Twitter

How Crypto Twitter could change under Musk’s leadership

Musk has not been shy about touting his vision for Twitter in the past, flagging free speech and eliminating spam bots and fake accounts as particular points of interest.

Barring another change of heart and certain conditions to be met, Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter looks set to go ahead, prompting the question of whether some or all of the changes he initially hinted for the platform will become a reality. 

The platform is a popular communication and news tool for crypto enthusiasts, users and investors, not to mention crypto scammers. The social media platform sees roughly 120,000 tweets per day about #Bitcoin alone, according to BitInfoCharts.

Looking back at Musk’s initial commentary when he proposed a buyout of Twitter could shed some light on what changes he envisions for the platform.

A focus on free speech, eliminating spam bots and fake accounts, an edit function, and possibly even crypto payments have all been considered and could still be on the agenda if the deal goes through.

Spam bots and fake accounts

One potential area of focus is around Twitter’s alleged spam bots.

During a TED Talk in Vancouver in April, Musk said that if his offer to buy Twitter were successful, a “top priority” would be the elimination of spam and scam bots from the platform, noting at the time:

“A top priority I would have is eliminating the spam and scam bots and the bot armies that are on Twitter.”

“They make the product much worse. If I had a Dogecoin for every crypto scam I saw, we’d have 100 billion Dogecoin,” he said.

He has proposed to topple them by “authenticating all humans,” and even made the statement: “We will defeat the spam bots or die trying!”

Issues relating to spam bots later became one of the key arguments Musk used to try to walk away from the deal.

Free speech, and the return of Trump?

Musk initially addressed his stance on free speech in a tweet back in April, stating at the time, “I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means.”

In the months since, he has not publically changed his stance and elaborated on what that could mean for the platform, including a return of former United States President Donald Trump, who was permanently banned from Twitter following the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.

Musk stated in a May 13 tweet that while he thinks Trump should probably not run for president again because he is “divisive,” he does think he should be “restored to Twitter.”

Algorithm made public

Musk has also thought about making Twitter’s algorithm accessible to the public, even creating a poll that ultimately saw over 1 million votes and had 82% of respondents saying “Yes” to the proposal.

It’s not entirely clear what Musk has in mind, but it could mean allowing the software to be open for public inspection and allowing users to read the code, use it for their applications and make suggestions for changes to how it works.

Other ideas

Other ideas have either fizzled out or have already been implemented, such as plans to use blockchain technology and charging 0.1 Dogecoin (DOGE) per tweet or retweet, which Musk later said would not be feasible.

Related: Musk’s deal for Twitter looks set to go with original $44B price tag

Musk also had the idea of adding an edit button and long-form tweets. However, Twitter may have beaten him to the punch with the edit button after the platform revealed that option recently.

The crypto community continues to be divided over whether the move will be a positive move for the platform, but others have taken to poking fun at the whole situation.

Twitter appears ready to accept the terms of the deal, announcing in an Oct. 4 Twitter post it intends to close the transaction at $54.20 per share.

Michael Saylor snubs claims he doesn’t use Bitcoin Lightning Network

Saylor wanted to demonstrate just how well he can use Bitcoin’s layer-2 Lightning Network by hosting a meme competition.

The executive chairman of MicroStrategy, Michael Saylor, does not like to be called out. He responded to a poll shared by Eric Wall, a crypto researcher, that suggested he had not used Bitcoin’s layer-2 Lightning Network more than three times with a Twitter poll of his own.

Saylor replied to the poll with a resounding yes, and kickstarted a meme competition with a 1,000,000 satoshi giveaway, or 0.01 Bitcoin (BTC) — worth around $200 — to the most liked meme. In giving away satoshis to prizewinners, Saylor will literally use the Lightning Network three times.

In typical Crypto Twitter fashion, Wall has since created a new poll suggesting that it’s actually Saylor’s assistant who is tweeting back and forth not the CEO himself. Wall told Cointelegraph: 

“My latest poll asks whether it’s Saylor or his assistant who made any of the comments you’re referring to. The alternative suggesting it’s his assistant is currently winning.”

Saylor first tweeted about the Lightning Network in May 2021 and has since become a proponent for the layer-2 payments solution built on Bitcoin, as well as LiFi, or Lightning Finance. Wall, a former chief investment officer at Arcane Research, has called out Saylor several times, and his initial optimism about the Lightning Network in 2018 has dissolved into critiques. 

Other prominent Bifluencers such as Udi Wertheimer and Lilli, head of business development at Foundation Devices, regularly knock the LN. Lilli recently called the network a “failure,” and Udi said, “Nobody uses it.”

The poll as well as recent commentary from Wall bring into focus a bigger issue. Is the Lightning Network a fringe solution to Bitcoin’s scalability problem that even the biggest names in the Bitcoin space struggle to use? Or, is the Lightning Network — following eight years of development — a failure?

Related: Busking on Bitcoin: How Lightning Network outperforms Ethereum for tipping

Wall shared a series of videos highlighting difficulties in transferring funds over the LN from old Bitcoin wallets to a new phone. He also predicted that Bitcoin capacity on the LN will not exceed 6,000 BTC before 2023. Bitcoin network capacity surged through 4,000 BTC in June and 5,000 BTC in October. With two months to go until year-end, Wall tweeted that it’s “gonna be a nail-biter.”

Perhaps major companies entering the space will bolster LN usage and improve sentiment. Saylor is doubling down again on his Bitcoin strategy, as MicroStrategy is hiring Lightning developers. Furthermore, NYDIG, a leading Bitcoin company, announced in its Q3 report that “Now it’s time for Lightning,” stating its intention to contribute to the LN.

For smaller Bitcoin-first companies, deals are struck and announcements are made on a weekly basis. Strike recently led a successful $80 million funding round, while Galoy, the team behind El Salvador’s Bitcoin Beach wallet, has implemented dollars onto the LN — a boon for emerging markets. In Gibraltar, a highly sophisticated financial market, Lightning Network adoption is thriving.

Finally, in a recent panel discussion moderated by Cointelegraph in France, prominent Lightning Developers including “Dr. Bitcoin” himself, Christian Decker and data scientist Rene Pickhard mulled over whether transaction failure on the LN is acceptable in 2022.

The overwhelming sentiment from the panel that day is that the LN is still a work in progress. It’s neither a resounding success as it’s still early. For Nicolas Burtey, CEO of Galoy — the group behind the Adopting Bitcoin, a Lightning Summit in El Salvador — “The adoption of Bitcoin in El Salvador was the tipping point for Lightning.” The El Salvador Bitcoin Law hit its year anniversary one month ago.

In the meantime, there are now hundreds of memes in reply to Saylor’s tweet.  

Cointelegraph reached out to Wall, who declined to comment. Cointelegraph will update the article if Saylor, Wertheimer or Lilli share commentary.

Musk’s deal for Twitter looks set to go with original $44B price tag

Twitter appears ready to move forward with the deal for Elon Musk to buy Twitter, announcing in an Oct. 4 post it intends to close the transaction at $54.20 per share.

In an unexpected U-turn, Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk looks set to complete his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter — alleged spam bots, fake accounts and all. 

According to the notice filed by Musk’s lawyers on Oct. 3 with the Delaware Chancery Court, which was overseeing the trial, Musk is ready to “proceed to closing of the transaction contemplated by the April 25, 2022 Merger Agreement.”

It follows several months of legal drama with the social media platform wherein Musk tried to back out of the deal, citing Twitter’s lack of transparency around spam bots, fake accounts and the financial health of the business, and comes just days before a rapidly approaching court date to settle the matter on Oct. 17.

Musk’s proposed deal comes on the condition that there is “an immediate stay of the action” an adjournment of the trial and pending receipt of financing. 

Twitter appears ready to accept the terms of the deal, announcing in an Oct. 4 Twitter post they intend to close the transaction at $54.20 per share.

Whether the looming court date prompted Musk’s change of heart is uncertain. However, the Telsa and SpaceX founder has already teased plans for the platform after he takes ownership.

Other than the cryptic tweet, Musk has not yet unveiled what the proposed multipurpose X app is; but in a follow-up tweet on Oct. 4, he mentioned, “Twitter probably accelerates X by 3 to 5 years, but I could be wrong.”

Musk previously mulled turning to blockchain technology to combat spam bots by making Twitter users pay 0.1 Dogecoin (DOGE) to tweet or retweet, according to a transcript of phone recordings.

“You have to pay a tiny amount to register your message on the chain, which will cut out the vast majority of spam and bots. There is no throat to choke, so free speech is guaranteed,” Musk said on page 98 of the transcript.

He later concluded that blockchain-based Twitter might not be feasible at the moment.

Related: Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly intended to join the Twitter deal in March

The news that Musk could be the new owner of the social media platform has been met with a mixed response from the Twitter community.

Dogecoin creator Bill Markus, also known as Shibetoshi Nakamoto on Twitter, told his 1.7 million followers that “if elon musk makes twitter better, then twitter will be better,” adding:

“If elon musk ruins twitter, then we don’t have to hear all the stupid things that people say on twitter anymore. that’s a win-win.”

Other users were not so optimistic, with one noting that he couldn’t believe “anyone who values @Twitter at all would want @elonmusk to have anything to do with it.”

In the last 24 hours, Twitter’s stock price has jumped 22.24% to a total of $52 a share, according to Nasdaq data.

Dogecoin, which has in the past seen price increases based on the actions of Musk, has had an 8% increase, trading at $0.06 at the time of writing, according to CoinGecko.

Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly intended to join the Twitter deal in March

The FTX owner’s advisor unsuccessfully inquired Elon Musk about joining the acquisition deal.

Not only Elon Musk thought of buying Twitter — crypto billionaire and CEO of exchange FTX Sam Bankman-Fried “was interested” in acquiring the social network back in March 2022, according to a report from Business Insider.

In the piece, published on Sept. 29, journalists refer to private texts released amid the court battle between Musk and Twitter, which had been unwinding after the businessman suspended the acquisition negotiations in July. 

According to the report, in March, philosopher and Bankman-Fried’s close adviser Will MacAskill texted Musk and mentioned the possibility of a joint effort to buy the social network:

“I’m not sure if this is what’s on your mind, but my collaborator Sam Bankman-Fried has for a while been potentially interested in purchasing it and then making it better for the world. If you want to talk with him about a possible joint effort in that direction.”

In response, Musk inquired whether Bankman-Fried had “huge amounts of money,” and MacAskill claimed that SBF was worth $24 billion and ready to spend $8 billion to $15 billion on the acquisition. Later, in April, MacAskill discussed the financing with the head of global technology investment banking at Morgan Stanley, Michael Grimes. The latter told Musk that the crypto entrepreneur could provide $5 billion to seal the deal, calling him “ultra genius and doer builder.” But Musk didn’t show any significant interest and noted that he didn’t want to “have a laborious blockchain debate” with SBF.

Related: Dogecoin has crashed 75% against Bitcoin since Elon Musk’s SNL appearance

These private negotiations seemingly ended in nothing, as neither Bankman-Fried personally nor FTX appeared in a list of potential co-investors of the acquisition, which included such entities as Binance, Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity and Sequoia Capital. In the last known text message between Musk and Bankman-Fried on May 5, the former asked, “Sorry, who is sending this message?”

Justifying his decision to exit the deal, Musk accused Twitter of concealing the actual number of fake/bot accounts, which in his estimate exceeds 5% of monetizable daily active users — the mark claimed by social network management. The first hearing on Twitter’s suit will be held on Oct. 17. The company intends to force Musk into completing the acquisition judicially.

Acala Network to resume operations after burning 2.7B in aUSD stablecoin

A total of 2.97 billion aUSD erroneously minted were recovered after the glitch.

After the mining failure involving its stablecoin, aUSD, the Acala Network announced on Monday that it had resumed its operations following a referendum allowing liquidity pools (LPs) to withdraw liquidity from pools or unstake LP tokens.

In August, a misconfiguration of the iBTC (IBTC)/aUSD liquidity pool led to a 3.022 billion aUSD to be erroneously minted, taking its price to less than $0.01 from its United States dollar peg. Acala is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform built on the Polkadot ecosystem.

The wallet addresses that had received the minted aUSD have been identified via on-chain tracing, allowing the recovery of 2.97 billion aUSD mistake mints from 16 addresses. Other thirty-five accounts were identified as having acquired 12.38 million erroneously minted aUSD.

According to the incident report, 16 IBTC/aUSD LP contributors received the error mints, and some of them repeatedly added more liquidity to the pool, claiming more aUSD error mints and resulting in more aUSD being erroneously minted. It noted:

“Some of these users repeatedly swapped more aUSD error mints as the imbalance of pools grew. They then transferred a significant amount of aUSD error mints to other XCM-connected chains and CEXs.”

The cause of the incident “was a vulnerability in the DEX saving code that is part of the incentives pallet,” said the company, which also announced a security roadmap to strengthen the security of the Acala network. 

The report revealed the full extent of the event. Reportedly a total of 3.022B aUSD errors were minted, 2.97 billion aUSD were found in the addresses of the 16 identified LP contributors and 12.38 million aUSD error mints were found on the top 35 accounts that acquired a significant amount of aUSD error mints or were linked to the accounts that acquired it. A remaining 52.068 million aUSD error mints, error mint-swapped tokens and addresses involved in the incident were identified.

Oman’s Indian embassy Twitter account compromised to promote XRP scam

The hackers behind the attack may have been responsible for breaching India-based crypto exchange CoinDCX’s Twitter account given the similar fake XRP giveaways.

Scammers have hacked the official Twitter account of the Embassy of Oman in India, replacing the profile picture with Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and using the reply function to spam users with fake XRP giveaway phishing links.

At the time of publication, the Twitter account OmanEmbassy_Ind showed several retweets matching those of Garlinghouse, seemingly in an attempt to make the activity look legitimate. The hacked account has been responding to tweets using the hashtag XRP, encouraging users to sign up for a fake giveaway of 100 million tokens — worth more than $42 million at an XRP price of $0.42.

The hackers behind the fake Ripple XRP CEO, identified as “Galringhouse,” may have been responsible for breaching India-based crypto exchange CoinDCX’s Twitter account, given the similar fake giveaways. CoinDCX reported on Tuesday that it had restored access to its account. While the crypto exchange’s Twitter account had more than 230,000 followers, the Embassy of Oman in India only showed 4,119 at the time of publication.

On Monday, Caroline Pham of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission made waves on social media after posting a photo of herself standing with Garlinghouse in the offices of Ripple Labs’. A decision in a Securities and Exchange Commission case alleging Ripple’s XRP sales violated securities laws may be forthcoming after both sides filed motions for summary judgment on Saturday.

Related: Hackers might be responsible for removing $4.8M from crypto exchange ZB.com: PeckShield

Many hackers have used social media to attempt to scam unsuspecting users out of both crypto and fiat since the platforms were created. Using high-profile figures in the crypto space — like Garlinghouse, Elon Musk, and others — is a common tactic. In June, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission reported that scammers had pilfered roughly $1 billion in crypto from 2021 to the first quarter of 2022, with half of all crypto-related scams originating from social media platforms. 

‘Far too easy’ — Crypto researcher’s fake Ponzi raises $100K in hours

Crypto Twitter user FatManTerra explained the fake investment scheme was used to teach people a lesson about investing blindly in crypto schemes shilled by influencers.

Crypto influencer FatManTerra claims to have gathered over $100,000 worth of Bitcoin (BTC) from crypto investors in an investment scheme that was later revealed as fake. 

The crypto researcher said he created the fake investment scheme as an experiment and to teach people a lesson about blindly following the investment advice of influencers.

The account on Twitter has around 101,100 followers and is mostly known for being a former Terra proponent that now actively speaks out against the project and founder Do Kwon following its $40 billion collapse in May.

In a Monday tweet, FatManTerra told his followers he had “received access to a high-yield BTC farm” by an unnamed fund, and said that people could message him if they wanted in on the yield farming opportunity.

“I’ve maxed out what I could, so there’s some leftover allocation and I thought I’d pass it along — priority will be given to UST victims. DM for more details if interested,” he wrote.

While the post received a ton of negative responses from people calling it out as a scam, FatMan said he still managed to raise more than $100,000 worth of BTC from the initial post on Twitter and on Discord within a span of two hours.

In a Tuesday tweet, FatManTerra revealed the investment scheme was fake all along, describing it as an “awareness campaign” to show how easy it is to dupe people in crypto by using simple buzzwords and promising big investment returns:

“While I used plenty of buzzwords and put on a very convincing act on all platforms, I made sure to keep the investment details intentionally obscure — I didn’t name the fund & I didn’t describe the trade — no one knew where the yield was coming from. But people still invested.”

“I want to send a clear, strong message to everyone in the crypto world — anyone offering to hand you free money is lying. It simply doesn’t exist. Your favorite influencer selling you quick money trading coaching or offering a golden investment opportunity is scamming you,” he added.

FatManTerra claims to have now refunded all of the money and reiterated that “free lunches don’t exist.”

The notion of influencers allegedly promoting scams has been in the news of late, with YouTuber Ben Armstrong (BitBoy Crypto) taking legal action against content creator Atozy last month for accusing him of promoting dubious tokens to his audiences. However, he has since withdrawn the lawsuit.

Related: Do Kwon breaking silence triggers responses from the community

FatManTerra also stated that his fake fund post was inspired by the Lady of Crypto Twitter account, which has been accused of shilling questionable investment schemes to its 257,500 followers.

PwC Venezuela Twitter account hacked, attacker shills fake XRP giveaway

An attacker gained access to PwC Venezuela’s Twitter account and has been actively posting cryptocurrency phishing links for the last eight hours at the time of the writing.

The official Twitter account of Big Four accounting firm PwC Venezuela, was compromised and has been used by the hacker to share links to fraudulent Ripple (XRP) token giveaways.

An attacker gained access to PwC Venezuela’s Twitter account and has been actively posting cryptocurrency phishing links for the last eight hours at the time of the writing. Considering that all the tweets posted by the hacker remain active, it is evident that PwC officials have yet to realize the compromise.

Investors clicking on the links remain at risk of being defrauded by the hacker. If not mitigated promptly, the threat may be catastrophic, considering that PwC Veleneula’s Twitter currently boasts over 37,000 followers.

Cointelegraph has reached out to PwC Venezuela to inform them about the hack. PwC Venezuela has not yet responded to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

Related: Elon Musk-crypto video played on S. Korean govt’s hacked YouTube channel

BlueBenx, a Brazilian crypto lending platform, recently blocked 22,000 users from withdrawing funds following an alleged hack that drained $32 million, or 160 million Brazilian real.

Regarding the hack, an unnamed investor told Portal do Bitcoin:

“I think there’s a high probability of it being a scam because this whole hacker attack story seems like a lot of bullshit, something they invented.”

The statement reflects a general lack of trust among investors in centralized crypto exchanges.

Crypto Twitter shares security concerns regarding Meta’s recent NFT integration news

Meta recently announced its latest NFT feature will allow users to connect their digital wallets to Instagram and Facebook.

On Monday, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, announced that its users will now be able to post digital collectibles and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) across both platforms by simply connecting their digital wallets to either site.

While Meta’s announcement may have seemed to some like a mass adoption win for some digital asset enthusiasts, not all members of Crypto Twitter were thrilled by the news.

Skeptical users took to social media to express concerns surrounding the security and privacy of the data disclosed when digital wallets are connected to these social media platforms.

Twitter user and Web3 community member NPC-Picac tweeted, “I don’t think entrusting digital collectibles to connect to ‘Meta’ is in any way smart.”

Another Crypto Twitter community member, CryptoBartender, raised concerns about what Meta could possibly do with the data they access from digital wallets, tweeting, “So they can figure out which wallets are yours and keep tabs on you and your crypto activities?”

Some users felt that publicly attaching valuable digital assets to one’s identity could turn users into targets for fraud and theft. A user operating under the handle famousfxck questioned, “This is great for adoption. But isn’t it also dangerous?”

Others shared their thoughts on individuals broadcasting even more personal data for the benefit of companies that have long histories of abusing users’ data and privacy.

In the announcement, Meta disclosed that, as part of keeping its platforms safe and enjoyable, “people can use our tools to keep their accounts secure and report digital collectibles which go against our community guidelines.” Meta has not yet shared any concrete plans it has to keep its user’s digital wallet-related data safe.

Twitter brings back suspended NFTs accounts as Solana threatens to pause ad spend

No official explanation was given as to why the accounts were suspended in the first place.

Early Wednesday, Twitter suspended access to nine accounts associated with promoting nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, on the Solana (SOL) ecosystem. The move comes just ahead of the highly anticipated launch of the y00ts NFT collection, a follow-up to DeGods, the most popular NFT collection on Solana, this Friday. Shortly after the suspension, Austin Federa, head of communications at the Solana Foundation, stated:

“Hey Twitter, bring back @y00tlist; I’ve paused all Foundation adspend until they’re back. Twitter’s gotta reinstate em, or show solid cause for suspension.”

The said accounts have been reinstated and are accessible as of 12:00 pm EST. No official explanation was given as to why the accounts were suspended in the first place, or why they were reinstated shortly afterward. One user, DeGods founder @frankdegods, started a campaign for the restoration of the previously suspended accounts, whic garnered over 20,700 likes for a single post. Federa also commented: 

“You gotta draw a line in the sand somewhere — a lot of big Web 2.0 companies want to have it both ways — attract Web 3.0 creators, but still maintain control that’s unaccountable to the community.”

DeGods consist of 10,000 “virtual god” collectibles with creative outfits. Currently, the floor price of the collection is 519 SOL. The project is known for its infamous “bitch tax,” which is a 33.3% tariff charged to all NFT collectibles sold below the advertised floor price. The collection recently surpassed 1 million SOL in trading volume. Its founders claim that there is a DeGod collectible owner in every single country except North Korea.