Welcome back to What’s Up Twitter. There are cool developments coming down the pipeline for you as a Twitter user.

Also, do you think Twitter will accept Dogecoin? Share your ideas.

Twitter to open Beta version soon to reward creators!

Hundreds of talented citizen writers will soon have a chance to be financially compensated for their work. Elon Musk announced that co-tweets have ended to make way for a feature that will encourage citizen journalism.  

Writers with subscriptions activated will be able to publish directly on Twitter and get paid for it by adding essays as attachments to tweets.

“You’re welcome. Axed them yesterday to focus on enabling writers to add essays as attachments to tweets. Combined with improvements to creator subscriptions (fka superfollow), you will be able to publish directly on Twitter & get paid for it. Beta version launching next week.  We’re also reviewing ad rev share for ads in a creator’s tweet replies – create an interesting thread and get paid for it!”  Elon Musk 

Are you familiar with Tweet threads?  Many writers like Marc Andreessen and Trung Phan are known for their interesting threads.  These and others may soon be able to get paid for their threads by sharing ad revenue with Twitter. 

I think this is a great idea!  Did you know many writers are paid less than $20 per article to write what they are TOLD to write by editors?  They need income so they acquiesce and then they are targeted for doing a job to earn a living wage.  Imagine if these talented people could write freely and not have to support an agenda they disagree with.  I am excited to follow this development on Twitter.  This may be part of why Elon Musk purchased Twitter.

Issues with Twitter visibility

Late Tuesday evening on January 31, Elon Musk made his account private. This was to gauge tweet interaction invisibility, which was reported by many users as being limited when accounts were not made private. In one example by Ian Cheong, he had more engagement and visibility when his account was private than when it was public. I will update this article as this situation develops.

The Twitter Files have been ignored by the mainstream media

This was expected and explained well by David Sacks,

“When Elon Musk made necessary business changes at Twitter, the media reacted with hysterical melodrama: he was “starving” employees; the site was facing “imminent collapse.” But when Twitter Files exposed state censorship and Hamilton68 fraud, they react with defeaning silence.”

What are some ideas on Twitter accepting dogecoin?

There is no indication that Twitter has immediate plans to accept Dogecoin and there are clues that Twitter is developing a payment system based on fiat money.  The biggest indicator of this is that Elon Musk shared on Twitter on January 31 that creators would soon receive revenue for their content. People already pay money to creators through monthly subscriptions but that money must go through Stripe. 

Stripe says, “Millions of companies of all sizes—from startups to Fortune 500s—use Stripe’s software and APIs to accept payments, send payouts, and manage their businesses online.”

Elon Musk loves vertically integrating his products on many levels at SpaceX and Tesla.  Will he reduce costs by vertically integrating an in-house payment system instead of paying to utilize Stripe’s software?  

There has been speculation from the dogecoin community in comments on Reddit about Twitter, Bitcoin and Elon Musk.  It is significant that SpaceX, Tesla as well as the Boring Co. have accepted payments in Dogecoin.  People bought Boring Co. Burnt Hair fragrance with Dogecoin in October 2022 and rides in the Boring Company Tunnels in Las Vegas appear to be available in Dogecoin by scanning a QR code to buy tickets.

Many people speculate that Twitter will do the same. In comments on Reddit, people know that Dogecoin has benefited from Elon Musk‘s interest. However, Elon Musk is not part of the Dogecoin Foundation and merely supports the coin because it is fun and has memes and makes more financial sense than other coins. 

I recently searched for current merch to buy with Dogecoin from Tesla and SpaceX and found none as of February 1, 2023.  The Tesla Cyberwhistle costs 1000 Dogecoin and it is out of stock. My take is that Twitter will solidify a financial network in the USA first with traditional fiat money and next year may introduce digital currency in Doge or Bitcoin or both.

CONCLUSION

The biggest news this week is the prospect of Elon Musk utilizing Twitter to encourage citizen journalism.  This takes incentives (money) so writers can earn their own way instead of answering to mainstream media outlets that dictate how they write or edit their work to promote an agenda. 

There are technical issues this week with Twitter and decreased tweet visibility.  Elon Musk is aware and his team will likely make fixing it a priority.  

Mainstream media continues to ignore and even ridicule the seriousness of the Twitter Files.  If you would like to research the files, check out www.twitterfiles.co 

Rumors are circulating about Twitter payment systems and nothing is verified but we do know that Twitter pays some content creators through Stripe.  We shall watch if Stripe continues to be Twitter’s choice as it is not a vertically integrated aspect of Twitter. 

What we do know is that all of Elon Musk’s companies (with the exception of Neuralink) have accepted Dogecoin thus far.  Many on Twitter would warmly welcome Dogecoin as a payment or integrated tip system on Twitter. 

There is more happening at Twitter

In my article “Twitter Just Gets Better with Elon Musk at the Helm,” read about how Twitter is on the path to becoming a one-stop shop for people to keep folders with categorized information, a place to come for news, and a place for content creators to earn an income for their efforts. There are little tweaks and improvements being made almost daily to Twitter’s features. From improving bookmarks to pinned lists, Elon Musk is making sure most people know what Twitter has to offer. He’s even going to make sure cool tweets in other languages (like Japanese) are translated and recommended to people around the globe.

^{Gail Alfar, author. Exclusive to What’s Up Twitter – February 1, 2023. All Rights Reserved. My goal as an author is to support Twitter 2.0 and Elon Musk in both making lives better on earth for humans and becoming a space-fairing civilization.}