Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey pledged to power the crypto revolution by funneling 500 Bitcoins in a project called BTrust.
Now we are learning a little more about the Trust which describes itself as an organization on a mission to “make Bitcoin the internet's currency”.
In February 2021, the former Twitter boss announced the launch of a blind trust which would “fund Bitcoin development, initially focused on teams in Africa & India” with “zero direction from us”.
The Trust currently has a Twitter account, but there are no posts on it.
Earlier in December, it revealed four board members: Carla Kirk-Cohen, Abubakar Nur Khalil, Obi Nwosu, and Ojoma Ochai. All of the board members live in Nigeria, apart from Kirk-Cohen who is based in South Africa. The team is currently “working towards defining the operating principles as they think about how to best distribute the 500 bitcoin towards development efforts”, Dorsey tweeted.
In an interview with Blockworks, Nur Khalil has revealed where some of the money will be going, He said the trust would initially allocate funds to crypto projects in Africa before “gradually expanding” in other regions including India.
“There’s a really large talent pool [of developers] in Africa and a lot of it is translated into the wider ecosystem around it,” Nur Khalil said.
“Shifting focus into building products that are geared towards more Bitcoin-related things, I think will have a huge net positive, or net benefit, or net gain both locally and globally.”
The fund will provide money to crypto developers to grow the crypto ecosystem, as well as support “other projects that are kind of on the periphery” like crypto wallets or exchanges.
The Bitcoin will either be pledged directly to crypto developers or converted to local currency if necessary. As well as funding the ecosystem, ?trust will attempt to find ways to “replenish” the supply of Bitcoins and expand into other areas of the “Global South”.
Since stepping down as head of Twitter, Jack Dorsey has become a “crypto missionary”.
In August, he tweeted: “Bitcoin will unite a deeply divided country. (and eventually: world).”
He also spoke about crypto in a public Twitter chat with the rapper Cardi B.
“Do you think crypto is going to replace the dollar?” she asked her followers.
“Yes, Bitcoin will,” Dorsey replied.
