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perhaps realizing he was about to lose the case or worried about further embarrassment, Musk closed the deal at the agreed upon price and became, as he put it, “Chief Twit.”

There are multiple things happening here at once. A highly driven if erratic CEO has taken control of a company in a field with which he has little experience, and is now undergoing a steep learning curve. At the same time, Twitter was a poorly run company which, in the 16 years of its existence, has rarely and barely been profitable.

Meanwhile and perhaps more pertinently, the $13 billion debt Musk took on to acquire the company means he will be on the hook for about $1 billion a year in interest payments – which to be clear, is more money than Twitter made in all of 2021.

Looked at in that light, it’s obvious why Musk wants to introduce his new version of the subscription product, Twitter Blue; despite being the world’s richest man, he needs the money.

According to reports, as of last month, for $8 a month, you can have a blue check next to your name in addition to features such as being prioritized in searches or other people’s replies.

Will it work? When it comes to Musk, never say never – but right now it’s hard to see how.

The blue check was initially introduced to verify users as being real – that is, if Justin Trudeau announced something on Twitter, you could trust it was him and not a jokester just pretending.

The program was thus meant to instill trust in users. What happened, though, is that in an effort to include both people of note and reputable media in the program, “being verified” captured both real celebrities and politicians with millions of followers but also an editor at a local news site with 500.

It was not only a little odd, but at least among some, created a perceived hierarchy on the platform between who got the blue mark and who didn’t.

Musk’s new idea, then, is to let anyone pay to get that status. Not only might it create revenue, it also (in theory) smashes the hierarchy of who is seen as legitimate.

The potential upside: large organizations might pony up the cost to verify their employees as real. Ordinary users might pay to improve their experience. And those who previously felt excluded might fork out their eight dollars regardless to join the cool kids club.

An issue though: status is a value derived through scarcity. Why pay $8 a month for something with few ostensible benefits and that becomes increasingly less valuable the more people buy in?

Then there are the numbers. In order to generate real revenue, Musk would need millions of users to sign on to Twitter Blue. Currently there are around 400,000 verified accounts. That is a massive hill to climb.

What’s more, there have been hints that Musk’s plan to reduce content moderation would embolden the very worst users. It could be that fewer rather than more people use Twitter, at least if Musk can’t get bigotry, harassment and spam under control.

Then again, if 10 years ago you had said to me that electric cars would soon be commonplace, I would have scoffed. Tesla’s success has been remarkable and an angry billionaire in debt is the very definition of a motivated party. What is clear, though, is that Musk and his team face a significant challenge ahead.

As a long time user of Twitter (yes, with a blue check) I’m very curious to see how it all plays out.

Whether I or millions of others are willing to pay each month for the privilege though? That is the question – and seems altogether much less certain.