Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin Skeptical of Elon Musk’s Twitter Subscription Plan

Ever since Elon Musk acquired Twitter last week, the world’s richest man has been taking feedbacks and suggestions on improving the platform. Musk has since spoken about content moderation as well introducing a monthly subscription for all blue-tick account holders on Twitter.

The major reason behind this subscription model is to reduce impersonators and scam accounts on the platform. Elon Musk had earlier proposed a $20 per month subscription. However, it created a major uproar among the Twitter community with a wide majority refusing to pay for it. Elon Musk has now reduced the subscription fee and has now brought it to $8 per month.

Musk’s new system will now become a way of verifying users as well as fighting bots and spammers on the network. Interestingly, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has now weighed in sharing his opinion.

“How well this works depends on exactly how much due diligence is done to make sure blue checks are who they say they are. "Pay $8/month and call yourself whatever" would damage the blue check's anti-scam role. But if there's more actual verification, the result is very different,” he wrote.

The Ethereum co-founder also challenged that the idea of creating charging $8 per month “creates an economic hierarchy”. He also added that the “current blue check system is far more exclusive than even the $20/month level from yesterday”.

According to Buterin, the ideal setup is that “verification would be charged at cost and separate from other premium services”.

Currently, Twitter has a blue-check system that allows users to add a blue tick to their account. They just need to undergo a verification process showing their account is authentic, notable, and active. This usually involves uploading a government ID. Besides, Twitter also has another service dubbed Twitter Blue which is a $4.99-a-month subscription plan which unlocks additional feature. Elon Musk now wants to turn it into $8-a-month subscription plan.

Even though Buterin doesn’t agree with Musk’s plans, he too is critical of the current blue tick system. He added “many scam accounts have blue checkmarks these days” and that this seems “like a complete failure of blue checkmarks in their current form.”

To fix Twitter’s current woes, the Ethereum co-founder has suggested a decentralized approach suggesting “turning Twitter into an open API and letting third parties try to make the best User Interfaces (UIs) to solve these problems.”