Jay Z and Jack Dorsey train Bitcoin developers in the Global South

Founded in 2021, ₿trust received initial funding from Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey and today appointed the original founder, Abubakar Nur Khalil, as interim CEO.

₿trust is a non-profit organization that focuses on training and funding developers from the Global South for the open-source development of Bitcoin. 

Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey and the training of Bitcoin developers in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia

Jay-Z e Jack Dorsey sono i primi sostenitori di ₿trust, l’organizzazione no-profit che si occupa di formare e finanziare sviluppatori Bitcoin in Africa, America Latina e Asia meridionale. 

Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey are the first supporters of ₿trust, the non-profit organization that focuses on training and funding Bitcoin developers in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. 

Since its founding in 2021, ₿trust has received initial funding from Jay-Z and Dorsey. Specifically, in February 2021, the rapper and the former CEO of Twitter had donated 500 BTC to ₿trust. 

From that moment to today, ₿trust has created a continuously expanding network of developers Bitcoin in Africa, Latin America, and India.

To date, hundreds of developers have been trained thanks to the fund. Some of them are working on projects like Libreria de Satoshi and Bitshala, while others have started BitDevs meetups in five African cities, supporting annual events like the African Bitcoin Conference.

In 2023, ₿trust had also acquired Qala, the African organization for Bitcoin engineering training and Lightning Network. 

JUST ARRIVED: Btrust, the non-profit organization of #Bitcoin founded by Jack Dorsey and Jay-Z, acquires Qala, the African training organization in engineering of #Bitcoin and Lightning. Starting from September 1st, Qala is now the Btrust Builders Programme.

Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey and the developers of Bitcoin: the appointment of the new CEO Abubakar Nur Khalil

Returning to today, the organization has made headlines for appointing its original founder, Abubakar Nur Khalil, as interim CEO.

“Exciting news from ₿trust! We are thrilled to announce that Abubakar Nur Khalil (@ihate1999), Nigerian Bitcoin Core contributor and current board member, has been appointed interim CEO of ₿trust.”

In the series of tweets, the group that forms the Bitcoin developers in the South of the World, explained that Nur Khalil will be interim CEO for a year, starting from this August 2024. 

In addition to this new role, Nur Khalil will continue with his other duties as a Bitcoin Core contributor and member of its board of directors. 

₿trust also emphasized that Nur Khalil will leverage his extensive experience as co-founder of Qala and his various roles in the African and global Bitcoin ecosystems. 

His goal will be to focus on the continuation and acceleration of ₿trust’s mission to decentralize the open-source development of Bitcoin.

In this regard, Nur Khalil stated: 

“I am truly grateful for the trust that the Board of Directors has placed in me to take on this role over the next year. I look forward to growing our initiatives, ensuring that ₿trust establishes itself as the main driving force for Bitcoin development in Africa and cultivating a unique Bitcoin FOSS ecosystem in the regions we serve”.

Promoting blockchain education

And on one hand, ₿trust by Dorsey and Jay-Z is focused on training Bitcoin developers in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia, while on the other hand, there are those who aim to promote blockchain education in the same areas. 

This is about Tether, the company behind the largest stablecoin in the world in terms of market cap, which continues to expand its mission to promote blockchain education. 

Just a few days ago, in fact, Tether formed a collaboration with Xion Global to implement its initiative in South Africa. 

Through educational videos, case studies, live conferences with industry leaders, and much more, South Africans will be able to access and use the new forms of crypto payments consciously.