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- Twitter is launching a team dedicated to diving deeper into the crypto space, the Financial Times reported.
- The new team, called Twitter Crypto, is aimed at "all things blockchain and web3."
- To drive this effort, Twitter hired Tess Rinearson, who will be working under CTO Parag Agrawal.
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Twitter is launching a team dedicated to diving deeper into the rapidly growing cryptocurrency space, the Financial Times first reported on Tuesday.
The new team, called Twitter Crypto, is aimed at being the center of excellence for "all things blockchain and web3," which includes the increasing number of decentralized apps now running on public blockchains, the social-media platform told the FT.
To drive this effort, Twitter hired Tess Rinearson, who will be working under CTO Parag Agrawal.
"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," she shared on Twitter, adding that she will be based in Berlin.
Prior to her move, she was at Interchain, which is developing decentralized technologies, as well as Interstellar, a decentralized crypto wallet and exchange.
Rinearson's appointment comes as big tech firms grapple with how to grow alongside web3, which refers to a possible new iteration of the internet that will run on public blockchains. It will be decentralized by nature, unlike web2, the internet we know today.
In addition to joining Twitter Crypto, Rinearson will be part of Bluesky, which is Twitter's engineering team dedicated to building a new decentralized social media system.
The move comes as CEO Jack Dorsey has long touted bitcoin as the future. He said in June that if it weren't for Square or Twitter, two successful tech companies he founded, he would be working on bitcoin.
"Bitcoin changes absolutely everything," he said during the Bitcoin 2021 Conference. "I don't think there is anything more important in my lifetime to work on."
In recent months, both his companies have announced more advancements in the digital asset ecosystem.
Twitter in September allowed users in select areas to tip in bitcoin ahead of broader social media adoption. In the same month, Twitter said it would allow users to authenticate their non-fungible tokens on the platform.
In August, Dorsey revealed plans for an open platform to create a decentralized exchange for bitcoin through TBD, a new business venture that is a unit of Square. And in October, Dorsey said Square is weighing whether to create a simple-to-use bitcoin mining rig.