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- Jack Dorsey has taken shots at Facebook for its Diem project which he says was a waste of time and effort.
- The former Twitter boss says that Mark Zuckerberg should have focused his efforts on Bitcoin, a technology that already works, and how to avail it to everyone.
Facebook’s ill-fated Diem project was a waste of time and effort, former Twitter boss Jack Dorsey has stated. In an interview with Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor, Dorsey said that Facebook should have focused on Bitcoin and how to make it available to the masses, rather than creating its own cryptocurrency.
Since leaving Twitter a few months back, Jack has focused on Block, yet another company he co-founded and acts as CEO. Formerly known as Square, the payments company is spearheading efforts to make Bitcoin more accessible through its Cash App, something Jack has always been passionate about. Now, he claims that his fellow social media pioneer Mark Zuckerberg should have done the same thing.
Jack joined Saylor for an hour-long interview on the latter’s “Bitcoin for Corporations 2022” virtual event to talk about how the cryptocurrency is being integrated into Wall Street.
On Diem, Jack pulled no punches, saying that Zuckerberg could have done a lot more for humanity if he had focused on Bitcoin. Saying that Facebook probably started Diem, formerly Libra, for the right reasons, he believes they lost the plot along the way.
This whole thing with Libra and then Diem, I think there’s a ton of lessons there. Hopefully they learned a lot, but I think there was a lot of wasted effort and time.
Facebook recently admitted defeat with its Diem project after years of being frustrated by regulators in the U.S. The social media giant reportedly sold the project to Silvergate Bank for less than $200 million, hoping to recoup some of the money that its partners invested in the project.
The company had been working with Silvergate on a partnership that would have seen the California bank issue Diem since it’s a regulated financial entity, but even this was shot down by the Federal Reserve.
Facebook should have focused on Bitcoin
Jack has always made it clear that he’s a Bitcoin maximalist, and in his interview, he claimed that Zuckerberg should have been one too. Rather than reinventing the wheel with a new crypto, Facebook should have put all its efforts into Bitcoin, Jack said.
Those two or three years or however long it’s been could’ve been spent making Bitcoin more accessible for more people around the world.
Bitcoin is already working and has proven that it can bring a more equitable future in which everyone gets an opportunity to better themselves, Jack stated. As such, Facebook should have used its status and network effect to avail it to the 2.8 billion people who use its social media platform.
We have this open network right now. And it’s usable. It’s not accessible to everyone, but it’s usable. The easier we make it, the faster we make it, the more approachable we make it, it’s going to better everything. Including everything Facebook intended to do with Libra.
