Most people think of Jack Dorsey as the Twitter guy. That is fair, but it misses most of the story. Jack Dorsey co-founded Twitter in 2006, stepped down as CEO in 2021, and has since focused on Bitcoin and financial infrastructure through Block. This article covers his background, what he built after Twitter, and what he is working on now.
Early life and path into tech
Jack Dorsey was born in 1976 in St. Louis, Missouri. As a teenager, he was already writing dispatch software for taxi companies. He built tools that tracked vehicles and helped coordinate drivers in real time. He attended the University of Missouri-Rolla, later transferred to New York University, and left one semester short of graduating.
In 2006, alongside Biz Stone, Evan Williams, and Noah Glass, he launched Twitter on a simple premise: let anyone post a short public message for the world to read.
Building Twitter and shaping social media
Jack Dorsey's Twitter grew into the platform where news broke first and where political movements organized. Anyone with a public profile had to deal with direct, unfiltered feedback.
Dorsey served as CEO in the early years, stepped back to chairman in 2008, then returned as CEO in 2015. He left for the final time in November 2021. Elon Musk acquired the company in late 2022 and renamed it X. When the deal closed, Dorsey sold his 18,044,000 shares at $54.20 each, walking away with around $978 million.
The evolution of Jack Dorsey’s Square into Block
In 2009, Dorsey co-founded Square to solve a simple problem: small businesses had no affordable way to accept card payments. A small dongle that plugged into a smartphone changed that overnight.
The company grew well past that starting point. According to Block's 2024 SEC filing, more than four million sellers processed 5.2 billion transactions totaling $228 billion through Square that year. Cash App became one of the most-used finance apps in the US.
In December 2021, Dorsey renamed the company to Block. The name reflected what the company had actually become. By then, it had moved well past merchant payments. The company was deep into Bitcoin infrastructure and mining hardware. Square was just one piece of a much bigger picture.
Jack Dorsey and Bitcoin
Dorsey has put serious money behind Bitcoin for years. Through Square, he made a $50 million Bitcoin investment and set up Square Crypto, a team dedicated to open-source Bitcoin development. Block holds 8,883 BTC per its latest 10-K filing.
Block's Bitcoin 2025 announcement confirmed that Square merchants would use their current hardware to accept Bitcoin payments through the Lightning Network, which would completely launch in 2026. Steak 'n Shake tested it early. Their COO, Dan Edwards, said at the conference that Bitcoin payments cut their processing costs by roughly 50% compared to credit cards.
Block also launched the Proto Rig in August 2025, a modular Bitcoin mining system designed to give miners a real alternative to Bitmain.
Bitchat: the messaging app that works without internet
In July 2025, Dorsey announced Bitchat, a messaging app he built over a single weekend. It runs entirely over Bluetooth, with no internet or phone signal required and no account setup.
Instead of routing messages through a company's infrastructure, Jack Dorsey’s Bitchat uses Bluetooth Low Energy mesh networks. Messages hop between nearby phones until they reach their destination. Direct messages are end-to-end encrypted, and triple-tapping the logo wipes all stored data instantly.
The app saw its first real test in September 2025. Protesters in Madagascar downloaded it 70,000 times in a week after internet access was cut. Nepal saw nearly 50,000 downloads in a single day under similar conditions. Both cases were exactly the scenario Bitchat was built for, and it held up.
Bitchat is on the iOS App Store. Android users can get it through GitHub. Fake copycat apps appeared on Google Play after launch, so Dorsey warned publicly that the real version had not been released there.
Jack Dorsey’s net worth and influence
Forbes data shows net worth estimates for Dorsey in early 2026 generally range from $6 billion, driven primarily by his roughly 43 million Block shares. The underlying business backs it up: the Q4 2025 earnings call confirmed a full-year gross profit of $10.36 billion, up 17% year over year, with $12.2 billion guided for 2026.
Dorsey announced Block would terminate more than 4000 employees during his February 2026 announcement. The company reduced its workforce from approximately 10200 employees to 6000 employees. His letter to staff framed it simply: "A significantly smaller team, using the tools we're building, can do more and do it better." After the stock market closed, Block stock experienced a more than 20 percent increase.
His influence reaches into policy too. Senator Lummis introduced the Digital Asset Tax Fairness Act in July 2025, proposing a de minimis exemption on Bitcoin transactions under $300. Dorsey publicly advocated for the same exemption in October 2025 while Lummis used her existing bill to answer him.
What comes next
Block has guided for $12.2 billion in gross profit in 2026. The Lightning Network rollout to Square merchants is pending full regulatory approval. Bitchat's Android version is available through GitHub, while an official Google Play release has not been announced. The Digital Asset Tax Fairness Act is still awaiting a Congressional vote.
Matvii Diadkov
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