Elon Musk wants to make Twitter (or X) your new bank account

Users of Twitter (or now of course X) can count on being able to use the platform as a replacement for their bank in the future. In the near future it should be possible to use the platform to send money, buy things in stores and even earn interest on a savings account.

Not just tipping. I can pull money into X and store it in my X Wallet and send money to any X Payments user. Think Venmo at first. Then, as things evolve, you can gain interest, buy products, eventually use it to buy things in stores (think Apple Pay), etc. The end goal is if you…

— Christopher Stanley (@cstanley) April 22, 2024

Elon Musk’s big plan

Elon Musk’s big plan for Twitter is to make it the app you use for everything. He seems partly inspired by the Chinese WeChat, which basically functions in a similar way.

Now the question is of course whether Western society is waiting for an application that is successful in China. Western norms and values ​​are of course quite different and the story that the app resembles a gigantic application in China may not help either.

On the other hand, the name Elon Musk does help in the West, at least among a certain group of people. There are also many people who do not like Musk at all and see him as the pinnacle of what they call “capitalism”.

Now the plan is to first use Twitter to send and receive money, and then also use it to buy things in stores. “Think of Apple Pay,” says Christopher Stanley.

Do bitcoin or crypto still play a role?

Elon Musk naturally caused a stir in 2021 by buying bitcoin with Tesla and SpaceX. The bitcoin community thought that we had gained a strong teammate in Elon Musk.

However, nothing turned out to be further from the truth, because not long after the investment, Tesla decided to no longer accept bitcoin as a means of payment due to climatic concerns.

The company’s bitcoins were also sold in tranches.

The question remains to what extent bitcoin or crypto will play a role in Twitter’s payment options. The most likely thing is that you will soon be able to buy or at least hold crypto via a wallet in the application.

It won’t initially involve much more than that.