2nd accounts are life insurance policies for creators

I was ghostwriting a bit for a prominent pseudonymous creator.

He shared his ideas with me, I sent over a Google docs with article drafts, and we wrote a solid article about blockchain video games. I have no idea who paid me, but ETH showed up in my wallet and I was happy.

Ah, the joys of Twitter.

Speaking of the bird app, 2 big anonymous NFT collectors have recently unmasked themselves: rapper Snoop Dogg is @cozomomedici and singer SIA is @biancamedici69.

It makes me ask a few questions - what other famous people are running popular anonymous accounts? Who is NFT collector @punk6529, billionaire-muse @tszzl, and financiers @rampcapitalllc and @litquidity?

I’ve developed a theory that Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto was already a famous tech entrepreneur (or at least a respected professor).

There is no way that somebody with that type of knowledge on computer science and marketing wouldn’t have already gotten successful on their own. He/she must have created the pseudonym to avoid the spotlight, governments, and danger.

The same logic applies to anonymous creators like @punk6529.

On a recent podcast with Raoul Paul1, @punk6529 revealed he was already a wealthy NYC finance guy2 and had a Twitter account prior to making the @punk6529 account. My guess is he probably had to create a 2nd account in case his traditional finance job found out about his NFT/crypto work.

Prior to listening to the interview, I thought @punk6529 was former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan. Balaji has the domain knowledge and has frequently spoken3 on anonymity as a hedge against getting hacked or banned from a platform.

Although I don’t think Balaji is @punk6529 anymore as their speaking cadences are quite different, I think Balaji is onto something with this hedging idea.

To hedge against the risk of getting hacked or banned, I think all creators should have a 2nd account.

I’ve had side accounts since I was 14 or 15. Most of the girls I hung out with had finstas. Typically, it was just so we could post goofy things to our close friends without college admissions counselors or hiring managers seeing them.

Now, I have a 2nd Twitter account that is finally getting some traction.

My tweets from my 2nd account aren’t racist or sexist or whatever. I make NFT artwork, but I want @iamjasonlevin to be known for writing, not art. Hence, I do my art under a pseudonym.

I assure you I’m not the only one who creates under a pseudonym.

Writers have been using pseudonyms for hundreds of years. Louisa May Alcott (Pretty Women) and the Bronté Sisters (Wuthering Heights) wrote much of their previous work under male pseudonyms to avoid being seen as unladylike.

It’s not just writers though.

Rappers frequently go by pseudonyms4. Artists often go by pseudonyms. Hell, I even interviewed Jack Rhysider, an anonymous creator with a top 5 tech podcast in the world.

It should be accepted (and even encouraged) for social media creators to use pseudonyms and 2nd accounts.

On the chance that you get hacked or Twitter bans your account with 100,000 followers, it’d be nice to have a 2nd account with 15,000 loyal followers, right?

Yes, this means extra work, but I think of it like an insurance policy for my career.

I pay my bills through Twitter. Do I really want to risk my livelihood to a hacker? Or a bozo accidentally pressing the ban button? Or worse, a faulty algorithm choice?

That’s why I’ve been building a pseudonymous Twitter account - and been building on platforms besides Twitter.

If my @iamjasonlevin account gets booted, I’d (cry and then) just start using my 2nd account for business stuff instead of solely NFTs. It’d be annoying, but I’d survive.

But, what happens if my 2nd account gets hacked as well? I’d probably jump ship and switch platforms.

This leads me to my next reason.

Pseudonymous accounts can make money.

It’s not just NFT artists making millions. It’s meme-makers too.

Lil Nas X’s instagram started out as a Nicki Minaj fanpage.

@BoredElonMusk was in the video game industry and now invests in startups and is releasing a video game company called BoredBox.

@stonks_dot_com raised $15M from investors like A16Z and Naval Ravikant to build out their platform.

The list goes on.

So even if you don’t have a 2nd side hustle, I implore you to consider building a 2nd account to post your memes and throwaways.

If you get hacked or the Twitter gods decide to ban you, you’ll be happy you have a 2nd account primed and ready to roll.

Podcast plug: This week, I spoke with Megan Carnegie about her articles for WIRED. We spoke primarily about the future/history of remote work, the business of freelance writing, and where the metaverse is headed. You can listen on Spotify and Apple.