SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Cathie Wood, of investment management firm ARK Invest, are set to discuss Bitcoin at The ₿ Word Conference on Wednesday, in a session advertised as having "nothing" off limits.
Musk, who is also CEO of electric car company Tesla, will appear live with Dorsey and Wood at 11 a.m. PDT on Wednesday.
Musk and Dorsey are known to have different views on Bitcoin, widely regarded as the first cryptocurrency. In a teaser on its website, The ₿ Word states "nothing is off limits!" during the discussion titled "Bitcoin As A Tool For Economic Empowerment."
Steve Lee, the lead for Square Crypto—an initiative linked to the Square digital payments company co-founded by Dorsey—will moderate the session.
A link to the session is available on the The ₿ Word website.
The ₿ Word dubs itself as a "Bitcoin focused initiative that aims to demystify and destigmatize mainstream narratives about Bitcoin, explain how institutions can embrace it, and raise awareness around areas of the network that need support." It is associated with the Crypto Council for Innovation (CCI) industry group (whose members include Coinbase, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Square), Ark Invest, venture fund Paradigm (which convenes CCI), and Square.
The event comes amid a rough patch for the cryptocurrency market, including Bitcoin. On Tuesday morning, the market lost around $90 billion over a 24 hour period. On Wednesday, Bitcoin was worth $31,443.28, down from an all-time high of $63,109 in April, according to CoinMarketCap.
The discussion follows a Twitter exchange between Musk and Dorsey in late June, prompted by the Twitter CEO tweeting about The ₿ Word Conference. He wrote: "The #bitcoin development community above all else.
"As more companies and institutions get into the mix, we all want to help protect and spread what makes #bitcoin open development so perfect.
"This day is focused on education and actions to do just that."
After Musk replied "Bicurious?" Dorsey hit back "Bizarre!" and invited him to have a conversation with him at the event.
"You can share all your curiosities..." wrote Dorsey, later tweeting "Let's have THE talk."
Alongside a winking emoji, Musk said: "For the Bitcurious? Very well then, let's do it."
Musk has changed his tune on Bitcoin in recent months. In late January, he changed the bio on his Twitter profile to "#bitcoin," which was followed by a 20 percent increase in its price.
Days later at an event in early February, he said that he had been "a little slow on the uptake" with supporting bitcoin. Tesla later bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin, before selling 10 percent of its holdings.
But Musk later spoke out against Bitcoin, tweeting that Tesla would no longer accept bitcoin as payment over concerns about its links to fossil fuels.
Dorsey, meanwhile, is a staunch supporter of Bitcoin. In June, he told an audience at the Bitcoin 2021 Conference: "I don't think there is anything more important in my lifetime to work on."
