Jack Dorsey: Diem was a waste of time and money

In an interview with Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor, Dorsey said Facebook should have focused on Bitcoin and making it available to the masses, rather than creating its own cryptocurrency.

A dilapidated project sold for pennies

Since leaving Twitter a few months ago, Jack has focused on Block, another company he co-founded and is CEO of. Formerly known as Square, the payments company is spearheading efforts to make Bitcoin more accessible through its Cash app, something Jack has always been passionate about. Now, he argues that his fellow social media pioneer Mark Zuckerberg should have done the same thing.

Jack joined Saylor for a one-hour interview on the virtual event “Bitcoin for Corporations 2022” to talk about how cryptocurrency is being integrated on Wall Street.

On Diem, Jack did not mince words, saying that Zuckerberg could have done a lot more for humanity if he had focused on Bitcoin. By saying that Facebook probably started Diem, (formerly Libra), for the right reasons, he believes they lost the plot along the way.

Facebook recently admitted defeat with its Diem project, after years of frustration on the part of regulators in the United States. The social media giant reported that he had sold the project to Silvergate Bank for less than $ 200 million, hoping to recoup some of the money its partners have invested in the project.

The company had worked with Silvergate on a partnership that would see the Californian bank issue Diem as it is a regulated financial entity, but that too was shot down by the Federal Reserve.

Facebook should have focused on Bitcoin

Jack has always made it clear that he is a Bitcoin maximalist, and in his interview he stated that Zuckerberg should have been too. Rather than reinventing the wheel with a new crypto, Facebook should have put all its efforts into Bitcoin, Jack said.

"Those two or three years or whatever time elapsed could have been spent making Bitcoin more accessible to more people around the world."

Bitcoin is already working and has shown it can lead to a fairer future where everyone has the opportunity to improve, Jack said. As such, Facebook was supposed to use its status and network effect to make it available to the 2,8 billion people who use its social media platform.

“We have this network open right now. And it's usable. It is not accessible to everyone, but it is usable. The easier we make it, the faster we make it, the more accessible we make it, everything will improve. Including everything Facebook intended to do with Libra ”.