In 2021, Jack Dorsey and Jay-Z had created a foundation aimed at financing the development of bitcoin, mainly in India and Africa. In the wake of this initiative, they will set up “The Bitcoin Academy” in New York.
Jack Dorsey and bitcoin is an enduring love affair. The Twitter co-founder, who has never hidden his interest in cryptocurrencies and displays the hashtag #bitcoin in his Twitter bio, has just teamed up with Jay-Z to set up The Bitcoin Academy at Marcy Houses, a complex of social housing in Brooklyn, New York, where the American artist grew up. As part of this, online and face-to-face courses will be given by Lamar Wilson, who manages the Black Bitcoin Billionaire site, and Najah J. Roberts, founder and boss of Crypto Blockchain Plug, a company that organizes educational events around cryptocurrencies.
“Bitcoin is becoming an essential tool for many people in Africa, as well as Central and South America. We believe the same potential exists within communities in the United States. Our goal is to prove that making powerful tools more accessible to people allows them to build greater autonomy Education is our starting point It’s not just about bitcoin… but about long-term thinking, local economies and trust in self”wrote Jack Dorsey on Twitter.
bitcoin is becoming a critical tool for many in Africa and Central and South America. We believe the same potential exists within communities in the US. Our goal is to prove that making powerful tools more available to people enables them to build greater independence.
—jack (@jack) June 9, 2022
The latter is not at his first attempt with Jay-Z in the field of cryptocurrencies. Last year, the two men had created a foundation aimed at financing the development of bitcoin, mainly in India and Africa, to make it “the currency of the internet”. As part of this structure, they invested 500 bitcoins, which were worth around $24 million at the time of the announcement. In addition, the Twitter co-founder’s other company, Block (formerly Square), specializing in digital payments, bought Jay-Z’s streaming music platform, Tidal, in 2021 for nearly $300 million.
“Mining bitcoin should be as easy as plugging in a device”
Still with a view to democratizing the most famous of cryptocurrencies to as many people as possible, the co-founder of Twitter revealed at the start of the year that Block was working on “an open system for mining bitcoin”. “The more decentralized the bitcoin network is, the more resilient it will become”he had tweeted last October. “Mining bitcoin should be as easy as plugging in a device”he added.
However, bitcoin has not stood out for its strength in recent months, on the contrary showing high volatility. After peaking at $69,000 in November 2021, bitcoin, along with other cryptocurrencies and NFTs, has crashed. Bitcoin even fell below $30,000.