Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk made headlines last week when he announced that he had purchased 9.2% of Twitter for close to $3 billion. This makes him the largest single shareholder in the company at present.
Twitter offered him a seat on the board for a term lasting until 2024, but Musk has decided not to accept. This has led to much speculation on what he might be up to.
Elon has decided not to join our board. I sent a brief note to the company, sharing with you all here. pic.twitter.com/lfrXACavvk
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) April 11, 2022
Musk’s criticism of Twitter and his potential future plans
Musk has been openly critical of some of Twitter’s policies recently. He describes himself as a “free speech absolutist” and has indicated that he’s less than impressed with Twitter’s practices, like permanently suspending prominent accounts for policy violations.
This has led some to believe that Musk may have larger plans in mind for Twitter. Allegedly, one of the conditions of his board seat was that he would limit his stake in the company to 14.9%, and his rejection of this offer hints that he may plan to buy a larger stake or even take over the company outright. Twitter’s market cap is $37.01 billion at the time of writing, while Musk’s net worth is over $270 billion. This means he could buy Twitter in its entirety for a relatively small percentage of his net worth.
If Musk was to buy the company, it could lead to a series of interesting outcomes given his interest in blockchain technology and digital currencies. At the very least, Musks’ stake will keep Twitter on its toes and will make it think twice about the direction it’s headed in.
Elon Musk not taking a board seat is bullish for free speech coming back to Twitter.
The board seat was a proposed tactic by Twitter's current execs & board to curb his influence (limiting his maximum shares to 14.9%).
Musk can now pursue a hostile takeover if he so chooses.
— Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) April 11, 2022
Will Musk use his influence with Twitter to promote Dogecoin?
Musk publicly supports Dogecoin, a digital currency that is considered a meme or joke by most people in the industry. However, his Tweets and other public musings indicate that he understands more than he openly states, especially that digital currencies must be useful for payments if they are to serve any purpose at all. He even tried to accept BTC for payments at Tesla but had to backtrack due to its limited transaction capacity and high fees.
While Musk has expressed a preference for Dogecoin for reasons known only to him (likely because he finds it entertaining), he has spoken about the need for a fast, low-fee digital currency capable of scaling to global dimensions. He has even hinted that he’s considering how digital currencies might be used for interplanetary payments.
Perhaps in time, the Tesla boss will realize that there’s only one blockchain that can scale to the levels he envisions. It’s Satoshi’s original Bitcoin. It can already do everything he dreams Dogecoin will be able to, and it already solves many of the problems he has correctly identified with platforms like Twitter.
Watch: CoinGeek New York presentation, BSV vs. Other Blockchains: Differences that Matter for Developers & Businesses
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