Jack Dorsey and Jay-Z Set Up Btrust Focused on India and Africa
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced he would be giving a blind Bitcoin (BTC) development trust worth 500 BTC ($23.7 million) with Jay Z for teams working on the project in India and Africa. Btrust, the project’s name, will have no binding direction from them.
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
Btrust Aims to Promote Bitcoin
Dorsey’s move comes at a time when the Indian government is presenting a bill to ban all “private” cryptocurrencies. Also, the interest to fund Bitcoin development emerges as the cryptocurrency sees all-time highs this year.
Dorsey announced the Btrust’s formation on February 12 and invited three board members to initially control the blind trust.
Dorsey, 44, took to Twitter to announce the start of his Btrust bitcoin donation. He said that they created it as a blind trust, which they cannot undo without zero direction. He also provided a link to the Google board member application form. The form states that Btrust’s mission is to make bitcoin the internet currency.
India’s Crypto Regulation
Last month, the Indian government announced it would introduce cryptocurrency and official billing regulations for digital currencies (2021) at its recent budget meeting. The aim is to pave the way for a possible introduction of a CBDC by the country’s central bank when China is testing its digital yuan.
Experts believe the current bill can dispel ambiguity around digital money trading, which is not currently banned or passed in India. According to anonymous sources, the world’s second-most populous country will not immediately ban all cryptocurrencies and give consumers a grace period of 3 to 6 months to liquidate their holdings.
Moving into Blockchain
On February 10, Jack Dorsey donated $1 million to Coin Center in Washington, DC, which also received a $2 million donation from Grayscale. Dorsey’s continued passion for bitcoin has recently led him to create full bitcoin nodes from his Macbook, which means he can now inspect the bitcoin blockchain.
Dorsey is one of the most vocal Bitcoin permabulls. Last month, he explained why he got excited about cryptocurrency amid a Twitter thread banning former US President Donald Trump after the violence at Capitol Hall.
He wrote on his Twitter that he likes bitcoin so much because of the model it demonstrates: fundamental internet technologies that are not controlled or influenced by any individual or legal entity. It is what the internet wants, and it will become more and more over time.
Last October, payment company Dorsey’s Square purchased $50 million in Bitcoin to increase access to the decentralized currency via its Cash App mobile payment service. In a 2018 media interview, Dorsey also mentioned that he believes Bitcoin will one day become the world’s single currency.
