X will start selling inactive usernames to paying users

Looks like your old Twitter account might be worth something to someone.

X (formerly Twitter) announced over the weekend that it would begin selling inactive handles on the Elon Musk-owned social network. The company will facilitate sales through a new Handles Marketplace, which will only be available to paid Premium and Premium Business users. Some usernames will be “free” (AKA free), and X calls these credentials “Priority”. Others will be distributed on a paid or invitation-only basis, and these are referred to as “rare” identifiers.

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It’s a bit strange, but our friends at PCMag have a clearer explanation of how it works. The free ones will be longer identifiers with full names or alphanumeric phrases, while the ones that cost money will be shorter, more recognizable identifiers, like those used by brands. Anyone wanting a free username will have to submit a request and wait for approval, while paid usernames will be distributed via public drops or, in other cases, an invite-only program.

In case you’re wondering, prices for these usernames apparently start at $2,500 and can go up to seven figures depending on “demand and uniqueness,” according to a support page cited by PCMag. Ownership of sold usernames cannot be transferred, so theoretically there will be no resale market for them.

This is certainly a unique solution to the age-old problem of wanting a username claimed by someone who no longer uses it. However, it certainly has some major potential problems. For starters, there’s no indication that the previous owner of a sold username will see that money. Beyond that, it could easily be used for nefarious purposes; It’s not hard to imagine someone buying @dril in a few years and using it to defraud crypto scams, or whatever the scammers are doing on X these days.

Given that X has already removed the original purpose of the blue check mark as a verification tool and turned it into a paid status symbol, that at least feels as if this could be an avenue for digital identity theft, which current site ownership and moderation policies may not be able to handle at the moment.