In one corner: Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey. In the other corner: Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The prize in the race is the future of money, and their respective weapons are Bitcoin and Libra.
Who will win?
Cryptocurrency support has been divided, with one group pushing for centralized management through projects like … [+] Facebook's Libra and the other working towards decentralized management with bitcoin.
While the monetary situation of social media is not that clear, both Dorsey and Zuckerberg have emerged as champions of two similar but opposing ideas, where the internet needs its own currency, one sees it as centrally managed, through Facebook, while the other sees it as decentralized, through bitcoin.
Zuckerberg appears to have lost the first round. His Libra project, a cryptocurrency in name only and governed by an independent but shrinking group of companies, is being hounded by governments and regulators around the world, many of whom were already concerned that Facebook had wielded too much influence over the media community to take on central bankers.
“I think this is something that needs to be built,” Zuckerberg told U.S. senators last week, defending Facebook’s involvement in the controversial Libra project and arguing that Libra could bring financial maturity to millions, if not billions, of people around the world.
Zuckerberg also warned that the US could fall behind other countries if lawmakers move to block the development of Libra and similar digital currency projects.
Meanwhile, Dorsey sees their prayers being answered, with the price of bitcoin making a somewhat miraculous recovery last week, after many feared it would reach its March lows.
Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerbergwas called before Congress to speak about Facebook and the proposed Libra cryptocurrency last week.
Dorsey has also made headlines this week for joining a group of investors putting a total of $10 million into CoinList, a US-based company that helps other startups raise money through digital token sales.
However, bitcoin innovation and adoption have failed to meet expectations with its prices still undervalued and its main use being the purchase of illegal substances and services on the dark web.
Bitcoin trading volume among the top ten largest speculative and crypto exchanges fell below $200 million per day earlier this month, according to Bitcoin and Crypto Data firm Messari, 20 times higher than its peak of $ per day a few months ago.
“Across all crypto spaces, volume is very low,” eToro senior analyst Mati Greenspan said in a Twitter post, sparking concerns in the industry.
Dorsey wants to see this change and expects bitcoin to become what he calls “the first native currency of the internet,” and he is able to make this change happen through his two companies, micro-blogging platform Twitter and payments platform Square.
When asked last week if he was open to participating in Facebook's Libra project, Dorsey responded with an emphatic, "Not at all," accusing Libra of being based on an open standard.
"It was born out of a company's intent and is not consistent with what I personally believe and what I want company ," Dorsey said, speaking at a New York Twitter event.
And Dorsey isn't just talking. He launched Square Crypto earlier this year, a division of Square that will focus on development on the bitcoin network, hiring Matt Corallo in August, along with three other software from Google, Lightning Labs , and Facebook.
“The creation of [bitcoin] was very pure and focused on a public good and not some other specific agenda,” Dorsey said.
Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter and Square, has previously spoken out about his support for bitcoin and has opposed Facebook's Libra plans.
In a sign that the gap between the two social media companies is widening, Dorsey has revealed that Twitter will ban all political advertising globally, putting the company at odds with Facebook's embrace - which is likely to be a major issue heading into the US presidential election.
The fight for digital monetary freedom could evolve into the broader battle for the future of the Internet.
