The reality is that bridging a big existing network is a significant undertaking and nobody has done it before (other than possibly Matrix.org and Freenode, but it’s not like Freenode is letting us talk TS6; we come in as clients). So the acquisition is basically a catalyst to break this impasse. We’re hoping that Rocket.Chat, Mattermost, Teams, Slack, Discord will watch what we do and copy it with more confidence to join the network. At least that’s the dream :)
My most-realistic dream is for Freenode to be Matrix by default with the IRC interface just for clients.
Admittedly, I'm a fan of the matrix protocol and the Element client...but i have friends still living on slackland, etc. If what you're hoping for would really would happen, well that would be so awesome!
That is indeed not what happened. It's just an acquisition. It does not actually give us hope that there's more momentum towards competitors being willing to play together in federation, that's not what happened.
Not sure why the one who made that point is getting downvoted, I think it's an interesting observation. That the press release arguably kind of intentionally tries to hand wave over a bit.