Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Jay-Z Invest Sh2.5 Billion Towards Cryptocurrency Development with Focus on Africa and India
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Musician Jay-Z have announced a 500 bitcoin pledge (worth about $23.3 million) towards BTrust, an endowment fund aimed at promoting Bitcoin.
Through his Twitter account, Dorsey said that the development will initially focus on Africa and India, but that both he and Jay-Z would give zero direction to the plans.
Trust is on the hunt for three board members, with its application forms stating clearly that their mission is to “make Bitcoin the internet’s currency”
According to TechCrunch, Africa and India are two interesting markets for cryptocurrency. In Africa, cryptocurrency has become popular for making cross-border transactions cheaper and for evading government control. Nigeria is reported to be the second-biggest cryptocurrency trading market after the US in the last five years.
In India, the government is considering banning private cryptocurrencies in the country, while mulling over the creation of an official digital currency. This has made the growth of cryptocurrency slow despite the software development expertise present in the market.
Dorsey has been a long-time supporter of cryptocurrency, with his payment platform, Square, accepting cryptocurrency since 2014. Last year, the company purchased $50 million worth of bitcoin as an investment in cryptocurrency.
Square said that it believed Bitcoin was the currency of the future and that cryptocurrency is an “instrument of economic empowerment.”
Apart from Dorsey’s and JayZ’s investment, Tesla also announced a $1.5 billion cryptocurrency investment along with plans to integrate it as a payment method in the near future.