The Bitcoin non-profit, Btrust, co-founded by rapper Jay-Z and Block CEO Jack Dorsey, has acquired the Bitcoin talent company, Qala.
Following this acquisition, Qala, an organization that provides training for African Bitcoin and Lightning engineers, has been rebranded as the Btrust Builders Program.
According to reports on Sep. 6, the deal is a synergistic acquisition to advance Bitcoin development in Africa.
While Btrust has the financial resources, it didn’t have the structure to develop the African Bitcoin talent pipeline.
Today, we are thrilled to share a monumental story in our journey. We have officially become part of ₿trust @btrustteam!
This has led to our rebranding as ₿trust Builders – marking a pivotal shift in our operations to focus on open-source training in Bitcoin and Lightning. pic.twitter.com/kjSkpv8Sbc
— Btrust Builders (@btrust_builders) September 5, 2023
On the other side, Qala has the system in place but is lacking the resources to achieve its goal sustainably since, as a social enterprise, it doesn’t earn revenues.
Prior to this agreement, Qala relied on grants from organizations, including Coinbase Giving and $100,000 from the Human Rights Foundation.
Qala’s CEO, Femi Longe, and Stephanie Titcombe, a program manager, are now set to join Btrust as program leads for the new Btrust Builders program.
The program will shift focus to open-source training, with an invitation for senior African software developers to participate in Bitcoin and Lightning development.
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
On Feb. 11, 2021, Jack Dorsey and Jay-Z jointly pledged 500 BTC for Btrust to support teams working on a project in India and Africa. However, there were no specific directives from the co-founders.
Btrust has since sponsored events like the maiden edition of the Africa Bitcoin Conference, scheduled from Dec. 5 to 7 in Ghana, as part of their larger mission to decentralize the development of Bitcoin.
