Krystal Hu, Sheila Dang

(Reuters] – Jack Dorsey mused before thousands at a Miami conference about his passion: “If Square or Twitter were not my job, then I’d be doing bitcoin.”

Dorsey announced Monday that he will leave Twitter and hand over the role of CEO to the 10-year-old veteran. This 45-year-old entrepreneur is known for being a puzzler with many interests including meditation, yoga and fashion design. He plans to continue his passions which include running. Square Inc Sources familiar with his plans say he will be doing more charitable work (NYSE:).

Even before the shocking news, Dorsey was already preparing for the next chapter. Dorsey seeded the companies with crypto-related project ideas.

Dorsey’s larger vision revolves around the principle of decentralization, or the notion that technology and financial management should not be controlled by a few gatekeepers as they are now. Instead, it should be managed by many people or entities.

Square has embraced this concept and has created a Division devoted to projects, grants, and growing the popularity of bitcoin globally.

Dorsey was a long-time advocate of bitcoin. Its appeal lies in the fact that it will enable private and secure transactions, with bitcoin’s value unrelated to any government.

This idea is also behind new Twitter projects. Dorsey appointed a top lieutenant, and the new CEO of the company, Parag Agrawal, to lead a team trying to create a social media protocol that allows different platforms to communicate with each other, much like email providers.

Bluesky, Dorsey announced in 2019, that the project will allow users to control the content they see online. This removes the burden on Twitter and other companies to implement a global policy against abuse or misleading information.

He also played a prominent role in both his companies. Square was the first company to have bitcoin assets in its balance sheets. It had invested $220 millions in cryptocurrency.

Square established a TBD unit to deal with bitcoin in August. It also intends to develop a hardware wallet that can be used for bitcoin and an exchange decentralised with bitcoin.

Twitter users can tip their favourite creators with Bitcoin and Twitter is currently testing integrations of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which allow people to accumulate unique digital art.

Analysts view the Square fintech platform, which he founded in 2009, as moving forward. Square’s core Cash App, after a bull run in its share in 2020, has experienced slower growth in the most recent quarter. Square is trying to absorb the Afterpay $29 billion purchase of Buy Now and Pay Later, which was its largest ever acquisition.

Analysts warned that these ambitious goals will not be realized until many years later.

The blockchain platform that they are trying to create is fantastic, but it also presents technical problems and makes it difficult for users to scale. Christopher Brendler of DA Davidson, an analyst, said that he will focus on Square more and crypto will also be part.