Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and CEO of Block, has invested US$10 million to support open-source projects aimed at changing the social media landscape.

The funding is provided through a collective called “and Other Stuff,” which launched in May 2025.

The group includes figures from Twitter, Truth Social, Cashu, and Intercom, all of whom previously worked on the decentralized protocol Nostr.

Instead of forming a company, they are building apps like Shakespeare (AI social app builder), heynow (voice app), White Noise (messenger), and +chorus (community).

Dorsey criticizes current social media models and supports decentralized, open-protocol alternatives free from corporate influence.

In addition to app development, the team is drafting a “social media Bill of Rights” to establish principles for privacy, security, and interoperability on social platforms.

🔗 Source: TechCrunch

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Dorsey’s consistent pattern of creation, criticism, and redirection reveals a unique tech leadership arc

Dorsey displays a recurring pattern throughout his career: building groundbreaking platforms, then becoming their critic while redirecting his energy toward new models that address perceived flaws in his previous creations.

At Twitter, Dorsey went from creating the platform in a two-week hackathon in 2006 1, to being ousted as CEO in 2008, returning in 2011, and eventually concluding that “Twitter should have never been a company” as mentioned in the article.

This pattern extended to Bluesky, which he initially funded within Twitter before stepping away from its board, now criticizing its venture-backed structure despite praising its team 2.

Dorsey’s journey reflects his evolving philosophy about technology governance, moving from traditional corporate structures to open protocols like Nostr that operate without centralized control. This mirrors his statement that Twitter wanted to be “a protocol” despite having “corporate incentives.”

His current $10 million investment in experimental projects through “and Other Stuff” represents the latest iteration of this pattern, funding open-source alternatives to the platforms he helped create.

2️⃣ The structural tension between social media business models and protocol-based alternatives is reaching an inflection point

Dorsey’s critique that advertiser-dependent platforms must prioritize their funding sources over user interests highlights a fundamental business model challenge that has persisted since Twitter’s earliest days.