Jack Dorsey of Twitter, American rapper Jay-Z plan Bitcoin endowment fund for India
New Delhi: At a time when the Indian government and Twitter are pitched in a free-speech battle, the micro-blogging platform’s CEO is planning to set up an endowment fund for the development of Bitcoin in India.
The move announced by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Friday along with American rapped Jay-Z comes at a time when the Indian government is trying to render all digital currencies illegal through a legislation introduced in the Parliament during the Budget Session.
Dorsey on Friday said he and Jay-Z are planning to give 500 BTC to a new endowment fund for the development of cryptocurrency in India and Africa. He is also looking for three board of directors to start the proposed initiative.
The 44-year-old Twitter CEO also attached a Google doc inviting applications to hire three board members for the same.
“JAY-Z/@S_C_ and I are giving 500 BTC to a new endowment named 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,” he tweeted Friday.
The document states the mission of the fund was to “make bitcoin the internet’s currency”.
India Vs Cryptocurrencies
The Indian government has drafted the ‘Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021’ which is also known as Bitcoin killer bill.
The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021 is scheduled to be tabled in the ongoing budget session of Parliament. The bill is intended to “create a facilitative framework for the creation of the official digital currency to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The bill also seeks to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India. However, it allows for certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses, said Lok Sabha secretariat in a bulletin earlier.
The bill is currently in draft stage and is yet to be finalised.