Twitter CEO Tells Congress It’s Exploring Blockchain in Bid to Fight Scams

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey told a Congressional committee Wednesday that the social media company is exploring blockchain solutions for its platform.

Dorsey was responding to a question from California Representative Doris Matsui during a House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing that focused on alleged bias against political conservatives on Twitter.

“You previously expressed interest in the broad applications of blockchain technology, including potentially in an effort to verify identity to fight misinformation and scams,” Matsui remarked before asking: “What potential applications do you see for blockchain?”

Dorsey replied that “we need to start with problems we’re trying to solve for our customers and look at all available technology,” going on to say:

“Blockchain is one that I think has a lot of untapped potential, specifically around distributed trust and distributed enforcement. We haven’t gone as deep as I would like just yet in understanding how we might apply this technology to Twitter but we have people thinking about it today.”

That the company is looking at possible solutions for shoring up digital trust using blockchain is perhaps unsurprising, given recent events.

As reported by CoinDesk and many other outlets, Twitter has been ground-zero for identity scams that seek to defraud users out of their cryptocurrency holdings. Through the use of copycat accounts and what researchers say is a massive botnet, would-be fraudsters have sought to trick users into sending their coins to fictitious accounts.

During the hearing, Matsui remarked about a previously-reported plan that calls for the Department of Commerce to create a blockchain workign group.

“As I previously announced in this committee, I am soon introducing legislation to direct the Department of Commerce to convene a working group of stakeholders to develop a consensus-based definition of blockchain,” she said prior to asking Dorsey about the social media firm’s work with the technology.

Image via House of Representatives video

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