How To Add Bitcoin To The Balance Sheet For Corporations, With Saylor & Dorsey

Is your company ready to buy the Bitcoin dip? Saylor and Dorsey will give you the 411 for free.99. The MicroStrategy World annual conference goes live on February 1st. Learn directly from these two titans of the industry, who have definitely been among Bitcoin’s main proponents and promoters over the last few years. 

Michael Saylor has led by example, buying every dip, and is a constant presence in mainstream media. His interviews are more like classes and the attention they get is outstanding. Jack Dorsey, for his part, left Twitter to focus on Bitcoin. Since then, his Block company announced several projects that’ll definitely strengthen the Bitcoin network from every angle.

About the MicroStrategy World conference, the press release promises it’ll be “focused on Enterprise Analytics and Bitcoin for Corporations. World 2022 is 100% virtual, and—for the first time ever—access to all sections of the conference is free of charge.” That’s an unbeatable price.

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What Will Saylor And Dorsey Talk About?

The conference has two sides, two different events that showcase MicroStrategy’s duality:

“The Enterprise Analytics event will introduce bold new ways to think about analytics and business intelligence, and showcase organizations who’ve used data as a strategic differentiator. The Bitcoin for Corporations event will explore the various benefits of incorporating Bitcoin into corporate initiatives.”

As you might expect, NewsBTC will focus on the second event. It’s important to say that both Dorsey and Saylor’s companies have Bitcoin on their balance sheet. These two put their money where their mouth is, and then some. In any case, what does MicroStrategy World promise?

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“An in-depth discussion on Bitcoin between two visionary voices: Jack Dorsey, CEO of Block, Inc., and Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy Inc. This session will be followed by a discussion on Bitcoin Treasury with Phong Le (President and CFO, MicroStrategy). Bitcoin for Corporations will also feature live interviews with industry experts from Coinbase, Deloitte, Fidelity Digital Assets, Genesis, Jefferies, NYDIG, Paxos, and Silvergate Bank.”

It’s noteworthy that Fidelity Digital Assets recently shocked the world by predicting more countries and probably a Central Bank or two would add Bitcoin to their balance sheet in the next few years. Christine Sandler, Fidelity’s Head of Sales & Marketing, will represent the company at the conference. 

Saylor ’s Recent Bitcoin History

Since MicroStrategy first added Bitcoin to its balance sheet in August 2020, the company has increased the bet every few months. They issued common stock. They sold stocks. They bought, and bought, and bought, and bought. In a recent interview, Saylor explained the strategy and NewsBTC reported:

“Look, our long term strategy is kind of like Harvard University. We’re running a university but we have an endowment. MicroStrategy is selling enterprise software. We generate $100 million in cash flow a year – in a good year – and we are reinvesting that cash in our endowment. Our endowment is 100% bitcoin.”

Saylor adds that MicroStrategy plans to acquire and hold bitcoin as a balance sheet. As for the operations, the company will continue to sell its enterprise software everywhere in the world.”

Related to this, about MicroStrategy’s free conference, Saylor said:

“We have gained a wealth of experience and expertise innovating our treasury strategy and evolving our corporate bitcoin acquisition strategy. And we’re pleased to be in a position to share our knowledge—via this curated event—for corporations looking to pursue similar strategies and bold initiatives.”

Dorsey’s Recent Bitcoin History

For his part, Dorsey’s strategy is much different than Saylor’s. He’s working in infrastructure. He’s fortifying the network’s weak parts. Among other things, Block announced they’re building a decentralized Bitcoin exchange called tbDEX. Released the Lightning Development Kit. And announced they’re working in an open-source ASIC miner

On a personal level, Dorsey and rapper Jay-Z put 500 BTC in a blind trust to promote Bitcoin development in Africa and India. And created the Bitcoin Defense Legal Fund to protect developers from all kinds of lawsuits.

BTCUSD price chart for 01/21/2022 - TradingView

BTC price chart for 01/21/2022 on Gemini | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com

The Price Of Bitcoin

Despite Saylor’s and Dorsey’s efforts, Bitcoin is bleeding. On one hand, Proof-Of-Stake proponents straight up lied before U.S. Congress in a hearing about Proof-Of-Work’s environmental risks. On the other, there’s a rumor that Russia is considering banning Bitcoin in some capacity. Both of those situations caused panic in the market, and Bitcoin’s price is currently 40% lower than the ATH of $69K. 

Will Michael Saylor buy the dip? 

Featured Image: screenshot from the conference's website | Charts by TradingView

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The 500 BTC Blind Trust to Foster Bitcoin Adoption, Btrust, Announces First Steps

It’s time for the Btrust to start making moves. And they did so by announcing their “to-do list” and “high level goals.” A month ago, Block CEO Jack Dorsey and rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z announced the members of the board for their 500 BTC blind trust. Btrust’s purpose is to “make bitcoin the internet’s currency” and their field of action is Africa and India. 

Said members of the board took charge and recently showed the world what they’ve been working on since they did so. “Each of these tasks require careful thought. We’ll be requesting feedback from the community on individual items in the weeks to come!,” Btrust said in its inaugural Twitter thread. Before going through those tasks, though, let’s remember who those members are. At the time, NewsBTC reported:

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“The blind trust’s board members are: Ojoma Ochai, Obi Nwosu, Abubakar Nur Khalil, and Carla Kirk-Cohen, the only South African of the bunch. By just casually looking at their Twitter feeds it becomes obvious that they’re all thoroughly dedicated to Bitcoin already.”

Related Reading | South African Man Loses $900,000 Worth Of Bitcoin After Accidentally Deleting Keys

In a recent interview with Blockworks, 22-years old Abubakar Nur Khalil said:

“It’s very, very important for us to keep it as transparent as possible,” he said. “We’ll be communicating a lot about the process, our thinking and the things we’re going to be doing going ahead primarily through Twitter.”

And so they did. Let’s explore what that process looks like and what the Btrust will be working on in months to come.

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BTCUSD price chart for 01/12/2022 - TradingView

BTC price chart for 01/12/2022 on Coinbase | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com

Btrust’s Guiding Principles And Jurisdiction

Following Bitcoin’s lead, the first thing the Btrust will do is to establish “Genesis Principles.” In other words, “Btrust’s vision will be laid out in an immutable set of principles.” Everybody involved in the organization will follow them, and there will be the option of using soft-forks and hard-forks to resolve disagreements or to accommodate different visions. 

There’s another caveat, “Boards are bound to act in accordance with the principles, but the implementation is their prerogative. This provides flexibility, while staying true to Btrust’s vision.” So far, so good. This all sounds very Bitcoiny.

The next step is crucial, “Entity and Jurisdiction.” Under what jurisdiction will the Btrust operate? What type of entity will they choose to be. “Btrust requires a formal entity to hire employees, contract the board and provide a legal system to hold representatives accountable.” 

In relation to this, Nur Khalil told Blockworks:

“We’re looking at starting with Africa initially, but then gradually expanding into other regions in the global South,” Nur Khalil said. “So that’s places like India as well. And then in general, with regards to the overall vision, we feel there’s so many disparities in some of these regions like Africa in terms of the actual amount of talented developers versus those of them that are actually working on Bitcoin.”

Custody And Communication

This is a great opportunity to test out Bitcoin’s multisig superpowers. “We will work on a proposal outlining various custody solutions, with the end goal of safely taking custody of the 500 BTC.” Also, important for people out there, Btrust will be hiring “a full time lead to manage daily operations.”

Last but not least, they’ll build something. “We’re committed to building Btrust with input from the Bitcoin community. For now, we’ll be using twitter to communicate our progress, but it’s not scalable.” And they’ll raise funds to set up the organization. “We want to take our time to think about our approach to custody & company formation. This is a prerequisite for any investment. We’ll create a separate plan for how to cover any required set up funding.”

Related Reading | Spiral BTC Releases Lightning Development Kit. Jack Dorsey’s Puppet Promotes It

In relation to this, Nur Khalil told Blockworks:

“​​What we’re trying to optimize for is trying to do things gradually because there’s a lot and we won’t just look at the ecosystem and just throw a bunch of money on it. We still have to be meticulous on what the impact is.“

Great work so far, Btrust. We at NewsBTC are looking forward to covering your next steps and seeing what the future brings for the organization, Bitcoin, Africa, and India.

Featured Image by EglantineUdry on Pixabay | Charts by TradingView

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Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey to Fund Bitcoin Development in Africa and India with $24.5M

To enhance the penetration rate and adoption of Bitcoin on African and Indian soils, American rapper Shawn Corey Carter, popularly known as Jay-Z, and Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Block Inc. and former Twitter CEO, are to give away $24.5 million in BTC for this objective.

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India and Africa are notable markets to emphasize Bitcoin development. Cryptocurrencies have become popular throughout the African continent because of peer-to-peer (P2P) trading.

In July, Africa recorded the largest Bitcoin P2P volume growth, given that African youths were taking up the mantle of bettering their lives and their families through Bitcoin.

Therefore, the funding will facilitate more Bitcoin developments in Africa and India.

Bitcoin’s network activity has constantly increased this year

On a year-to-date (YTD) basis, the number of active addresses has increased throughout 2021. Data analytic firm IntoTheBlock confirmed:

“Despite the recent downward price action, it is worth noting the increase of Bitcoin network activity this year. YTD, the number of active addresses in Bitcoin has been averaging 998K on a daily basis, including the June lows. This is a 10% increase compared to the previous year.”

Based on the Bitcoin fear & greed index, the leading cryptocurrency is at the fear zone, and analysts usually signal this to mean an accumulation phase. Market analyst under the pseudonym CryptoPou explained:

“The Bitcoin fear & greed index visualized on the Bitcoin chart. Useful for analyzing human psychology. – Red: extreme greed (distribution signal) – Blue: extreme fear (accumulation signal), which is great for dip accumulation. Currently in the blue zone.”

Image source: Shutterstock

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Dorsey And Jay-Z’s Blind Trust To Fund Bitcoin Development Reveals Board Members

The 500 BTC blind trust announced its board of directors. Back in February, Jack Dorsey and Jay-Z created the ₿trust with a clear mission. To “make bitcoin the internet’s currency.” The four individuals in charge of making that happen are now public knowledge. Three of them are from Nigeria, a country whose Central Bank prohibited banks to process Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies transactions. And is now one of the world’s leading P2P Bitcoin markets.

Related Reading | Spiral BTC Releases Lightning Development Kit. Jack Dorsey’s Puppet Promotes It

Bitcoin’s price was roughly $47K on February 12th. That day, Dorsey announced the blind trust via Twitter, “Jay-Z 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.” It’s interesting that the blind trust uses Bitcoin as the unit of account. Who knows how much those 500 BTC might be worth in the future? 

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In any case, Dorsey’s call for board directors received more than 7000 applicants.

The Blind Trust ’s Board Members

In the Tweet announcing the winners, Dorsey said. “I’m so grateful for you all and so inspired. They’ll now work towards defining the operating principles as they think about how to best distribute the 500 bitcoin towards development efforts.” As promised, the four candidates will have full autonomy and decide the direction and scope of the trust.

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The blind trust’s board members are: Ojoma Ochai, Obi Nwosu, Abubakar Nur Khalil, and Carla Kirk-Cohen, the only South African of the bunch. By just casually looking at their Twitter-feds it becomes obvious that they’re all thoroughly dedicated to Bitcoin already. Here, Nwosu explains how the Nigeria ban actually helped promote Bitcoin. Ochai, a hard-core cultural promoter, recommended Spiral to her followers and hinted at her designation. Kirk-Cohen is helping to train the next generation of African Bitcoin developers, and so did Nur Khalil, who’s a Bitcoin Core contributor.

As for reactions, Kirk-Cohen is the only one that hasn’t said anything yet. Nur Khalil, who’s only 22, said. “Thank you so much Jack for the opportunity!! I am really honored to work with this great team! Let’s get to work on building the future of Bitcoin and launching Africa into the forefront of the monetary revolution!!!” For her part, Ochai said. “Really excited to get going! Thanks to you Jack, Jay and all who made this happen! Look forward to working with fellow board members…” Finally, Nwosu said. “Thanks Jack and the team. Super excited to be a part of this vision, organization, and mission… and to finally be able to talk about it!”

Conclusions And Questions

The original call for board members for the blind trust said they were “initially focused on teams in Africa & India.” Does the fact that there are no Indians in the group mean that the ₿trust will focus on Africa only? The continent is huge and each country in there has its own idiosyncrasies and special characteristics. What will the board choose? And speaking of that, will the board have total independence? The original post said “taking zero direction from us,” but, 500 BTC is a huge sum of money. 

BTCUSD price chart for 12/16/2021 - TradingView

BTC price chart on Bitbay | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com

In any case, this blind trust will be one of the most interesting experiments developing over the next few years. And you can count on NewsBTC to keep you posted and informed of any new development.

Related Reading | Revisiting Dorsey’s Hyperinflation Tweet: Elon, Wood, Saylor, Balaji, Chip In

In any case, the world will thank Jack Dorsey and Jay-Z for this one. As podcaster Matt Odell said replying to Jack’s announcement, “I do not think people are properly appreciating how huge of an impact this initiative can have.”

Featured Image: The board members from Dorsey's tweet | Charts by TradingView

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Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey-owned music streaming service could feature NFTs and smart contracts

Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey have hinted that their music streaming service, Tidal, could be eying integrations supporting nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and smart contracts.

Speaking during a June 28 conference hosted on Twitter Spaces, the duo emphasized the importance of introducing features that empower the artists using the platform, citing smart contracts, NFTs, and analytics tools as examples.

Despite Tidal lagging behind top music streaming services — with Tidal’s 2019 $166 million revenue paling in comparison to the $2.8 billion and $7.44 billion generated by Apple and Spotify respectively during that same year — Dorsey and Jay-Z believe they can capture significant market share by using blockchain technologies to offer empowering tools to artists.

“What really dawned on me was how weak some of the toolsets are for artists, with analytics and data, to understand what they’re doing and help them inform their decisions, especially considering other revenue streams like merchandise and touring and NFTs,” Dorsey said.

“We want to open up all the information tools and simplify it for anyone — anyone can come onto the platform and create,” he added.

Dorsey discussed the potential of adding revenue streams such as NFTs, with the Square and Twitter CEO stating that anythin that can help artists “shine” is up for discussion:

“The spirit of what NFTs represent, the spirit of just looking critically at how artists are compensated, and of proving that, is something that we want to spend a lot of time and a lot of our focus on going forward.”

Jay-Z discussed the ability for smart contracts to enable greater financial autonomy for artists, stating: “It’s so many creative ways you can participate, and let others participate. And it’s recorded there, so it’s very transparent, there’s no hiding behind any fancy words, and lawyers etc.” 

“With these blockchains and these smart contracts, you can write the contract today to say, any sale that happens, I want to receive 10% or 30%. Or you can write it out: 50% on the first one, 40% on the next.”

Related: Elon Musk agrees to speak with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey at Bitcoin event

Square Inc acquired a $300 million majority ownership stake in Tidal back in March. As part of the agreement, Tidal acts as an independent business within Square, with existing shareholders remaining as stakeholders.

The platform was originally bought by Jay-Z and a collection of other artists including Beyonce and Kanye West for $56 million back in 2015. Jay-Z also serves on the board of directors for Square and remains a stakeholder in Tidal.

Jay-Z is currently in a legal battle with Roc-A-Fella (RAF) Records co-founder Damon Dash, who is alleged to have attempted an NFT auction depicting a tokenized version of Jay-Z’s first album “Reasonable Doubt” alongside rights to the album’s copyright.

A New York judge froze the sale after RAF filed a complaint on June 18, asserting that Dash breached his fiduciary duty by attempting the NFT auction, as the album is owned solely by the company.

However, Dash has denied the claims, stating that he was only trying to sell his stake in the company.