Jack Dorsey, known for co-founding Twitter and leading Block, is diving into a venture that’s set to shake up the social media world. With a $10 million investment, Dorsey is backing experimental open-source projects that aim to redefine how we interact online.
The effort operates under an intriguing banner called “and Other Stuff,” launched in May. This collective features a dynamic team, including Twitter’s first employee Evan Henshaw-Plath, e-cash innovator “Calle” from Cashu, former Truth Social engineer Alex Gleason, and Jeff Gardner from Intercom.
Their synergy began with collaboration on Nostr, an open and unbiased social networking protocol. Dorsey has shown keen interest in Nostr since stepping away from Twitter’s board post-Elon Musk’s acquisition. Yet, the group is also exploring other innovations, including ActivityPub, the backbone of the decentralized app Mastodon, and Cashu.
Dorsey has recently voiced criticism about the evolution of social media platforms. He feels that Twitter should never have been a company and that mistakes might be repeating with Bluesky.
In response, “and Other Stuff” is not building a traditional company but is instead fostering a hub of innovation—a “community of hackers,” as Henshaw-Plath describes. Their mission is to create not just new consumer apps but also tools and libraries to empower developers to craft their own solutions.
Among their innovations is an app called Shakespeare, reminiscent of Lovable but tailored for crafting Nostr-based social apps with AI support. Other notable projects include Heynow, a voice note app utilizing Nostr; the Cashu wallet; White Noise, a private messenger; and +chorus, a Nostr-powered social community.
AI-driven coding developments have made this wave of experimentation feasible, akin to how Ruby on Rails and Django once fueled Web 2.0’s rise. Henshaw-Plath recently discussed these topics with Dorsey on the debut episode of his podcast, revolution.social.
During the nearly hour-long chat, Dorsey reflected on Twitter’s journey and the crossroads of social media. He argued for a shift from corporate-run platforms to open protocols. Twitter’s reliance on advertisers, while financially logical, clashed with the broader internet ethos. An open protocol, from Dorsey’s perspective, would offer a foundation upon which thriving businesses could be built unencumbered by external pressures.
Dorsey initially backed an open protocol project within Twitter, which later spun off as Bluesky. Yet, he believes Bluesky shares challenges with traditional platforms due to its funding structure. Dorsey advocates for a decentralized model akin to Bitcoin, where no single entity holds control—an ideal he sees Nostr fulfilling.
The “and Other Stuff” team is also drafting a social media “Bill of Rights” to address user rights regarding privacy, security, and more. This document aims to ensure accountability for platforms under user-centric principles.
Dorsey’s financial backing has propelled the nonprofit’s inception, with ongoing work on iOS apps and contributions toward Android versions, developer tools, and social media experiments. Henshaw-Plath hints at more exciting developments on the horizon, promising to keep us watching closely as their journey unfolds.
