Bitcoin Maxi Jack Dorsey Slams Facebook Over 'Wasted Effort and Time' on Diem

Dorsey said Facebook should have focused on Bitcoin instead of its failed stablecoin project.

By Mathew Di Salvo

In brief

• MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor today interviewed former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey about Bitcoin.
• Dorsey said Facebook should have focused on Bitcoin instead of its failed Libra cryptocurrency project.

"Bitcoin fixes this" is a popular slogan in the cryptocurrency community. But "Bitcoin fixes companies," should be the real maxim, according to Michael Saylor and Jack Dorsey. 

Saylor, the CEO of software company MicroStrategy, interviewed former Twitter CEO Dorsey on Tuesday about how the biggest cryptocurrency by market cap could help corporations.

Dorsey, who quit Twitter last year to focus his energy on Bitcoin, even said that Facebook’s (now Meta) plan to release its own cryptocurrency was flawed from the start and they should have spent their time on Bitcoin. 

Facebook announced plans for its own cryptocurrency, Libra, over two years ago but it ultimately failed because of regulatory hurdles, among other reasons. The project, which later changed its name to Diem, came to an end last week when it announced it would sell its $200 million-worth of assets to Silvergate Capital. The project had suffered setbacks over the past year as those working on its cryptocurrency quit.

"The internet having a native currency for itself opens so many doors: especially for internet companies, technology companies, but more importantly for everyday people, activists, people who have questions in the world, curiosity, and recognizing that the currency systems just aren’t working for them," Dorsey said. 

He added that Facebook "wasted effort and time" working on the project formerly known as Libra and that it would have been better spent "making Bitcoin more accessible for more people around the world."

Dorsey’s other company, Block (formerly known as Square), has also bought Bitcoin and its popular product Cash App allows users to buy the cryptocurrency. 

MicroStrategy helped propel Bitcoin into the limelight in 2020—which, in turn, helped to elevate the asset’s price—when the company started buying Bitcoin as part of an investment strategy. It now owns 124,391 Bitcoin, or $4.7 billion-worth of it. 

Saylor called Bitcoin an "egalitarian, utilitarian technology" during the interview, and said the cryptocurrency would provide “Real value going forward for financial services companies going forward."

Dorsey noted that if a company wants to use Bitcoin, it should "look critically" at its business and what can it can learn from the cryptocurrency, before the practical applications within either purchasing it, building it into products, utilizing it or providing services it.