Jay Z, the world-renowned rapper and owner of music streaming service, TIDAL, has teamed up with Jack Dorsey, co-founder, and CEO of Twitter, to open and fund a Bitcoin development endowment. Known as ₿trust, it will be initially focused on teams working on Bitcoin in Africa and India.

One of the big aims of this initiative is to try and make Bitcoin the currency of the internet. Dorsey has indicated that they will be giving ₿trust 500 Bitcoins to kickstart its work.

The announcement by Dorsey and Jay Z comes at a time when Bitcoin has been regularly in the news both in Africa and globally.

Just last week the Central Bank of Nigeria issued a statement effectively stating that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are illegal in the country. This led to a social media frenzy as well as banks closing accounts of people who had traded or used cryptocurrencies.

In more positive cryptocurrencies news, Bitcoin crossed both the $40,000 and $44,000 marks on the back of news that Elon Musk's Tesla bought $1,5 billion worth of Bitcoin. This signaled for many people that big corporates are looking to add Bitcoin to their balance sheets instead of the US dollar.

Added to that, Mastercard also announced that they will be accepting cryptocurrencies on their network later in 2020. Although the company didn't yet specify which crypto it will be allowing for direct payments using the Mastercard network.

It's not clear how ₿trust will work or the type of projects it will be funding. What we do know at the moment is that Jack Dorsey and Jay Z are looking for three people to be part of the Board (apply here). Dorsey has also added that "It‘ll be set up as a blind irrevocable trust, taking zero direction from us."

Subcribe to our Daily Brief newsletter
Insights and analysis into how business and technology impact Africa. We promise to leave you smarter and asking the right questions every time after you read it. Sent out every Monday to Friday.







Marketing permission: I give my consent to iAfrikan Media to be in touch with me via e-mail using the information I have provided in this form for the purpose of news, updates, and marketing related to the Daily Brief newsletter.

What to expect: If you wish to withdraw your consent and stop hearing from us, simply click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of every email we send or contact us at [email protected] We value and respect your personal data and privacy. Do read our privacy policy. By submitting this form, you agree that we may process your information in accordance with these terms.


Share this via: