According to a Forbes report on Tuesday, Qala, an organisation that trains Bitcoin and Lightning engineers in Africa, has been acquired by Btrust, a Bitcoin non-profit that Jack Dorsey and Jay-Z initiated to support Bitcoin development in Africa and India.
The takeover was completed on September 1st, per the report. And with this, Qala has now rebranded to the Btrust Builders Programme.
This synergy is expected to be beneficial to both parties because Qala has the system and structure to support local Blockchain engineers but lacks the financial resources.
On the other side, Btrust has 500 Bitcoins at its disposal, but the structure to penetrate the populace is lacking. However, with the coming together of these two initiatives, there is now a huge opportunity to realise the vision of empowering local Bitcoin developers in Africa.
Cofounder and director of Qala, Bernard Parah said:
“When we launched our program in 2021, our objective was straightforward: to cultivate a substantial number of African engineers well-versed in Bitcoin’s potential to transform the continent.
Today’s announcement significantly expedites this mission, enhancing our ability to not only grow our current community but also provide them with the resources to actively contribute to Bitcoin’s open-source development as a crucial solution to Africa’s distinct socio-economic challenges.”
What is Btrust?
Founded by Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter (now X) and entertainment mogul Jay-Z, Btrust is a non-profit initiative dedicated to funding the development and education of new developers for Bitcoin in Africa.
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The program had cohorts that locate, educate, and pay individuals for their time spent in the program as they learn to build out needed tools for the Bitcoin ecosystem.
On December 15, 2021, Jack Dorsey appointed four Africans to sit on the board of the initiative which had 500 bitcoins ($21.5 million at that time) at its disposal. They included Obi Nwosu and Ojoma Ochai, from Nigeria. and Abubakar Nur Khalil and Carla Kirk-Cohen from South Africa, beating competition from over 7,000 applications.
In a statement on his Twitter account then, Dorsey said that the board members will “work towards defining the operating principles as they think about how to best distribute the 500 bitcoin towards development efforts.”
About Qala
Qala is a programme designed to train Bitcoin and Lightning Network developers from across the African continent. According to the website, the goal is to find, upskill and match African developers with Bitcoin companies from around the globe.
Qala claims that since opening a call in October 2021, more than 800 African developers have applied for a place on the Qala programme. Top performers have learnt the fundamentals and philosophy behind Bitcoin, gained advanced skills and have been matched with Bitcoin-first specific roles with organisations like Galoy and Btrust.
But its CEO, Femi Longe, says finance issues have always been Qala’s biggest challenge. Qala was designed as a social enterprise and doesn’t earn revenues. It has relied on grants from organisations, including the Human Rights Foundation and Coinbase Giving.
He said:
“The challenge is that generosity and sometimes opportunities in Bitcoin kind of tracks with the price of Bitcoin just as hiring does, which is the second challenge we faced. So when there is a bear market, Bitcoin companies tighten their buckles.”
But with this takeover by Btrust, the problem of funding is expected to be over. Femi Longe and Stephanie Titcombe, program manager at Qala, will join Btrust as program leads for Btrust Builders.
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Btrust Board Member Ojoma Ochai, says he’s proud to welcome Femi and his team to Btrust. According to him:
“With Qala’s extensive outreach and world-class programs, the organization has made rapid progress in driving open-source development in the Global South through the advancement of education within the region, which is heavily aligned with our core mission at Btrust.”
The Btrust Builders Program will now be shifting focus to open-source training and is inviting senior African software developers to participate in Bitcoin and Lightning development.
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