Musk’s plan to take over the financial system

Above: Twitter’s new logo — an X — is projected on the San Francisco headquarters last night.

Walter Isaacson — whose incredibly timed book, “Elon Musk,” is coming Sept. 12 — tweeted an early excerpt showing that Musk’s infatuation with X.com (which now redirects to Twitter) goes back 24 years:

  • In March 1999,“he founded http://X.com. His concept … was grand. It would be a one-stop everything-store for all financial needs: banking, digital purchases, checking, credit cards, investments, and loans. Transactions would be handled instantly, with no waiting for payments to clear. His insight was that money is simply an entry into a database.”
  • Musk said:“If you fix all the reasons why a consumer would take money out of the system … then it will be the place where all the money is, and that would make it a multi-trillion-dollar company.”

After a merger, X.com became PayPal.

  • “Musk insistedthat the company’s name should be http://X.com, with PayPal as merely one of its subsidiary brands,” Isaacson continues. “He even tried to rebrand the payment system X-PayPal.
  • “Focus groupsshowed that the name http://X.com … conjured up visions of a seedy site you would not talk about in polite company. But Musk was unwavering, and remains so to this day.”
  • Musk says:“[I]f you want to take over the world’s financial system, then X is the better name.”

In the days leading up to his takeover of Twitter last year, Musk’s moods fluctuated wildly.

  • “I am very excitedabout finally implementing http://X.com as it should have been done, using Twitter as an accelerant!” he texted Isaacson out of the blue at 3:30 one morning. “And, hopefully, helping democracy and civil discourse while doing so.”
  • “He saidthat he would turn it into the combination of financial platform and social network he had envisioned twenty-four years earlier for http://X.com, and he added that he planned to rebrand it with that name, which he loved.”

Musk responded to Isaacson’s sneak peek by tweeting: “Accurate.”

  • Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino tweetedyesterday: “X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. … X will be the platform that can deliver, well….everything.”

Read Walter’s full excerpt … More on the book.

Πηγή: axios.com

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