Elon Musk Is Renaming Twitter Simply To “X”

Ever since Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla and Space X, acquired Twitter, it feels like the social media platform has been nothing but a big digital testing ground for his ideas and potential features. This round, though, he’s decidedly had enough of the platform name and is renaming it, simply to X.

In a tweet via his official account, Musk posted the message “And soon we shall bid adieu to the brand and, gradually, all the birds”. And for those that aren’t convinced that the founder of Tesla isn’t going through with it, he’s already replaced his profile picture with a stylised image of the letter X, as well as pinned a 3-second clip of the social network’s new namesake on his main page. Oh, and he reportedly also sent out an email to staff, the contents of which stated “this will be the last email that I will ever send from a Twitter email address”.

It’s no secret that Musk has long been a fan of the “X” branding. From the Tesla Model X to SpaceX, his latest venture into AI is a company named xAI. As to why the rebranding to a single alphabet, Musk says that he has envisioned the platform becoming an “everything app” but didn’t provide further details on that. Some believe that he could be referring to the popular China-made app, WeChat, and how it is used as a gateway for shopping and payments, along with social media.

That being said, it can also be argued that Musk’s decision to rebrand Twitter to X is a dangerous move; the social network has already lost more than half its ad revenue since November last year, due to the changes in which content is moderated on the site. Of course, it can also be said that the rebranding is the man’s way to cut off ties with the platform’s former leadership, along with all the decisions they had made before his arrival.

Musk Says Telsa To Accept Bitcoin Again When Miners Use More Clean Energy

Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the company will return to accepting bitcoin as payment when the cryptocurrency’s miners use more clean, environmentally friendly energy. The crypto-enthusiast and environmentalist has seen his core passions collide with one another.

“When there’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions,” he said on Twitter. According to Reuters, bitcoin rallied over 9% after the post.

CNBC said the billionaire was responding to pointed remarks from Magda Wierzycka, the CEO of South African asset manager Sygnia, who accused him of manipulating the price of bitcoin. Previously, Tesla bought US$1.5 billion (~RM6.2 billion) worth of bitcoin and later said it would accept the digital currency as payment for cars.

That policy was abruptly reversed last month with Musk declaring that the push for cryptocurrency “cannot come at great cost to the environment.” To be fair to the billionaire, even then, he maintained that Tesla will accept bitcoin transactions again when miners transition to “more sustainable energy.”

Of course, that statement as well as his latest one raise more questions than answers. Given the tremendous power demands of bitcoin mining, is that transition to cleaner energy even possible? Wouldn’t that require national-level, government-driven efforts to move away from ‘dirty’ energy sources like coal? Why seemingly put the onus on miners and how long would that transition take?

Finally, the billionaire-dollar question: Can enthusiasm for bitcoin be sustained until then?

Elon Musk’s SpaceX To Launch Dogecoin-Funded Mission To The Moon

Elon Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX will be launching a dogecoin-funded mission to the moon in the first quarter of next year (Q1 2022).

Called DOGE-1, the mission will involve launching a 40kg cube satellite on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Canada-based Geometric Energy Corporation (GEC), which paid for the launch in dogecoin, said the satellite would gather lunar-spatial intelligence using onboard sensors and cameras.

“This mission will demonstrate the application of cryptocurrency beyond Earth orbit and set the foundation for interplanetary commerce,” said SpaceX Vice President of Commercial Sales Tom Ochinero, adding “We’re excited to launch DOGE-1 to the Moon!”

Musk also predictably celebrated the mission on his Twitter account:

GEC said that dogecoin would be used for all lunar business between it and SpaceX, noting that this very transaction proves that the cryptocurrency is sophisticated enough to fully fund a commercial moon mission.

That being said, dogecoin itself lost over a third of its value after Musk recently appeared on US comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL) and said dogecoin was a “hustle”, the BBC reported.

Relatedly, SpaceX has been contracted by US space agency NASA to build a moon lander for a mission to land the next two American astronauts on the moon. That project is reportedly on hold due to formal objections from SpaceX’s competitors for the bid.

NASA Awards US$2.89 Billion Moon Lander Contract To Elon Musk’s SpaceX

US space agency NASA has awarded aerospace manufacturer SpaceX a US$2.89 billion (~RM11.9 billion) contract to build a moon lander in order to bring the next two American astronauts to the moon. In response to the news, SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk tweeted “NASA Rules!!”

For the mission, NASA intends to land the first woman and first person of color on the moon through its Artemis programme. It will involve sending four astronauts aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft to lunar orbit. Then, two of them will transfer to the SpaceX human landing system (HLS) to make their descent to the moon’s surface.

Hours after the award announcement, an ecstatic Musk tweeted, “Everything to the moon!” – a fitting reference to his longtime advocacy of cryptocurrency. According to Reuters, SpaceX beat out two competitors for the bid – Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and defense contractor Dynetics Inc.

The SpaceX moon lander, called Starship, apparently features a spacious cabin and two airlocks for astronaut moonwalks. Its architecture is intended to evolve to a fully reusable launch and landing system for travel to the moon, Mars, and beyond.

Indeed, Mars seemed to loom in the background as NASA’s ultimate, long-term goal. Kathy Lueders, NASA’s associate administrator for Human Explorations and Operations Mission Directorate, said that the lunar mission “puts humanity on a path to sustainable lunar exploration and keeps our eyes on missions farther into the solar system, including Mars.”

Musk probably can’t wait. He tweeted that if humanity seeded life on multiple planets, there could be a day when some plants and animals go extinct on Earth, but are still alive on Mars.