Twitter Forms Team to Shape the Future of Decentralized Social Media

The new unit, Twitter Crypto, will explore how the company can support the growing interest among creators to use decentralized apps.

article-image

Blockworks exclusive art by Axel Rangel

share

key takeaways

  • Tess Rinearson, former vice president of engineering at Interchain GmbH, to lead the unit
  • Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had previously labeled crypto as one of three major trends most relevant to the social media company and its shareholders

Twitter is forming a team focused on crypto, blockchains, and other decentralized technologies after the social media company’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, has said the cryptocurrency would be a significant part of Twitter’s growth.  

Tess Rinearson announced on the platform that she would be joining the company to lead the unit. She most recently worked as vice president of engineering at Interchain GmbH, a company responsible for stewarding infrastructure for blockchain ecosystems, according to her LinkedIn profile. Specifically, Interchain maintains core components of the Cosmos ecosystem: Tendermint, IBC and the Cosmos Hub.

Rinearson also serves as a board member for the Mina Foundation, the non-profit steward of the Mina Protocol, as well as a council member for the Switzerland-based Interchain Foundation, which distributed Cosmos’ ATOM tokens.

Loading Tweet..

“As I build out the team, we’ll be working to figure out what crypto can do for Twitter, as well as what Twitter can do for crypto,” Rinearson explained in a Twitter post Wednesday morning.

“Twitter truly ‘gets’ crypto (hello bitcoin tipping & NFTs!) but there’s so much more to explore here.”

The company announced its intention to launch its tipping feature, called Tips, in September. It allows users to send bitcoin to people through the Lightning network, a layer-2 payment protocol known for its low transaction fees.

The new team will first explore how the company can support the growing interest among creators to use decentralized apps to manage virtual good and currencies, Rinearson explained in a Twitter thread. Longer-term focuses include looking into how ideas from crypto communities can help Twitter “push the boundaries” related to identity, community and ownership. 

Twitter will also work closely with the bluesky team to help shape the future of decentralized social media. Dorsey had announced in December 2019 that Twitter was funding a small independent team of up to five open-source architects, engineers, and designers, known as bluesky, to develop “an open and decentralized standard for social media.” He tapped developer Jay Graber in August to lead the bluesky initiative.

“Twitter Crypto will underpin all of this work, and serve as a ‘center of excellence’ for all things blockchain at Twitter,” Rinearson added in a separate tweet Tuesday, noting that the team would be looking to fill roles in engineering and product.

The formation of the crypto team follows Dorsey labeling bitcoin as one of three major trends most relevant to the social media company and its shareholders during the company’s earnings call in July.

“I think this is a big part of our future,” Dorsey said of utilizing bitcoin at the time. “There’s a lot of innovation above just currency to be had, especially as we think about decentralizing social media more and providing more economic incentive, so I think it’s hugely important to Twitter and to Twitter shareholders that we continue to look at the space and invest aggressively in it.”


Get the day’s top crypto news and insights delivered to your inbox every evening. Subscribe to Blockworks’ free newsletter now.


Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

The convergence of DePIN and energy generation aims to address modern grid challenges by incentivizing distributed generation.

article-image

An improving outlook on tariffs is positive for cryptocurrencies, but a sustained rally is going to take movement on the regulatory front

article-image

Apollo’s Christine Moy explained how the “velocity” of innovation in crypto has led to the evolution of RWAs

article-image

Warren Buffett attributes his astounding investment returns to only about a dozen “truly good decisions” he’s made

article-image

This report has been corrected.

article-image

Stablecoin revenue a bright spot for the crypto exchange in Q1, as trading revenue dropped 19% quarter over quarter

article-image

Creators are being told to “shill” their tokens and cash in on their “cults”