Elon Musk asked Jack Dorsey whether Twitter would let advertisers pay in Bitcoin. Dorsey dodged the question.
- Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey appeared on a panel on Wednesday to discuss the future of bitcoin.
- Musk asked Dorsey if Twitter could start accepting bitcoin from advertisers.
- Dorsey said it was a good idea - but didn't say whether Twitter would actually do it.
Elon Musk asked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey whether the social-media platform would accept bitcoin as payment from advertisers - and Dorsey never gave a clear answer.
Musk and Dorsey appeared at a virtual panel about bitcoin called "The B Word" on Wednesday, and panel host Steve Lee asked how they personally support Bitcoin through the companies they run. Initially, Dorsey said he was focused on decentralization, both through his payment company Square and Twitter, which aims to build new decentralized social-media protocols as part of its Bluesky project .
But Musk wanted to know more. "What about letting Twitter advertisers pay in crypto?" Musk asked. Dorsey's reply was supportive - but he didn't say whether Twitter would start accepting bitcoin.
He said that if cryptocurrency was around when Twitter started, it may not have needed advertisers at all. "If we had bitcoin or native currency before Twitter started, it just creates so many business models that we wouldn't have to be dependent upon advertising generally," he said.
"I do believe that any form of payment they [advertisers] want to use, we should be able to tick. So absolutely, but I'm more focused on how do we create economic incentives in the network itself without having to rely on advertising," Dorsey added.
Musk responded that the more ways bitcoin can pay for real-world services, the stronger it becomes. "It seems like accepting bitcoin, maybe some other cryptos, for advertising payments on Twitter would be supportive of bitcoin."
"Hundred percent," Dorsey replied. Musk persisted in his questioning, asking Dorsey again whether he would introduce bitcoin as a payment option, but Dorsey didn't answer.
Elon Musk is CEO of Tesla, which in March of this year said it would accept payments for its cars in the form of Bitcoin. The company reversed that decision in May, announcing it would stop accepting bitcoin until the cryptocurrency became more environmentally sustainable.
Musk elaborated in June, saying he'd resume bitcoin payments at the company once there's evidence that Bitcoin miners use 50% renewable energy to power their rigs.
Dorsey announced last week that his payment company Square was building a new business to help bitcoin developers build financial-services products. Dorsey said the name of the company was "TBD" - but it wasn't clear if this was the actual name of the company or if the name is yet to be decided.