A biographical book about Elon Musk, written by renowned journalist Walter Isaacson, is set to be released on September 12. On August 31, The Wall Street Journal (WSG) posted an excerpt from the book, revealing details about Twitter’s rebranding, negotiations with the former CEO of the infamous FTX exchange, and even Dogecoin investment.
From Twitter to X “everything app”
The main focus of the text is devoted to Musk’s acquisition of the social network Twitter and his plans “to take over the world's financial system”. The billionaire often mentions his grand objectives turning X into an "Everything App".
By the way, X has recently received the licences for integrating payments. Thus, Elon Musk is not really straying from his ideas.
Failed talks with Sam Bankman-Fried
While planning to buy Twitter, Elon Musk sought external funding, and FTX’s head Sam Bankman-Fried offered to invest $5 billion. He also suggested building a social network based on blockchain. Though Elon had earlier thought about this, judging by the text through conversations with his brother Kimball, he concluded that blockchain technology cannot provide the necessary speed for X.
As noted by Walter Isaacson, after a phone call in May 2022, Sam Bankman Fried and Elon Musk were left with negative feelings about each other, which led to their collaboration falling apart.
Musk quietly funds Dogecoin
Given that Dogecoin is Elon Musk's favourite cryptocurrency and the way his tweets pump the memcoin’s price sometimes, the entrepreneur's biography could not do without mentioning Dogecoin.
The WSJ piece references Dogecoin only once, in the context of the Musk brothers' discussion about building a social network on blockchain: "Perhaps, he said half-jokingly, it could have a payment system using Dogecoin, the semi-serious cryptocurrency whose development he had been quietly funding". The excerpt does not provide additional details on the nature of this funding; maybe the full version of Musk’s biography will reveal more information.
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