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Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories?

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Seana Smith is an anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Smith on X @SeanaNSmith. Tips on deals, mergers, activist situations, or anything else?

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A few years ago, if you wanted to understand memecoin communities, you had to join their individual Telegram groups. In 2024, they went “mainstream” on X, formerly Twitter, developing their own communities and creating memecoin crossover communities on one of the largest social media platforms. Why have they gravitated to X? If you check the size of the audience, the answer is clear. On March 18, X posted a series of tweets to illuminate the number of people using the popular social media platform. According to their tweet, “250 million people use X everyday. 550 million people visit the global town square every month.” When memecoins want to speak directly to their audience, or “degens” at large, they obviously post memes, but clearly, not everything can be conveyed in a meme. They can post articles, though usually they don’t. Memecoin audiences are immediate – they want to speak directly to their projects. And the platform has an answer for that – memecoins are taking to X Spaces. How to Improve Your Twitter (X) Spaces I am the co-founder of Lambow, the Base meme project for builders and entrepreneurs. I have also hosted hundreds of Spaces shows over the past 3 years – for Benzinga, Gotbit, Lambow, and as guest host for many other crypto and memecoin projects. I have hosted audiences of literally between 8 and 420,000 people. Here is my list, in no particular order, of how to improve your own spaces and what to look for in a well-run show. Have a Clear Theme - There are hundreds of other Spaces shows people can tune into. Make your show’s mission simple and compelling and you will find your audience. Stop the Shill & Chills - I can’t really say these have no place, but I have found that the open-ended nature of these shows makes them drag terribly. If you are going to use this as your format, keep time limits on speakers so you can keep it moving along. Don’t Call it a “Call” – This is a mindset thing. Yes, it happens on the phone and others tune in to talk with you, but the comparison stops there. If you think of your Spaces show like you think of conference calls, you are going to end up with a show that feels like a meeting. Dead Air is the Enemy -. 5 seconds of dead air feels like a lifetime and invites your audience to tune out. If necessary, I will narrate what is happening or switch to a tangential thought about blockchain, but I do not leave my audience hanging by being silent. The Show Must Go On - I have hosted Spaces with food poisoning. I have hosted many Spaces where I was unaware of the guests, topic, or even that the show was happening until right before going on air. If you do your job, no one will ever know. Love your Guests - Excellent relationships with guests is a huge benefit when running a show. For me, the equation is very much like when I was directing theatre – you only succeed if your performers are succeeding. You look good when they look good. Mind Your Traffic Control - Again, very much like managing a stage show, you are there to facilitate other people speaking. I think of the panel as an orchestra of voices – the best shows play all the different notes guests have to share. Stick to Your Time Limit - I plan 1-hour shows and find that to be more or less ideal. Shows almost always run over time. But some of the urgency of the show is lost when you schedule a 4-hour show or a show with no clear end time. Always Be Learning  - As a host, my job is to fill the panel with people who know more than I do. When I am asking the fundamental questions of my guests, I am fulfilling my role as host, to stand in for the audience and find out what they need to know. Know Your Topic - It’s not hard to be prepared – take 30 minutes to read the headlines and make some notes. Remember - you aren’t trying to come to a definitive answer on the topic, you are searching for the fundamental questions. Don’t Play with Trolls - When someone wants to derail the flow of your conversation by drumming up an argument with another guest or about something completely off-topic, mute them or remove them as speaker. It’s your duty to be in charge, and if you don’t, your audience loses out. Audience Size Doesn’t Matter - It’s nice when the big audiences roll in, but you have to put forth the best show possible no matter what. I’ve done shows with over 400,000 people tuning in -- it did not change my life. The biggest shows are not always the most rewarding. Love What You Are Doing - As host, if you aren’t having fun, neither is anyone else. If you can’t find something to love about doing the show, then find someone else to host for you and just produce the show. Stop Trying to be Joe Rogan - I’m fine with your use of cannabis. Some shows are fine with lots of profanity (I find it distracting, so I avoid it.) But if your opening line is, “F-ck, I’m so high” then try finding a new host to imitate. I am a big fan of Larry King and Conan O’Brien, and it does inform the way I ask questions. Be Relentless - When you are doing X spaces, you have no tech support. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong. But it isn’t really a problem until you as the host say it is. This is a long-term effort and ultimately your belief in your own show will serve you. For memecoins, there is virtually no such thing as too much communication. If your supporters wanted to never hear from the founders, they could buy Apple or Intel stock. Your community has invested in your meme, your brand, and your founders. Whether through Spaces, YouTube, or a blog, keep talking to your audience. Let them know what you are thinking and allow them to participate – fulfilling the Web3 promise of a two-way exchange between creator and audience. Keep your community close, learn from them, and let them help guide your ever-evolving narrative. Greater devotion to building something real with your audience helping you from the ground up will ultimately help the memespace and give us more projects that are producing real value. A few years ago, if you wanted to understand memecoin communities, you had to join their individual Telegram groups. In 2024, they went “mainstream” on X, formerly Twitter, developing their own communities and creating memecoin crossover communities on one of the largest social media platforms. Why have they gravitated to X? If you check the size of the audience, the answer is clear. On March 18, X posted a series of tweets to illuminate the number of people using the popular social media platform. series of tweets According to their tweet, “250 million people use X everyday. 550 million people visit the global town square every month.” When memecoins want to speak directly to their audience, or “degens” at large, they obviously post memes, but clearly, not everything can be conveyed in a meme. They can post articles, though usually they don’t. Memecoin audiences are immediate – they want to speak directly to their projects. And the platform has an answer for that – memecoins are taking to X Spaces. How to Improve Your Twitter (X) Spaces How to Improve Your Twitter (X) Spaces I am the co-founder of Lambow , the Base meme project for builders and entrepreneurs. I have also hosted hundreds of Spaces shows over the past 3 years – for Benzinga, Gotbit, Lambow, and as guest host for many other crypto and memecoin projects. I have hosted audiences of literally between 8 and 420,000 people. Lambow hundreds of Spaces Here is my list, in no particular order, of how to improve your own spaces and what to look for in a well-run show. Have a Clear Theme - There are hundreds of other Spaces shows people can tune into. Make your show’s mission simple and compelling and you will find your audience. Have a Clear Theme - There are hundreds of other Spaces shows people can tune into. Make your show’s mission simple and compelling and you will find your audience. Have a Clear Theme Stop the Shill & Chills - I can’t really say these have no place, but I have found that the open-ended nature of these shows makes them drag terribly. If you are going to use this as your format, keep time limits on speakers so you can keep it moving along. Stop the Shill & Chills - I can’t really say these have no place, but I have found that the open-ended nature of these shows makes them drag terribly. If you are going to use this as your format, keep time limits on speakers so you can keep it moving along. Stop the Shill & Chills Don’t Call it a “Call” – This is a mindset thing. Yes, it happens on the phone and others tune in to talk with you, but the comparison stops there. If you think of your Spaces show like you think of conference calls, you are going to end up with a show that feels like a meeting. Don’t Call it a “Call” – This is a mindset thing. Yes, it happens on the phone and others tune in to talk with you, but the comparison stops there. If you think of your Spaces show like you think of conference calls, you are going to end up with a show that feels like a meeting. Don’t Call it a “Call” Dead Air is the Enemy -. 5 seconds of dead air feels like a lifetime and invites your audience to tune out. If necessary, I will narrate what is happening or switch to a tangential thought about blockchain, but I do not leave my audience hanging by being silent. Dead Air is the Enemy -. 5 seconds of dead air feels like a lifetime and invites your audience to tune out. If necessary, I will narrate what is happening or switch to a tangential thought about blockchain, but I do not leave my audience hanging by being silent. Dead Air is the Enemy The Show Must Go On - I have hosted Spaces with food poisoning. I have hosted many Spaces where I was unaware of the guests, topic, or even that the show was happening until right before going on air. If you do your job, no one will ever know. The Show Must Go On - I have hosted Spaces with food poisoning. I have hosted many Spaces where I was unaware of the guests, topic, or even that the show was happening until right before going on air. If you do your job, no one will ever know. The Show Must Go On Love your Guests - Excellent relationships with guests is a huge benefit when running a show. For me, the equation is very much like when I was directing theatre – you only succeed if your performers are succeeding. You look good when they look good. Love your Guests - Excellent relationships with guests is a huge benefit when running a show. For me, the equation is very much like when I was directing theatre – you only succeed if your performers are succeeding. You look good when they look good. Love your Guests Mind Your Traffic Control - Again, very much like managing a stage show, you are there to facilitate other people speaking. I think of the panel as an orchestra of voices – the best shows play all the different notes guests have to share. Mind Your Traffic Control - Again, very much like managing a stage show, you are there to facilitate other people speaking. I think of the panel as an orchestra of voices – the best shows play all the different notes guests have to share. Mind Your Traffic Control Stick to Your Time Limit - I plan 1-hour shows and find that to be more or less ideal. Shows almost always run over time. But some of the urgency of the show is lost when you schedule a 4-hour show or a show with no clear end time. Stick to Your Time Limit - I plan 1-hour shows and find that to be more or less ideal. Shows almost always run over time. But some of the urgency of the show is lost when you schedule a 4-hour show or a show with no clear end time. Stick to Your Time Limit Always Be Learning  - As a host, my job is to fill the panel with people who know more than I do. When I am asking the fundamental questions of my guests, I am fulfilling my role as host, to stand in for the audience and find out what they need to know. Always Be Learning - As a host, my job is to fill the panel with people who know more than I do. When I am asking the fundamental questions of my guests, I am fulfilling my role as host, to stand in for the audience and find out what they need to know. Always Be Learning Know Your Topic - It’s not hard to be prepared – take 30 minutes to read the headlines and make some notes. Remember - you aren’t trying to come to a definitive answer on the topic, you are searching for the fundamental questions. Know Your Topic - It’s not hard to be prepared – take 30 minutes to read the headlines and make some notes. Remember - you aren’t trying to come to a definitive answer on the topic, you are searching for the fundamental questions. Know Your Topic Don’t Play with Trolls - When someone wants to derail the flow of your conversation by drumming up an argument with another guest or about something completely off-topic, mute them or remove them as speaker. It’s your duty to be in charge, and if you don’t, your audience loses out. Don’t Play with Trolls - When someone wants to derail the flow of your conversation by drumming up an argument with another guest or about something completely off-topic, mute them or remove them as speaker. It’s your duty to be in charge, and if you don’t, your audience loses out. Don’t Play with Trolls Audience Size Doesn’t Matter - It’s nice when the big audiences roll in, but you have to put forth the best show possible no matter what. I’ve done shows with over 400,000 people tuning in -- it did not change my life. The biggest shows are not always the most rewarding. Audience Size Doesn’t Matter - It’s nice when the big audiences roll in, but you have to put forth the best show possible no matter what. I’ve done shows with over 400,000 people tuning in -- it did not change my life. The biggest shows are not always the most rewarding. Audience Size Doesn’t Matter Love What You Are Doing - As host, if you aren’t having fun, neither is anyone else. If you can’t find something to love about doing the show, then find someone else to host for you and just produce the show. Love What You Are Doing - As host, if you aren’t having fun, neither is anyone else. If you can’t find something to love about doing the show, then find someone else to host for you and just produce the show. Love What You Are Doing Stop Trying to be Joe Rogan - I’m fine with your use of cannabis. Some shows are fine with lots of profanity (I find it distracting, so I avoid it.) But if your opening line is, “F-ck, I’m so high” then try finding a new host to imitate. I am a big fan of Larry King and Conan O’Brien, and it does inform the way I ask questions. Stop Trying to be Joe Rogan - I’m fine with your use of cannabis. Some shows are fine with lots of profanity (I find it distracting, so I avoid it.) But if your opening line is, “F-ck, I’m so high” then try finding a new host to imitate. I am a big fan of Larry King and Conan O’Brien, and it does inform the way I ask questions. Stop Trying to be Joe Rogan Be Relentless - When you are doing X spaces, you have no tech support. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong. But it isn’t really a problem until you as the host say it is. This is a long-term effort and ultimately your belief in your own show will serve you. Be Relentless - When you are doing X spaces, you have no tech support. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong. But it isn’t really a problem until you as the host say it is. This is a long-term effort and ultimately your belief in your own show will serve you. Be Relentless - When you are doing X spaces, you have no tech support. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong. But it isn’t really a problem until you as the host say it is. This is a long-term effort and ultimately your belief in your own show will serve you. Be Relentless For memecoins, there is virtually no such thing as too much communication. If your supporters wanted to never hear from the founders, they could buy Apple or Intel stock. Your community has invested in your meme, your brand, and your founders. Whether through Spaces, YouTube, or a blog, keep talking to your audience. Let them know what you are thinking and allow them to participate – fulfilling the Web3 promise of a two-way exchange between creator and audience. Keep your community close, learn from them, and let them help guide your ever-evolving narrative. Greater devotion to building something real with your audience helping you from the ground up will ultimately help the memespace and give us more projects that are producing real value.

15 Ways to do Better Memecoin Spaces on X

Social media has always been a hotly contested space, but the battle between Threads and X represents a clash of the Titans. Meta's Threads took direct aim at X, Twitter's rebranded successor. While the two share similarities, key differences have emerged in features, user reception, and the networks' diverging philosophies. This comprehensive overview analyzes how Threads stacks up against the social media juggernaut X. A Tale of Two Networks Threads entered the ring in late 2022 as Meta's latest attempt to divert users, especially younger generations, away from competitors. The Instagram-centric app lets users post text, photos, videos, and more in a scrolling feed format nearly identical to X. X arose from Twitter's ashes after Elon Musk acquired the company in 2022 and promptly nuked the familiar blue bird logo. While the core Twitter experience remains intact, X represents Musk's grand vision for an everything app with premium features. However, monumental challenges around content moderation, revenue models, and user trust plague X's rocky rebirth. As a nimble newcomer, Threads sought to provide an ad-free, community-driven alternative. But X boasts the brand recognition, network effects, and feature set Threads can't yet rival. The two remain embroiled in an ongoing battle for the soul of social media. Features Face Off Despite the similar scrolling feed interfaces, a close examination reveals key differences in Threads and X's capabilities: - Threads restricts posts to 10 items max, while X allows up to four natively with more for X Blue subscribers. Media limits - X gives 280 characters for text posts. Threads cap messages at 500 characters to encourage brevity. Length - X enables keyword, hashtag, location, and advanced searches. Threads only allow account lookups. Search - Direct messaging is available on X but absent on Threads. Message - X supplies user analytics, but Threads does not provide metrics. Analytics - Only X lets creators monetize follower access via subscriptions. Subscriptions Threads deliberately pare down features to create a more minimalist, user-focused feel. However, X's broader feature set gives more options for personalization and reach. The X Factor X's main advantage lies in network effects accrued over its decade-plus existence. Its high public awareness and massive preexisting user base hands X an insurmountable edge. Rebranding from Twitter to X changed little about core functionality. Users retained their followers, profiles, and settings. This inertia makes migration frictionless versus starting fresh on a new platform. However, X's strong brand simultaneously proves a liability under Musk's chaotic leadership. His capricious changes and moves like the $8 X Blue verification fee spurred backlash. Restoring user trust stands as X's greatest challenge. The Threads of the Web3 Vision Threads promotes itself as an antidote to closed, corporate-controlled networks like X. It envisions bringing the "fediverse" concept to reality. In a fediverse, different social platforms connect as nodes in a decentralized web. This allows diverse services to communicate while retaining independence. Posts made on one node surface across the others, creating an open ecosystem. Threads wants to facilitate this federated approach in contrast to X's more closed, centralized structure. Its Instagram integration seeds cross-platform posting capabilities laying the groundwork for a fediverse future. Reviewing Reception User reception provides another angle for evaluating how Threads and X compare. Both witnessed early growth spurts followed by dropoffs. Threads exploded out the gate with 10 million signups in its first week. But it shed over 70% of daily active users within a month. Critics mainly praise its clean, ad-free experience while lamenting its limited capabilities. X continues dominating the social space but has struggled to expand beyond Twitter's existing base. Its maligned X Blue verification service saw only 180,000 initial subscribers - a tiny fraction of users. Still, X's immense reach makes it hard for alternatives like Threads to gain meaningful share. The Battle Rages On In the fight for social media supremacy, X retains its advantage thanks to the strong network effects of Twitter. But cracks in user trust have emerged under Musk's helter-skelter leadership. Meanwhile, Threads offers a refuge for those seeking a stripped-down, community-first social experience. Its innovative fediverse ideals could pioneer a new paradigm for open social networking. Ultimately, the savage Threads vs X struggle comes down to what users value most. Those wanting expansive connections, analytics, and reach lean X. But folks prioritizing simplicity and decentralization favor Threads. For now, the veteran X remains champion of the social media ring. However, the scrappy upstart Threads may someday transform how networks operate altogether.

The Great Social Media Showdown: Threads vs. X

In the last year, Elon Musk managed to shock the business world not once but twice. First, when he after months of negotiations and decided to lay off almost the entire team, including developers, which resulted in a steep decline in quality. The second came… no, not when he challenged Mark Zuckerberg to a , but when he decided to . ultimately bought Twitter cage fight rebrand Twitter as X This rebranding took everyone by surprise. What we can do now is get used to it and learn the lessons the situation taught us. Any Change Should Be Justified Customers and users . Whatever business is changing, everything needs to be justified and merited. No CEO or manager should make changes “just because they can,” as such changes may reflect poorly on customer satisfaction. do not like change This is exactly what happened with X. In users’ opinion, there was no reason to change the social network’s name and brand, especially with Twitter being used by on a monthly basis. This is why we still can’t wrap our heads around the change. 450 million users Conducting surveys and asking customers whether they want anything to change OR explain why the transformation is needed will soften the blow and will show users and customers why a product, interface, or service needs to transform. any change needs to be thought through and justified, especially when it comes to a company or a service beloved by millions of users. Lesson learned: The Community Needs To Understand It Not asking customers and users what they want leads to businesses driving blind. The absence of communication leads to a void and can result in a high churn rate. All users need to understand what changes are coming and why they are necessary. In a perfect world, they also have to agree with them. Have users agreed to ? Not really. That doesn’t change anything for Mr. Musk, but, in my opinion, that is hardly an advantage for him. Twitter’s rebranding Once again, communication is key. Asking customers for their opinions and testimonials before and after the changes are implemented and being ready to pull back is a sign of a company ready to do everything to satisfy its users. users are the most important stakeholders for any business. They have to see and understand the need behind every change, and they have to back everything. Lesson learned: A New Brand Image Needs to be Well-Developed What is X? In Musk’s words, X will become an ‘ ’ Musk also with the letter X. But is it worth risking Twitter’s positioning and reputation, especially when we know nothing about this newly-emerging company? . everything app has an odd fixation When rebranding, a new image, positioning, mission, and vision need to be developed and presented to the public. New and existing users need to understand what to expect and what will happen in the future. It is also good practice to align the new image with the needs and wants of users and customers. Otherwise, it may all be for naught. mission, vision, positioning, and brand image come before the logo and the name. They need to be clear and understandable. Lesson learned: Rebranding Won’t Solve Issues Did Twitter have issues? Before Musk, it was , which was why Musk wanted to pull out of the deal in the first place. Users were not impressed with the very limited number of characters they could use to tweet, and there was no possibility to edit one’s tweets. flooded with bots Did rebranding fix any of these? No. I can understand why slapping a new name and a new logo on a website may feel like a new start, but in Twitter’s case, it is not. There are actual faults that need to be fixed to make the user experience better. fixate on what’s inside and not on what’s on the cover. Lesson learned: If It Isn’t Broken, Don't Fix It Even with all its faults, . It is used by politicians, actors, influencers, businesses, leaders of thought, and many more people. It is one of the primary sources of instant news for the global community and one of the most popular platforms for users all around the world to connect with each other. Twitter was one of the most beloved social networks out there Twitter needed a lot of things to change, but the iconic blue bird and the name were not on the list. if something is working, make a decision to make it better and not change it altogether, especially when everything is hanging in a fragile balance. Lesson learned: What’s next for Twitter? Only Musk knows. All we can do is watch, draw conclusions, and learn from the mistakes of others.

What Twitter Rebranding to 'X' Can Teach Us

If you haven’t been living under a rock (or been on this platform at all), you may (read: will) be aware of the following events: Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44bn. He then renamed it X, a throwback to the X.com domain he has owned since the 90’s and the precursor to PayPal Now that that’s covered, some thoughts on why he did this, where it’s headed and how every user might get involved. Why Twitter? The party line in the lead-up to and ever since the Twitter takeover has been that Twitter is the world’s “digital town square”. Prior to acquisition, some stated concerns that the purchasing party had with the platform were its restrictions on free speech. In an ideal world, the town square is a place for open communication, serendipitous interaction and open commerce. Under the prior regime, Twitter displayed restricted characteristics of the first two features of the town square. My bet in writing this is that the vision for X will try and comprehensively and unapologetically service all 3. Twitter has a number of characteristics that make it uniquely ripe for a platform mission of this scale. It is a unique source of real-time news - no other platforms (with possibly the exception of TikTok) are as uniquely geared to delivering a stream of takes as soon as action happens in the real world. As far as social platforms go, it is a unique source of understanding people’s unconscious thoughts - there is less filter (and substantially more shitposting) on Twitter than other platforms. These two characteristics bear a lot of similarities to WeChat, a platform for which Musk has expressed in the past. Similar to Twitter, WeChat’s origins were in an unfiltered* feed of people’s messages benefitting from ‘gotta-have-this’ network effects. admiration Through this stream of low-effort, low-barrier user generated content, WeChat was able to easily become a place for the breaking of news in real time. These elements created an extremely valuable network of data. The logical next step from here was to introduce the launch of ‘mini-apps’ - platform-native applications built by third-party developers to utilise WeChat’s network to offering augmented possibilities within the platform to compete with, well, every other tech company. X could be a vision of WeChat built for a more independent, more global audience. As such, while the platform structure may remain similar, the apps may look very different. This, in my opinion, is what so many fail to understand about western ‘replications’ of these super-apps being ill-fated (excuse the meme below). What’s been done so far? Since Elon’s takeover, a few defining changes have been made to the platform that may be indicative of longer-term strategic moves. Creators can charge whatever fee they want for their ‘true fans’ to access exclusive content. Creator Subscriptions. A decentralised form of moderation that allows users to provide additional context to potentially misleading Xeets. This Community Notes. Twitter extended the long-form tweet limit to 10,000 characters. It also expanded its video capabilities, as best exemplified by Tucker Carlson’s relocation of to the platform. Extended Content Limits. his content Payouts to creators based on their contribution to platform ad revenue, denominated as a % of ad revenue derived from ads placed in the replies to their Xeets. Ad-sharing agreements. This is the big one. Reducing the prominence of scams and bots is the obvious first-order effect. However, it also could serve a broader economic purpose. The first generation of consumer-ready LLMs benefitted from having free reign over the internet to train their models over whatever data they wanted. This has become the subject of major copyright cases. X’s API restrictions force those looking to scrape the platform for data to pay for the contributions X’s rich dataset makes to their LLMs (or similar), creating a fairer economic model for all involved. The logical next (creator-friendly) step would be, as they have done with ad sharing, to payout network participants for what percentage of their data is being paid for as part of these API charges. API Restrictions & Rate Limits. What’s next? I don’t hold out hope for X to become a fully decentralised protocol in the manner of the Dorsey-era Bluesky initiative. However, given Elon’s ambition starting this foray into social, I do expect it to become platformised. This (fairly aggressive) assumption is based off of two things: 1) Elon’s long-stated ambition to build a super-app of some variety, and 2) the re-application of the X.com domain to open up pursuit of old goals. ‘X-as-a-Platform’ in this sense isn’t referring to you just being able to Xeet whatever you want, whenever you want on the platform (as has always been the case). Instead, I refer to either of these platform definitions of choice: A venue for creating and facilitating interactions between different groups (e.g. buyers and sellers, but not limited to this) A stage from which applications can be built. Based on what we’ve seen and heard so far, a lot of the plumbing will be done by Twitter themselves. Already we have heard of them allude to in-house features that will “allow people to conduct their entire financial world” from within the platform. It has arguably made the greatest leap of any mass-scale social platform in terms of rewarding creators via the ad revenue sharing system introduced this month. As talented as the remaining engineers at Twitter may be, the scope for their delivery of novel products & tools is no match for the widespread creativity and productive powers of As such, I believe that to build the ‘financial world’ of Musk’s imagination, a real platform strategy is in order. Where is the low hanging fruit to be built for this ecosystem? What might be built for the X economy? Novel transaction rails for novel interactions The idea of “conduct(ing) your entire financial world” from within X is a headline grabbing concept. To enable this first and foremost requires rails for processing these financial transactions. Cryptocurrencies (coin-agnostic) offer a perfect manner for doing this in a censorship-resistant, self-custodial and programmable fashion for users on the platform. Payments for creator subscriptions or Reddit-style rewards do not have to be done via some meaningless platform-native token, but rather in the self-custodial currency of choice that users can hold and transact via X. Rather than having to deal with the muddle of SWIFT codes, bank account numbers or even wallet addresses, users will be able to direct transactions simply via account handles. Feature Markets Got a request for feature on Twitter? Say, for example, I want to be able to create debate markets within comments sections, whereby comments are sorted by Agree/Disagree sentiment to a statement tweet. The most liked comments on either side of the argument are presented side-by-side at the top. I want the winner of this debate to be able to extract a reward. Even if it is not a central priority for Twitter to develop internally or rollout across the platform, why shouldn’t the developer be able to deploy these kinds of features in a sandbox environment to a group of opt-in users that are interested in seeing these kinds of i) experimental features or ii) balanced idea markets? After deploying from a developer suite (which could be a paid service based on its potential economic upside), developers stand to win rewards based on any of i) revenues from any features that they create with some kind of financial element or ii) the portion of total Twitter revenue derived from engagement with these features (including ads). makes this idea sound a bit more novel than it really is - the reality is that they are extremely analogical to marketplaces on platforms like WordPress, Shopify or even Google extensions. For whatever reason, such functionality has been limited to date in the world of social. Outside of social, it is the backbone of gargantuan markets: while maybe a bit broader in scope as a platform, Apple’s App Store contributed $86.8bn in platform revenues in 2022. Feature markets IP & Data Licensing Mechanisms Beyond the ad revenue sharing scheme that is in place at the moment, there should be other ways for creators to monetise their content (particularly for creators whose content is ripe for being repurposed elsewhere). Further, in order for developers to benefit from the potential programmability of X’s data, there need to be responsible, legally viable frameworks in place for use of customer data. Arweave’s Universal Data License ( ) represents a good proxy of these kinds of systems in that it allows creators to dictate how any given piece of content can be used or remixed whilst earning rewards when it is used for external purposes. UDL Custom algorithms For all the work that X’s algorithm puts into keeping you delighted, it is inevitable that everyone gets annoyed with their stream. If I have a day where I want to look at golf content, I don’t want to be tagged as wanting to view that for the rest of my life. If I’m using Twitter for professional purposes but got easily distracted by entertainment news every now and then, I don’t want these 5-minute forays to destroy Twitter as a professional tool for the rest of my career. Sure, features like Lists etc all serve to give the user input into what enters their feed, but this then has the effect of limiting the amazing serendipitous post that pops up in your feed that makes Twitter such a great platform. Enter custom algos. Developers can play around and deploy different thematic algorithms for users to test. In one example, developers may able to create a proxy of what any given influencer’s feed may look like. I, for one, would be very curious to see what Elon’s doomscrolling experience looks like compared to mine. At the cross-platform level, this would likely be a read-only function. It is hard to imagine X giving up the reigns to what kinds of content get rewarded or distributed at scale. However, once advanced community tools are built-in, why not allow developers to play with different reward mechanisms for different communities? The average Crypto Twitter user likely gets value out of very different styles of Tweets/replies than, say, someone on Movie Twitter. Once these communities can be effectively delineated, a lot of design space opens up for novel reward mechanisms. To date, Twitter’s own pre-Elon development has been the first and only mover in developing these kinds of ‘algorithm marketplaces’. This will be an interesting space to watch. How big this market could be is dependent on your views towards what portion of the $231bn annual social media market is determined by algorithms versus other factors such as marketing or community. Bluesky Cogsec Apps Ever since the events of 2016, misinformation and informational integrity have been core themes in the social space. How can we better protect people against this kind of misinformation? Do people even want to be protected or have balanced opinions? Creating an open market for cogsec applications that act as a form of ‘cybersecurity’ against misinformation would be a boon to any platform’s claims of being a bastion of free speech. These tools can adopt a variety of different features to de-bias certain pieces of information. Much of this is very speculative, and would require user opt-in to avoid being entirely Orwellian: content filters to repackage tweets with less emotional appeal whilst maintaining integrity of the original message or reputational slashing for accounts that are repetitively tagged as producing misleading content by Community Notes contributors are two examples. Community Notes is actually a step in the right direction as far as cogsec goes on the platform - the most obvious extension here is to allow (and possibly even encourage) users to moderate i) Community Notes themselves and ii) any measures taken by X as a platform to censor certain content on the platform. Beyond this, the idea of rewards for reputable and reliable user contributions to Community Notes seems a likely extension of this first-phase of platform revenue sharing mechanisms. Commerce Infrastructure For most, buying useless shit is a key tenet of the operation of their financial world. As such, ‘arm-the-rebels’ style commerce tools are likely to creep into the X platform (apologies, Shopify). I believe that, first and foremost, we are not far away from centralised features that allow people to sell directly from their profile or embed checkouts within tweets. Better Community Tools Community building on X today is mostly a function of its content algorithm. I like startup content, I fall in with startup people on Twitter. How can this be made more proactive, and how can these small subcultures on the platform create their own mini-apps without having to secede from the platform to places like Discords or Slacks? To the above, I think it is likely that X will enter the work communications space for remote teams. With this comes the opportunity to rebuild the kind of plugins and additional apps seen on Slack, Discord and their ilk from the ground up. Prediction markets & other voting mechanisms In these early days of Elon-era Twitter/X, we have seen many company-level decisions be informed by simple Yes/No polls from his handle. How much further can these kind of trends go across a broader range of potential applications? Prediction markets have been a polarising topic since the first large scale, skin-in-the-game markets were launched around the time of Ethereum (Augur being the first mover in this case, followed by successors such as Polymarket, and to name a few). Manifold Markets Kalshi If these products failed to achieve breakout growth, what makes a prediction market on X any different? The first factor is . The aforementioned existing prediction market platforms are used by small, esoteric audiences seeking gains from supposed informational advantages. X.com has an inbuilt audience of ~330mm monthly active users who are on the platform because they have opinions (or want to find new ones). What better way to prove your value in the market of opinions than creating financially staked markets from it? distribution The second factor is X’s now proven ability to . Similar to the ad revenue sharing scheme, prediction markets features on Twitter could work by allowing users to create their own markets based on assertions they make in their Xeets. If users make sufficiently provocative or challenging assertions, one would assume that the prediction markets for these assertions are particularly hot and might allow the original author to take a share of the market for their provoking thoughts. share revenue with its creators This creates a financial incentive for creators to publish thought-provoking mini-content on the platform, and allows ‘reply guys’ to also get in on the action by providing opposing/supporting evidence to influence their side of the prediction market. In this model, these prediction markets can be organised more organically and allow for second-order pieces of information supporting or opposing the cause to play an influential role in market outcomes. Novel platform analytics One of the things that web3 has done best (and has been best for crypto twitter) is the depth of analytics openly available to anyone in the space. Data from block explorers can be repackaged and contorted into easily readable formats for anyone interested to easier digest exactly what is happening on chain. Nothing like this has achieved success at scale for social. Sure, anyone with the requisite level of skill can develop their own sentiment analysis programs or data visualisation techniques based on what is happening, but platforms don’t make it easy for the everyday user to play around with and explore different elements of platform activity. Why not introduce -style analytics platforms for granular data on social platform activity? At the topline, there would be full transparency around platform activity - for example, how likes/RTs/replies are distributed among power users of the platform or how bot activity is trending over time. Where it gets very interesting is if these platforms can then open-source sentiment analysis tools. In this world, we could see analysts developing publicly available dashboards displaying changes in tone from different account categories over time, common triggers of trends and much much more. Dune

The Economy of Elon Musk's X

ইলন মাস্কের এক্স এর অর্থনীতি

Die Wirtschaft von Elon Musks X

La economía de la X de Elon Musk

L'économie du X d'Elon Musk

एलोन मस्क की एक्स की अर्थव्यवस्था

イーロン・マスクのXの経済

Elon Musk의 X의 경제

A economia do X de Elon Musk

Elon Musk'un X'inin Ekonomisi

Nền kinh tế của Elon Musk's X

埃隆·马斯克 X 的经济

Since Twitter has had a clash with , Musk came into the ring to map a new future of social media with its X initiative. As we all know, Twitter has undergone a major revamp, introducing X as its unique feature that will catch everyone's attention. Threads Now, you no longer have to confine your thoughts to a limited 280 characters. With X, you can heighten your social media experience by exploring a new perspective on microblogging. Musk claims that the X will be a one-stop shop for techies; it's a world where you can express your thoughts, exchange playful remarks, and stay forward with the latest trends in a tech-savvy community that shares your passion. We can hope for better and get inclined to adopt the fate of ! Twitter with X X: The Ultimate Playground for Tech Dreamers Do you believe in Musk? Well, I don't, but it's been told that the X is not just a rebrand; it's a tech utopia tailored for your every whim. For a moment, think of X as your virtual playground where you, along with other innovators and digital explorers, can geek out over the latest gadgets, discuss coding problems, and swap insights on the ever-evolving world of AI. The developers at X are using the best possible app development strategies to stand out in the market. Musk's professionals are paving your way to find X more intriguing than meta. Whether you're a seasoned tech enthusiast or just dipping your toes into the tech waters, you will see X having all things nerdy and wonderful. X Aims to Launch Trading Platform Hold onto your seats, financial specialists! X is stepping into the trading ring with big ambitions. That's right, the same platform where you've been sharing cat memes and tech tidbits is now gearing up to be your go-to destination for financial ventures. X offers a user-friendly interface and real-time updates for both seasoned investors and newbies eager to start trading. Trading with X is an engaging experience. Unlike other platforms, we might trust X in the future for trading stocks, forex, and crypto. X Paves the Way for Stock and Crypto Purchases Wave goodbye to those complex investment platforms – It is real! Imagine using X for stocks and crypto purchases. Certainly, X is here to make your financial journey smoother than a smartphone swipe. Imagine a platform where you can dive into with confidence, minus the confusing graphs and jargon. stocks and cryptocurrencies X's revamped interface is like a friendly tour guide, leading you through unlimited financial possibilities. Whether you're eyeing Bitcoin's rise or the next big tech disruptor, X is your compass to navigate the world of investments. So, brace yourself as X takes the spotlight, fusing your social and financial statuses in a tech-savvy symphony of possibilities. With X, we hope the future is brighter, bolder, and just a scroll away! Hosting Spaces for Communities Picture this: A digital town square bustling with diverse communities, each with its own savor and passion. That's exactly what X brings to the table – or rather, to your screen. It's like a potluck where techies, fashionistas, gamers, and foodies come together to share their passions. Hosting Spaces is the name of the game, where you can create your own little corner of the internet, curate content, and connect with like-minded souls. Whether you're exchanging coding tips or debating the best coffee beans, X's communal vibe is your ticket to an online hangout that's anything but ordinary. Better Earnings for Influencers on X To all the influencers out there who've been living on a diet of likes, views, and engagements, X has your back – and your wallet. No more chasing after elusive algorithms; X will understand the hustle. With a nifty set of tools, you can monetize your content and turn those double taps into real dollars. X serves everyone, whether you're a beauty guru or a fitness freak. X's improved earnings potential gives you a reason to explore further and consume more social media. So, snap that selfie, share your workout routine, and let X scatter some financial glitter on your social media game. X as A Marketplace Having Its Roots In Ecommerce Not just Meta, X might be a challenge for Amazon too in the future – It's not just about one-click shopping. X can be the , blending the convenience of shopping with the thrill of discovery. future of online commerce It's like walking through a bustling bazaar where every stall is packed with unique things. X's marketplace can offer a wide range of products, from traditional handmade crafts to modern and innovative tech gadgets. It's a great resource for both buyers and sellers alike. Plus, with its tech-savvy community, you might not just buy products – you'll join a tribe that glorifies innovation, creativity, and the joy of finding that perfect something. Musk's Hunger to Be The Best Elon Musk – the name that echoes through the corridors of innovation like a relentless drumbeat. His hunger for excellence is the driving force behind X's evolution. Much like Musk's quest to revolutionize space travel and , X is on a mission to redefine the online experience for people. electric cars It's about pushing boundaries, taking risks, and always reaching for the stars. With Musk's visionary spirit at its core, X isn't just a rebrand; it's a testament to the unyielding pursuit of greatness. You might be checking out Spaces, making money as an influencer, browsing the marketplace, or just exploring. X strives to be your front-row ticket to the future. X: A Powerhouse Challenger to the Metaverse Status Quo Let's just take an example of virtual reality because X is gearing up to be the ultimate game-changer in the metaverse arena. If the were a bustling city, X would be the skyscraper that everyone can't stop talking about. metaverse It's not just about immersing yourself in a digital world; it's about rewriting the rules and setting a new standard for what's possible. X isn't content with simply being a player – it's here to redefine the entire game. Imagine a place where the lines between the real and virtual blur, where you can explore, create, connect, and even redefine everything. That's the promise X holds – a place where your absurdist tech-infused dreams come to life. So are you prepared to go deeper into the realm that's more than just an escape; (I am all set and excited)? I think it's an invitation to shape the metaverse narrative in your own unique way. X's Potential to Reshape the Future When it comes to the future, X isn't pleased with a backstage pass; it's aiming for the limelight. With its arsenal of innovation and a hunger for resetting the norm, X has the potential to recreate the digital topography as we know it. X's potential knows no bounds. You may be exploring the depths of immersive realities that stimulate your senses and bridge the gap between the physical and virtual worlds. Imagine this as a blank canvas where you have the freedom to express your creativity and ingenuity to shape the future. X invites you to be part of a revolution where you're not just a spectator but a co-creator of the future. How Innovation Meets Expertise in This Era Just like X is after innovation, you must also be on the hunt to find loopholes in the industry. Don't hype it! Innovation is not rocket science. It is all about finding and improving an existing idea in various ways. Think of how you can bring innovation in any field. Well, you might be picking up an existing app idea or a web solution and will try to recreate something extraordinary. Before you begin, remember that creating an app isn't just about functionality; it's about creating an unforgettable user journey. Wrapping Up It's clear that X is more than just a rebrand; it's a portal to a future where imagination knows no limits and innovation dominates. The metaverse might be a vast expanse waiting to be explored, but X is the compass that points us toward uncharted domains. So, whether you're donning your virtual reality headset or simply curious about what lies beyond the horizon, X promises a journey that's as exciting as it is enlightening. Get ready for what's ahead. Be part of something bigger, bolder, and undeniably transformative – the future, as shaped by X.

Unveiling Musk's X: What It Aims to Offer That Meta Might Lack

XOR - The magical bitwise operator

Soon, the days of managing multiple social media accounts may be a thing of the past. I. What is BlueSky? In November 2024, BlueSky, a social media platform founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, reached over 20 million users. The platform is still relatively new, having launched in 2023. It’s attracting all the people tired of both Trump and Elon Musk’s antics or just the wild wild west that is currently X (formerly known as Twitter). Many are packing their digital bags, closing their accounts, and moving permanently to the BlueSky platform. I have a BlueSky account, and though it looks a lot like OG Twitter, there are a few key differences between BlueSky and X: BlueSky is decentralized: Aiming to become even more decentralized in the future. This means users will have more control over their data, the ability to create their own servers, and the freedom to design their own algorithms. Users won’t be tied to any one system-wide feed. For example, if someone only wants to see pets and never wants to see politics, there are algorithms available to make that happen. Data Portability: The premise is that no single person or group controls the activity or data on BlueSky. This allows people to move their data to other platforms that may use the Authenticated Transfer Protocol (AT Protocol or ATProto) — an open, decentralized protocol for building social media applications. Jay Graber, BlueSky’s CEO, Said This in an Interview With CNBC: “The billionaire-proof is in the way everything is designed, and so if someone bought [BlueSky] or if the company went down, everything is open source… What happened to Twitter couldn’t happen to us in the same ways because you would always have the option to immediately move without having to start over.” II. The Fediverse This concept of decentralization means more customizability and potential overlap with new platforms, lending itself to what is known as the Fediverse (a combination of “federation” and “universe”). The fediverse is a concept facilitating the intercommunication of several independent social media platforms. Imagine using Facebook to comment on something happening on X and X users being able to respond back. I think this is one of the cooler things happening with the future of the internet. The idea that people could create one account to interact across many different platforms would enable faster communication and sharing of information without logging in and out of multiple accounts. Scheduling posts and planning content could become even easier in the future, possibly reducing the need for large teams to manage different accounts for one persona. This concept ties in nicely with Web3, blockchain, and decentralized networks. Imagine servers facilitating lightning-fast exchanges of currencies or tokens, enabling NFT transactions at unprecedented speeds. Jack Dorsey, a staunch advocate for crypto and Bitcoin, has been a major player in digital finance systems like Square and CashApp. It wouldn’t be surprising if BlueSky became one of the key platforms in the future for advancing high-speed crypto, token, and NFT transactions, as well as fostering digital cultural movements directly on the platform. While the idea of customizability is exciting, it doesn’t really reduce concerns about political echo chambers on social media. I predict that posting on social media and creating content will become a more robust profession in the future, potentially rewarding users with platform-specific tokens. These tokens could offer features like higher-quality video uploads, enhanced post visibility, further gamifying social media, and able to be exchanged for cash. III. Meta’s Role in the Fediverse Meta (formerly Facebook) owns Instagram, Facebook, and Threads. While they haven’t announced a comprehensive plan to integrate all their platforms into the fediverse, there are signs of progress. For example, Threads now allows users with public profiles to make their accounts visible within the fediverse. Turning on the fediverse on threads Meta explains this feature as follows: “With our beta experience, Threads users aged 18+ with public profiles can now choose to enable sharing to the Fediverse. If they do, they’ll be able to publish posts on Threads that will be viewable on other ActivityPub-compliant servers. Threads users will also be able to see aggregated like counts on their posts from other Fediverse servers directly from the Threads app. If people on other Fediverse servers follow federated Threads profiles, they’ll be able to see, reply to, and repost Threads posts (if their server allows it).” — Meta, March 21, 2024 The Fediverse and the Blockchain Meta has had plans for a while to integrate various digital currencies into its platforms. Tentatively named, “Zuck Bucks” have reportedly been in the works to facilitate transactions across the Metaverse, including Instagram, Facebook, and Threads. Don’t forget, in 2019, Facebook had plans to release its own decentralized stablecoin in 2020, called Libra, which was later named Diem due to distancing itself from its original name because it was facing some very challenging regulatory issues; eventually, key partners like PayPal, Stripe, eBay, Visa, and Mastercard abandoned the Libra Association and the project at large, thus the Libra stablecoin by Facebook was cancelled. The Future of the Internet Is Infinite and Seamless Intersectionality: For the metaverse to function effectively, all platforms must seamlessly communicate with one another. This digital realm could offer people the opportunity to live out a second life through a variety of mediums, primarily VR. Nearly everyone can become a digital actor in some capacity, though, whether by creating a personalized avatar operated with keyboard and mouse, or by opting for a more immersive experience using virtual reality eyewear. Some individuals will contribute to the metaverse’s growth by designing and coding virtual environments directly from their laptops, aided by sophisticated AI agents that optimize and streamline the development process. This technology enables the rapid creation of decentralized apps, worlds, tokens, and NFTs in a matter of minutes. The interconnected nature of the fediverse means that publishing a virtual world on one platform effectively makes it accessible across all platforms. This interconnectivity leads to a more significant impact in the digital world, accelerated development, enhanced tokenized incentives, and further gamification of culture as digital universes overlap. Despite concerns about over-saturation in the content creation space, I believe we’re still in the early stages. While many argue that the market is crowded, I’m convinced that we’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible in the creator economy. Soon, the days of managing multiple social media accounts may be a thing of the past. I. What is BlueSky? I. What is BlueSky? In November 2024, BlueSky, a social media platform founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, reached over 20 million users. reached over 20 million users. The platform is still relatively new, having launched in 2023. It’s attracting all the people tired of both Trump and Elon Musk’s antics or just the wild wild west that is currently X (formerly known as Twitter). Many are packing their digital bags, closing their accounts, and moving permanently to the BlueSky platform. wild wild west Many are packing their digital bags, closing their accounts, and moving permanently to the BlueSky platform. I have a BlueSky account, and though it looks a lot like OG Twitter, there are a few key differences between BlueSky and X: BlueSky is decentralized : Aiming to become even more decentralized in the future. This means users will have more control over their data, the ability to create their own servers, and the freedom to design their own algorithms. Users won’t be tied to any one system-wide feed. For example, if someone only wants to see pets and never wants to see politics, there are algorithms available to make that happen. BlueSky is decentralized This means users will have more control over their data, the ability to create their own servers, and the freedom to design their own algorithms. if someone only wants to see pets and never wants to see politics, there are algorithms available to make that happen. Data Portability : The premise is that no single person or group controls the activity or data on BlueSky. This allows people to move their data to other platforms that may use the Authenticated Transfer Protocol (AT Protocol or ATProto) — an open, decentralized protocol for building social media applications. Data Portability The premise is that no single person or group controls the activity or data on BlueSky. Jay Graber, BlueSky’s CEO, Said This in an Interview With CNBC: Jay Graber, BlueSky’s CEO, Said This in an Interview With CNBC: “The billionaire-proof is in the way everything is designed, and so if someone bought [BlueSky] or if the company went down, everything is open source… What happened to Twitter couldn’t happen to us in the same ways because you would always have the option to immediately move without having to start over.” “The billionaire-proof is in the way everything is designed, and so if someone bought [BlueSky] or if the company went down, everything is open source… What happened to Twitter couldn’t happen to us in the same ways because you would always have the option to immediately move without having to start over.” “The billionaire-proof is in the way everything is designed, and so if someone bought [BlueSky] or if the company went down, everything is open source… What happened to Twitter couldn’t happen to us in the same ways because you would always have the option to immediately move without having to start over.” II. The Fediverse II. The Fediverse This concept of decentralization means more customizability and potential overlap with new platforms, lending itself to what is known as the Fediverse (a combination of “federation” and “universe”) . The fediverse is a concept facilitating the intercommunication of several independent social media platforms. (a combination of “federation” and “universe”) Imagine using Facebook to comment on something happening on X and X users being able to respond back. Imagine using Facebook to comment on something happening on X and X users being able to respond back. I think this is one of the cooler things happening with the future of the internet. The idea that people could create one account to interact across many different platforms would enable faster communication and sharing of information without logging in and out of multiple accounts. Scheduling posts and planning content could become even easier in the future, possibly reducing the need for large teams to manage different accounts for one persona. Scheduling posts and planning content could become even easier in the future, This concept ties in nicely with Web3, blockchain, and decentralized networks. Imagine servers facilitating lightning-fast exchanges of currencies or tokens, enabling NFT transactions at unprecedented speeds. Jack Dorsey, a staunch advocate for crypto and Bitcoin, has been a major player in digital finance systems like Square and CashApp. Imagine servers facilitating lightning-fast exchanges of currencies or tokens, enabling NFT transactions at unprecedented speeds. It wouldn’t be surprising if BlueSky became one of the key platforms in the future for advancing high-speed crypto, token, and NFT transactions, as well as fostering digital cultural movements directly on the platform. While the idea of customizability is exciting, it doesn’t really reduce concerns about political echo chambers on social media. echo chambers on social media. echo chambers on social media. I predict that posting on social media and creating content will become a more robust profession in the future, potentially rewarding users with platform-specific tokens. These tokens could offer features like higher-quality video uploads, enhanced post visibility, further gamifying social media, and able to be exchanged for cash. I predict III. Meta’s Role in the Fediverse III. Meta’s Role in the Fediverse Meta (formerly Facebook) owns Instagram, Facebook, and Threads. While they haven’t announced a comprehensive plan to integrate all their platforms into the fediverse, there are signs of progress. For example, Threads now allows users with public profiles to make their accounts visible within the fediverse. Turning on the fediverse on threads Meta explains this feature as follows: Meta explains this feature as follows: “With our beta experience, Threads users aged 18+ with public profiles can now choose to enable sharing to the Fediverse. If they do, they’ll be able to publish posts on Threads that will be viewable on other ActivityPub-compliant servers. Threads users will also be able to see aggregated like counts on their posts from other Fediverse servers directly from the Threads app. If people on other Fediverse servers follow federated Threads profiles, they’ll be able to see, reply to, and repost Threads posts (if their server allows it).” — Meta, March 21, 2024 “With our beta experience, Threads users aged 18+ with public profiles can now choose to enable sharing to the Fediverse. If they do, they’ll be able to publish posts on Threads that will be viewable on other ActivityPub-compliant servers. Threads users will also be able to see aggregated like counts on their posts from other Fediverse servers directly from the Threads app. If people on other Fediverse servers follow federated Threads profiles, they’ll be able to see, reply to, and repost Threads posts (if their server allows it).” — Meta, March 21, 2024 “With our beta experience, Threads users aged 18+ with public profiles can now choose to enable sharing to the Fediverse. If they do, they’ll be able to publish posts on Threads that will be viewable on other ActivityPub-compliant servers. Threads users will also be able to see aggregated like counts on their posts from other Fediverse servers directly from the Threads app. If people on other Fediverse servers follow federated Threads profiles, they’ll be able to see, reply to, and repost Threads posts (if their server allows it).” — Meta, March 21, 2024 The Fediverse and the Blockchain The Fediverse and the Blockchain Meta has had plans for a while to integrate various digital currencies into its platforms. Tentatively named, “Zuck Bucks” have reportedly been in the works to facilitate transactions across the Metaverse, including Instagram, Facebook, and Threads. “Zuck Bucks” Don’t forget, in 2019, Facebook had plans to release its own decentralized stablecoin in 2020, called Libra, which was later named Diem due to distancing itself from its original name because it was facing some very challenging regulatory issues; eventually, key partners like PayPal, Stripe, eBay, Visa, and Mastercard abandoned the Libra Association and the project at large, thus the Libra stablecoin by Facebook was cancelled. Don’t forget, called Libra, which was later named Diem The Future of the Internet Is Infinite and Seamless Intersectionality: For the metaverse to function effectively, all platforms must seamlessly communicate with one another. This digital realm could offer people the opportunity to live out a second life through a variety of mediums, primarily VR. Nearly everyone can become a digital actor in some capacity, though, whether by creating a personalized avatar operated with keyboard and mouse, or by opting for a more immersive experience using virtual reality eyewear. Some individuals will contribute to the metaverse’s growth by designing and coding virtual environments directly from their laptops, aided by sophisticated AI agents that optimize and streamline the development process. This technology enables the rapid creation of decentralized apps, worlds, tokens, and NFTs in a matter of minutes. The interconnected nature of the fediverse means that publishing a virtual world on one platform effectively makes it accessible across all platforms. This interconnectivity leads to a more significant impact in the digital world, accelerated development, enhanced tokenized incentives, and further gamification of culture as digital universes overlap. Despite concerns about over-saturation in the content creation space, I believe we’re still in the early stages. While many argue that the market is crowded, I’m convinced that we’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible in the creator economy.

BlueSky: Decentralized Social Media and an Intersectional Future

“It was the 24th of October That day 21% of Upwork employees always remember, yes they will 'Cause that was the day that they lost their jobs” The news about one-out-of-five layoffs at Upwork shook the remote work community to the core. The exact scope of the layoff is unclear, but based on Upwork’s reported 800 employees at the end of 2023, the 21% cut will likely hit at least 160 workers. Was it necessary? Could it have been avoided? Upwork expects to save $60 million a year from the announced cost cuts. The stock markets reacted almost immediately, in a matter of hours. The gig-economy specialist's share price was up 22.6% as of 11 a.m. ET. When you put it like this, you don’t get the full picture: So, How Many People Work at Upwork? I asked this question on Reddit. My source was Backlinko: The trouble with getting the exact number is related to freelancers who work on Upwork for Upwork. I had to ask one more question. WTF is GSV?! Indeed, an interesting market reaction, and an even more interesting graph: I didn’t have to wait long for an answer: OK. I get it. Moving on. How Upwork Feels About All These Job Kills? I don’t know about you, but Upwork’s sense of humor on X, a day before the layoffs announcement was really something. I didn’t get it then, and I don’t get it now. So, I decided to fix it for them: As you might’ve expected, the official Upwork Community reacted, as well. I had to fact-check this Upwork Community member, my fellow freelancer. This is what I found: “The estimated Net Worth of Hayden Brown is at least  $24.1 Million dollars as of 18 August 2024. Ms. Brown owns over 58,046 units of Upwork Inc stock worth over $11,243,016 and over the last 6 years she sold UPWK stock worth over $1,348,852. In addition, she makes $11,530,900 as President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director at Upwork Inc.” A “decent salary” and “a drop in the ocean.” Nuff said. Now, to our space-cowboy friend. Dear Elon Musk, Let’s Make Upwork Your Next Takeover Task! From a space explorer to our planet’s savior. People don’t lack imagination in their propositions to Elon Musk to save this or that by buying all kinds of things and companies. I saw one tweet from a guy asking Elon to buy the umbrella company, which owns all dating apps, and save the dating market. I mean, of all the suggestions this one perfectly aligns with Elon’s plans to tackle the declining population problem. But, let’s get back to Upwork. I thought to tweet my suggestion. Elon, buy Upwork, and make remote work great again. But, he already had other plans: So, X is now a job search platform, officially. This is one of the latest new features. The app that does everything. Hmm, where did I see that? Let’s ask Wikipedia: “WeChat has been described as China's "app for everything" and a super-app because of its wide range of functions.[10] WeChat provides text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, video conferencing, video games, mobile payment, sharing of photographs and videos and location sharing.” Shortly before buying Twitter, Musk wrote: “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.” The everything app, indeed. And, Elon Musk is doing everything to elect the next President of the United States. So, it seems that Upwork will have to wait because it’s definitely not on Elon Musk’s plate. “It was the 24th of October That day 21% of Upwork employees always remember, yes they will 'Cause that was the day that they lost their jobs” The news about one-out-of-five layoffs at Upwork shook the remote work community to the core. news about one-out-of-five layoffs at Upwork The exact scope of the layoff is unclear, but based on Upwork’s reported 800 employees at the end of 2023, the 21% cut will likely hit at least 160 workers. The exact scope of the layoff is unclear, but based on Upwork’s reported 800 employees at the end of 2023, the 21% cut will likely hit at least 160 workers. reported at least 160 workers. Was it necessary? Could it have been avoided? Upwork expects to save $60 million a year from the announced cost cuts. Upwork expects to save $60 million a year from the announced cost cuts. save $60 million a year The stock markets reacted almost immediately, in a matter of hours. The gig-economy specialist's share price was up 22.6% as of 11 a.m. ET. The gig-economy specialist's share price was up 22.6% as of 11 a.m. ET. share price was up 22.6% When you put it like this, you don’t get the full picture: So, How Many People Work at Upwork? I asked this question on Reddit. My source was Backlinko: The trouble with getting the exact number is related to freelancers who work on Upwork for Upwork. I had to ask one more question. WTF is GSV?! Indeed, an interesting market reaction, and an even more interesting graph: I didn’t have to wait long for an answer: OK. I get it. Moving on. How Upwork Feels About All These Job Kills? I don’t know about you, but Upwork’s sense of humor on X, a day before the layoffs announcement was really something. I didn’t get it then, and I don’t get it now. So, I decided to fix it for them: As you might’ve expected, the official Upwork Community reacted, as well. I had to fact-check this Upwork Community member, my fellow freelancer. This is what I found: “The estimated Net Worth of Hayden Brown is at least  $24.1 Million dollars as of 18 August 2024. Ms. Brown owns over 58,046 units of Upwork Inc stock worth over $11,243,016 and over the last 6 years she sold UPWK stock worth over $1,348,852. In addition, she makes $11,530,900 as President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director at Upwork Inc. ” Upwork Inc stock In addition, she makes $11,530,900 as President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director at Upwork Inc. A “decent salary” and “a drop in the ocean.” Nuff said. Now, to our space-cowboy friend. Dear Elon Musk, Let’s Make Upwork Your Next Takeover Task! From a space explorer to our planet’s savior. People don’t lack imagination in their propositions to Elon Musk to save this or that by buying all kinds of things and companies. I saw one tweet from a guy asking Elon to buy the umbrella company, which owns all dating apps, and save the dating market. I mean, of all the suggestions this one perfectly aligns with Elon’s plans to tackle the declining population problem. But, let’s get back to Upwork. I thought to tweet my suggestion. Elon, buy Upwork, and make remote work great again. But, he already had other plans: So, X is now a job search platform, officially. This is one of the latest new features. The app that does everything. Hmm, where did I see that? Let’s ask Wikipedia: “WeChat has been described as China 's "app for everything" and a super-app because of its wide range of functions. [10] WeChat provides text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, video conferencing, video games, mobile payment, sharing of photographs and videos and location sharing.” China super-app [10] Shortly before buying Twitter, Musk wrote: “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.” Shortly before buying Twitter, Musk wrote: “ Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app .” Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app The everything app, indeed. And, Elon Musk is doing everything to elect the next President of the United States. So, it seems that Upwork will have to wait because it’s definitely not on Elon Musk’s plate.

Elon, Buy Upwork, Make Remote Work Great Again!

What Is The Deal With Meta's Threads

Dear Elon Musk, I hope this email finds you well. I’m writing this email with regards to a message that won’t fit into a mere te t message. X All in all, do you feel threatened? Or, to put it into perspective - do you feel -ened? Thread But first… Let’s take a walk down memory lane… Larry the Bird (and not the basketball legend) https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1585341984679469056?s=20&embedable=true My first exposure to a text-based social app was through my favorite childhood teen dramas like , or more specifically, The Slap, whereas for others, it would’ve been . Victorious twttr NYU student Jack Dorsey shared the idea of an SMS-based social app with his colleagues, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams, from Odeo. What started as a side project soon had its debut in 2006, which eventually saw an influx of users, especially in 2007. One could say that the Twitter community was in a league of its own, often credited as a pioneer of the latest information, trends, and memes. Twitter as a whole, holds a special place in our hearts, thus, it is hard to be “replaced”, even with the rise of seemingly concerning phenomenons like the growth of bots and the spread of controversial statements. It’s no wonder that even with the handoff of the long-standing reputation of Twitter as it is, to your ownership, users continued to stay loyal to the platform. Even though your term was short-lived as you passed the baton to Linda Yaccarino, I understand that you continue to “keep an eye” on its operations. Threads versus Twitter They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - although it’s quoted as “Instagram for your thoughts”, it’s undeniable that the similarities are uncanny. Meta released Threads as a new way to share text, one of the major twists is that it conforms to the by allowing users to share content across different platforms. In Meta’s case, the user’s Threads profile is interchangeable with their Instagram accounts, thus the frustration of Threads users such that if they choose to delete their Threads profile, their Instagram profiles would be met with the same fate. ActivityPub protocol I, for one, would like to isolate certain platforms for different use cases - I’d prefer not having my professional network on LinkedIn to be able to pry into my personal life as I display on Instagram. On the flip side, as a content creator, I can pull in my followers from YouTube to Instagram, without having to start from the ground up again. wbu? Here’s a great overview of the new protocol by the Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2023/07/threads-foreshadows-a-big-and-surprising-shift-in-social-media?embedable=true The Impact Meta was able to leverage their large user base on Instagram to propel signups for Threads, but this can’t undermine the significant hype around the social platform as it saw , even with its premature features. 100 million sign-ups within the first five days of launch It’s clear that Threads took advantage of your situation - the decline in user satisfaction on Twitter was the momentum needed for Threads' boost to power. Eventually, there was the drama of Team Twitter vs Team Threads. And when things got out of hand, your team even threatened to sue Meta for poaching former employees to create Threads. This was, however, to no avail, as Meta confirmed that no one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee. Now the conversation continues - Is this the downfall of Twitter? Will Threads be taking over? To put this into perspective, some key features are crucial to determine the outcome: The speed of Meta’s new feature releases on Threads Twitter’s continuous efforts to make Twitter a safer social platform The rise of a unified social media identity Now let’s take a deep dive into some concerns that may affect this race… The Controversy Twitter/X Problematic rebranding strategies You decided to rebrand Twitter as X, which may be an homage to your , of which garnered a lot of attention amidst the fanfare for Threads. On the other hand, the rebranding to X included using a bright sign to shine into San Francisco’s apartments. Countless memes surfaced on having to reorganize shortcut apps on one’s home screen while residents of SF became irritated at having to be contented with living in an EDM festival. previous venture Despite the frustration of most, there’s the saying that “bad publicity is still publicity”. I truly wonder - is this your take on the famous quote? New protocols and policies Starting with the new verification protocol, indeed, the goal is to eliminate the “bot problem”, and with that, comes a long list of security checks. However, within the list, now lies the requirement of subscribing to X Premium - a condition that hasn’t been implemented in the past, let alone requiring there to be a payment. Along with the new verification payment policy, you also chose to end the era of free APIs, which was a prominent epoch in my early developer days, if I may add. Understandably, this caused chaos for a lot of people and companies, as they relied on the Twitter API for their projects and businesses. It almost seems as if new policies are being implemented every week, which in turn, causes users to feel restricted and lose interest in the platform. But then again, if not for changes, how are we to expect improvements? In fact, some improvements have been greatly optimistic for the platform, for example, the new Reporting Policy to reduce harmful content. (Read more: ) Twitter/X Blog Threads Declining user retention Despite the boom in user sign-ups, it’s reported that the number of active users has dropped by 60% to 70%. On the other hand, the average time spent daily on the app has fallen to just 2.5 minutes. (Source: ) Bloomberg Opinion This may just be due to the nature of a text-based social app, or just based on the natural progression of The Hype Cycle, but the question here is - Is this too big of a fall? Here’s a great video by How They Make Money on this very topic https://youtu.be/Wbz6sAtSmdk?si=Q0VsUgTe1uwjHLVJ&embedable=true Meta’s hunger for rapid innovation If we were to look back at Meta’s previous endeavors, we come across the Metaverse. The debate then was if the Metaverse was here to stay. A lot of critics were saying that Meta was too ahead of its time, advocating for something that wasn’t yet ready for this day and age. Regardless of the constant push for “trying to make fetch happen”, it’s reported that . Meta’s AR/VR business lost $7.7 Billion in the past 6 months Would Threads face a similar future? The Future Here are some features users can expect (soon!) from the platforms: The web experience for Threads Job posting feature on Twitter/X Based on the situation, it doesn’t seem like any of the two platforms intend to slow down, which brings us back to the question - Will this be the eXit of Twitter, or is Meta hanging on by a Thread? Anyways, that’s all I had for today. Looking forward to your email!

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