₿trust, a nonprofit funded by Twitter (now X) co-founder and Bitcoin (BTC) advocate Jack Dorsey, is expanding its projects in Africa with a new acquisition.
The nonprofit organization has acquired Qala, an organization dedicated to training Bitcoin and Lightning engineers in Africa. The acquisition will help ₿Trust successfully fulfill its mission of advancing the development and education of Bitcoin open-source engineers in the southern hemisphere, the groups said in a joint statement.
As part of the deal closing on September 1st, Qala will be renamed the ₿trust Builders Programme. Founded in 2021, Qala has been dedicated to finding, training and pairing African software developers with global Bitcoin companies, helping them acquire the most relevant skills in the global Bitcoin ecosystem.
According to the announcement, Qala has established one of the largest online communities for bitcoin developers in Africa, covering 42 countries including Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda. In addition to open-source funding from ₿, alumni of the program have secured positions at companies like Galoy, a Bitcoin-native banking platform in Cloud Galoy, Lightning Network-based messaging software SphinxChat, and peer-to-peer platform Bitnob. Trust and Supermoon.
Under the terms of the acquisition, Qala CEO Femi Longe and project manager Stephanie Titcombe will officially join ₿trust as project leads for ₿trust Builders.
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“We are very proud to welcome Femi and his excellent team to ₿trust,” said ₿trust board member Ojoma Ochai, adding that Qala has “made rapid progress in driving open source development in the southern hemisphere.”
In February 2021, Dorsey announced the creation of the Bitcoin Development Trust ₿trust, which aims to fund global Bitcoin development. The nonprofit initially focuses on teams in Africa and India and is worth 5 million bitcoins ($23.7 million at the time of announcement). In addition to Dorsey, the trust was initially funded by crypto-friendly artist and producer Jay-Z. The nonprofit is currently led by a board of directors that includes Abubakar Nur Khalil, Carla Kirk-Cohen, Obi Nwosu and Ochai.
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