Indeed, as recently as November 2019 Agrawal was still pretending to be “crypto-naive”On fire chat held on the Twitter campus by cryptocurrency trader Joseph Lubin. One week later, Agrawal joined Dorsey on a trip to Nigeria, where Agrawal met with members of the Bitcoin community. Chris Maurice, CEO of YellowCard exchange, who attended the meetings, recalls that Agrawal – like Dorsey – “was very interested” in the matter. Maurice relates: “He preferred to listen and learn, rather than to be the center of attention.
A few months later, Agrawal co-sponsored bluesky, a Twitter-supported protocol-Possible blockchain support-Building social networking sites, with the goal of transforming sites like Twitter and Facebook. This operation was initially terminated by the private server on Matrix, a secure connection platform, before moving on to the public discord route. Evan Henshaw-Plath, a former director of Odeo, a podcast publishing platform that was eventually released on Twitter, and who was also on a bluesky server, says that Agrawal was not allowed to write actively on the server but still, strongly entrenched what they want. ”
In Henshaw-Plath’s view, the decision to appoint Agrawal as CEO suggests that Twitter will work deeper on decentralization with crypto. “I think Twitter will continue to test various blockchain features, though I don’t know what it would look like,” he says. He describes Twitter’s internal politics as a constant competition among professionals like Dorsey pushing for a more open, sustainable and business-focused approach to finance. “Parag is one of the people who think Twitter is the most important foundation, and one that is driven by exciting technology.”
But some people in crypto do not see Agrawal’s participation in bluesky as a valid badge. Carter says the project has a history of slow progress. He said: “It seems like it has stopped. Too often, they doubt the possibility that a company like Twitter, especially after Dorsey’s departure, could bring about a split on social media. “I would expect to see some kind of crypto-based social media developed sometime, but I think it will happen externally, not from an established Silicon Valley company,” says Carter.
Mati Greenspan, founder and CEO of cryptocurrency Investment consultant Quantum Economics, similarly denies it. “We can assume that bluesky is making its plan, quietly, and it’s a big deal – or we can think it’s very difficult and not necessary,” he says.
Henshaw-Plath estimates that blockchain protocol development should be slow, due to its advantages. “It is a process; it affects many people. Bluesky can be fast; there may be many things to do with it. But it is also wrong to run too fast, ”he says. He believes that Agrawal’s culture, which he describes as “a strategic alliance builder,” means he will be able to make Twitter a powerful force in the development of such technologies.