Better article: https://9to5mac.com/2024/04/15/musk-charge-new-x-users-fee/

Key information:

Bald-faced lie:

Musk is not stupid enough to believe this. He understands proof of work and why it was invented (spam prevention). He's lying to condition everyone into giving up their payment info as a part of the signup process. If he was actually interested in controlling bots he could easily integrate proof of work spam prevention and/or a lightning based microtransaction fee to post or like. But he won't do that because it runs counter to his actual motivation.

For those paying attention, this is another step down the road of Musk's grand plan to build the WeChat of the west. He is turning Twitter into a dystopian financial surveillance and social control tool. You need CC processors as intermediaries to make this system work. It can't be built on bitcoin. Musk is an enemy of bitcoin. Don't forget it.

One unit of dog money per post

Just one more step in his attempt to turn X into the payment platform of the web. First there was the push to get everyone verified (aka KYC) and now this to get their payment info.

It seems like a lot of what Elon does ties in some way to the government.

So the real question is what is the plan for X(Twitter)? Partner with the government on CBDCs? Integrate with FedNow?

I didn't know that X had already rolled out this feature to New Zealand and the Philippines last Oct... I wonder how this affected the user numbers in those two areas... while they arent huge it would at least give them a peak into what it would look like

This was planned all along. Vendor lock-in

Musky is husky of a breed. Great! He thinks, he can do anything but it's the same with evryone. Even I can do what I want. I can definitely leave Twitter and so will others and can nostr.