Elon Musk just discussed with a Bitcoin ETF applicant his plan to turn X into a full on payments platform. Could this have something to do with cryptocurrencies?
Elon Musk was interviewed by Cathie Wood, who is the CEO of Ark Invest, and is also a major Spot Bitcoin ETF applicant.
And along the discussions, he goes into the full timeline as to when exactly X will become a full on payments platform. Musk announced that X plans to launch a payments platform in mid-2024. The company has already received licenses to provide financial services in the fiat and crypto markets.
In case you are not aware, Elon Musk wants to make X the “everything platform,” which is social media with a blend of payments as well.
Read: Elon Musk Wants To Transform X Into A Central Financial Hub By 2024
Wild Speculations From The Crypto Community
Now, this payment update has led to wild speculations from the crypto community, that along with sending fiat on X, Elon Musk will allow for crypto payments as well — more specifically with Dogecoin (DOGE), which is his favorite cryptocurrency.
On top of that, Elon Musk still seems to be somewhat a fan of Bitcoin as his company still holds 9,720 Bitcoins, making it the third largest Bitcoin holdings for a publicly traded company.
So, with Elon Musk attempting to make X the “everything platform” which includes payments with a bunch of X users already being crypto users, and with crypto as a whole just growing as an industry, these are all positive signs that the coming payments upgrade for X could include crypto payments as well.
Read: Elon Musk: X Platform Firmly Rejects Launching Crypto Token
Elon Musk’s Thoughts On Crypto And Money
Elon Musk was then asked his specific opinions on cryptocurrencies and money in general.
Elon Musk said, “I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about cryptocurrency. Hardly any. Hardly any at all.”
Musk further added, “So when you think of any given money system, I sort of apply information theory to a money problem. So think of it like it’s an information system, and you want to minimize noise, minimize latency, minimize packet loss. And so any inflation would be adding noise to the system. If what it takes to conclude a transaction is a long time, that adds latency to the system. Fraud is kind of like packet loss. So I guess I kind of think of money like I think of information moving on a network. Bandwidth, latency, jitter, which is the variance in latency, packet loss. Those fundamental elements.”
He explained how humans throughout their entire history, had a massive temptation to debase currencies, and cryptocurrencies in his opinion are just the obvious solution to the impending problem.
Read: Elon Musk Calls Fiat Currencies A Scam
Final Thoughts
Overall, we will just have to wait until mid-2024. The complexities of the situation makes it too early to say with conviction. But given his track record and X’s existing user base and innovation, it is still very possible and that should be closely watched in the coming year.