In an effort to decentralize social media, Jack Dorsey—former CEO of Twitter, crypto entrepreneur, and chief executive officer of payments business Block (SQ)—has stepped down as a board member at BlueSky, a social network startup he began supporting in 2019.
Do not rely on businesses “to grant you rights.” Dorsey urged his followers to utilize “freedom technology” like X in a Saturday post on X. His recent activity and 2022 donation of 14 bitcoins (about $245,000 at the time) to Nostr—an open source technology that aims to enable a completely decentralized, censorship-resistant social media experience—led him to say something quite similar.
In the next year, Dorsey gave $10 million to OpenSats, a nonprofit that supports Nostr and other free and open-source bitcoin initiatives.
In response to a question about his continued involvement with BlueSky after his article, Dorsey simply responded, “No.”
In a post on Saturday, the firm expressed their deepest gratitude to Jack for his assistance with funding and launching the BlueSky project. In Dorsey’s stead, it is currently seeking a new board member.
With Dorsey as CEO, Twitter began supporting a small group in December 2019 to create an “open and decentralized standard for social media,” a path that Twitter would eventually pursue.
There are new technologies that make decentralization more feasible, he stated at the time. Blockchain technology suggests several decentralized approaches to hosting, governance, and even revenue that are both open and long-lasting. There is a lot of ground to cover, but the basics are already in place.
As CEO, software engineer and entrepreneur Jay Graber oversaw the public debut of the social networking service in February.
However, BlueSky is now superfluous due to Nostr’s meteoric rise over the previous few years.
There is no Nostr board, Dorsey asserted on Monday morning from that platform.