Jack Dorsey starts “open internet development” grants

Jack Dorsey is cutting checks to teams working on “open internet development,” the Twitter cofounder announced Tuesday.

Why it matters: Despite being financially invested in Twitter’s future, Dorsey seems to be interested in moving on from his past and investing in new forms of social media.

Details: The pledge was tucked at the end of his response to Elon Musk’s Twitter Files.

• Dorsey wrote that he will give cash and equity grants to “engineering teams working on social media and private communication protocols, bitcoin, and a web-only mobile OS.”
• The grants are part of #startsmall, a philanthropic initiative he launched in 2020 to fund COVID-19 relief.
• The first grant is $1 million per year to encrypted messaging app Signal, he said.

What’s next: Dorsey is taking suggestions on what projects to fund.