Audio By Carbonatix
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and musician Jay-Z have pledged 500 bitcoin (around $23.3 million) toward ₿trust, an endowment to fund bitcoin development, Dorsey announced on Twitter today.
The CEO said development will initially be focused on teams in Africa and India, but that he and Jay-Z plan to give “zero direction” to the plans.
₿trust is currently looking for three board members, with an application form noting its mission is to “make bitcoin the internet’s currency.”
Africa and India are two interesting markets in which to focus bitcoin development.
As TechCrunch notes, cryptocurrencies have grown increasingly popular throughout the African continent for making cross-border transactions cheaper, and in some cases being resistant to government control.
Nigeria is reportedly second only to the US in terms of the amount of bitcoin traded in the country in the last five years.
JAY-Z/@S_C_ and I are giving 500 BTC to a new endowment named ₿trust to fund #Bitcoin development, initially focused on teams in Africa & India. It‘ll be set up as a blind irrevocable trust, taking zero direction from us. We need 3 board members to start: https://t.co/L4mRBryMJe
— jack (@jack) February 12, 2021
Meanwhile, the Indian government is currently looking to ban private cryptocurrencies in the country, Bloomberg reports, while also investigating the creation of an official digital currency.
TechCrunch notes that cryptocurrency development in the country has been slow, despite its strengths in software development.
Dorsey has been a longtime supporter of cryptocurrency, and this has been reflected in the actions of his companies.
His payments platform company Square has accepted bitcoin as a form of payment since 2014 and announced it had purchased $50 million in bitcoin last year as an investment in cryptocurrency.
At the time, Square said it believed bitcoin could be the currency of the future and that cryptocurrency is an “instrument of economic empowerment.”
Earlier this week, Twitter’s chief financial officer said the company was looking into how it might pay its employees or vendors in bitcoin in the future.
₿trust is the second major bitcoin investment announced this week.
On Monday, Tesla said it had invested $1.5 billion in the cryptocurrency and was hoping to take it as a payment method in the near future.
Latest Stories
-
GPL 2025/2026: Medeama thrash Young Apostles to widen gap at the top
1 hour -
GPL 2025/26: Stoppage-time goal earns Aduana FC victory over Karela
2 hours -
BoG issues AML/CFT/CPF agency banking guidelines for banks, others
4 hours -
Fire tender involved in accident while responding to blaze at Buipe
4 hours -
Report to FIC all sales, purchases of foreign currencies with threshold of GH¢20,000 – BoG to forex bureaus
4 hours -
T-bills auction: Investor interest soars; government exceeds target by 20% but interest rates rise
4 hours -
One Nation Reggae Festival: Heritage, music and the reframing of Sierra Leone’s cultural tourism
4 hours -
Police arrest 7 members of notorious highway robbers
5 hours -
Cost concerns, internal tensions disrupt School Feeding Programme in North East Region
5 hours -
Abutia Installs Mankrado Togbe Keh Kwesi VIII and Mama Kehbia III
5 hours -
Ashanti Regional Minister inspects runway expansion at Prempeh I International Airport
5 hours -
Mahama Administration’s first year positive, says Prof Patrick Asuming
5 hours -
SSNIT increases monthly pensions by 10%
5 hours -
Major roads in Ho West being constructed under the Big Push Project
5 hours -
Franklin Cudjoe commends Mahama administration’s early economic management
5 hours
