the evidence that they’re experimenting with ways to verify NFT used as profile pictures.
Rinearson has worked in blockchain technology since 2015, when she started as a software engineer for Chain, a [blockchain]https://gadgets.ndtv.com/tags/blockchain) technology company. Later, she worked at the Interchain Foundation as VP of Engineering, according to her profile on LinkedIn.
Meanwhile, Twitter isn’t the only tech company to turn its attention to blockchain and cryptocurrency. Recently, Apple CEO Tim Cook admitted that he owned crypto and said he had “been interested in it for a while” although he did add that Apple does not have a crypto roadmap yet.