Could Bitcoiners embrace BlueSky, an X alternative that hit 25M users?

The social media website initially kicked off by Twitter creator Jack Dorsey has hit more than 25 million users as some abandon or completely delete their X accounts, leading many to question how the platform will differ in content, moderation and tone. 

BlueSky reported that its total number of users had reached more than 25 million as of Dec. 12, roughly double the platform had after the United States election on Nov. 5. The social media site still comes up short compared to Meta’s Threads, which has more than 275 million monthly active users, and X, with more than 250 million daily active users as of 2022. 

It’s difficult to estimate the exact number of users who may have left X directly in response to Elon Musk purchasing the platform and becoming involved in US politics. Musk has also been a proponent of Dogecoin (DOGE), even proposing President-elect Donald Trump create a “government efficiency” position based on an acronym of the memecoin’s ticker symbol.

Source: Judah Grunstein

Both X and BlueSky differ in their approach to users. Started as a project by Dorsey in 2019, BlueSky says it aims to have online discourse “work more like the early days of the web.”

X, since its purchase by Musk in October 2022, has faced an exodus of companies pulling advertising after reports of controversial content appearing alongside their ads, a temporary suspension of the platform in Brazil, and reports of widespread misinformation, some of which have been attributed directly to the billionaire owner.

Crypto discourse on BlueSky versus X

For many crypto users, regardless of their opinions of Musk or X, choosing between the platform and Bluesky — or both — doesn’t seem to boil down to political beliefs but rather access to a different audience.

At the time of publication, however, a simple search for “crypto” on BlueSky tended to show posts comparing digital asset projects to scams, while the same results on X showed crypto-positive memes first.

Searches for “crypto” on BlueSky (left) and X (right) on Dec. 13. Source: BlueSky/X

US lawmakers skeptical of digital assets, like Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, joined BlueSky after the US election. Ones who advocate for crypto policy, including Representative Wiley Nickel, also joined. (Nickel had an account in February but began posting regularly in November).

“Like Bitcoin, Bluesky uses cryptography to decentralize power so no one entity can control the entire network, but without the built-in financial incentive structure,” said Splinter News editor-in-chief Jacob Weindling in a Nov. 20 op-ed. “I’d argue more than anything what broke Twitter was Elon democratizing ad dollars and fundamentally changing the incentive structure from thoughtful discourse to hacking attention in people’s replies for money.”

Related: Bluesky adds 1 million new users in 3 days amid X ban in Brazil

A Dec. 11 report from The Guardian — one of the first significant news outlets to join BlueSky — suggested that 2.7 million US-based users had left X since October, while BlueSky added 2.5 million US customers over the same period.

If the platform continues to expand, it will likely face some of the same challenges Twitter did under Dorsey and Musk: a proliferation of bots or anonymous accounts spreading spam, hate speech and misinformation, and how to pay its bills by growing the number of users and advertisers.

The platform, despite being significantly smaller than X, already has a problem with scammers. BlueSky search results show several fake accounts for crypto influencers with a large X following, including Anthony Pompliano and Michael Saylor.

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