Jack Dorsey: Ex-Twitter CEO On Why Bitcoin Has Not Gone Down For 16 Years
The founder of Twitter (now X) and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) was speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the Africa Bitcoin Conference, which has been running between December 9 and 11 in Nairobi, Kenya.
Viral Tea Ke Writer 
Jack Dorsey, Block Head, Chairman, and cofounder of Block, on Tuesday, December 10 opened up on why Bitcoin has not gone down for more than a decade.
The founder of Twitter (now X) and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) was speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the Africa Bitcoin Conference, which has been running between December 9 and 11 in Nairobi, Kenya.
He revealed that the popular digital currency has never witnessed organized security issues and that people care a lot about the currency.
"For 16 years, Bitcoin has never gone down, it’s never had a systemic hack, it’s never had any systemic security issues.
Jack Dorsey at the Africa Bitcoin Conference on December 9, 2024. /AFRICA BITCOIN CONFERENCE
"People have lost their keys and what not but it has resisted all that because people care about it so much and they care about it being money that everyone in the world can use, and money has to be secure," he revealed.
Dorsey was in the East African country for the ABC Conference, which aims to unite thought leaders, industry experts, and enthusiasts to explore the immense opportunities Bitcoin presents across the African continent.
Notably, he publicly endorsed the conference and pledged to attend its third edition during a Bitcoin conference held in April in Madeira, Portugal.
Dorseys take on Bitcoin adoption in Africa
Dorsey has consistently supported Bitcoin adoption across Africa, investing in Bitcoin-related ventures on the continent for several years, and he spoke at the first African Bitcoin Conference held in Ghana in 2022.
In his previous visit to Kenya in 2022, he met with tech enthusiasts at iHub in Kilimani, offering insights into building successful tech products like Twitter and Block Inc.
Dorsey commended Kenya’s tech ecosystem, noting that the West has valuable lessons to learn from Nairobi and Africa.
On her part, Farida Bemba Nabourema, a Togolese social activist, a pan-Africanist and a writer, expounded on the presence of Dorsey at the conference. This is hours after a photo of him at the conference in Kenya lit up social media platforms.
"It has been an incredible journey and having Jack on board has lifted us...the main reason being the fact that there's a lot of disinformation about Bitcoin going around in the continent to a point where people have been exploited and abused through other forms of crypto in the past and whenever they hear about Bitcoin, automatically they assume that it is either a scam or something that is not viable," she remarked.
"Jack's name comes with credibility as a tech entrepreneur, as somebody who founded a platform like Twitter which is global. When people saw Jack being associated with the conference, at first they didn't believe it but his coming increased the visibility of the event and allowed people to see a different aspect of Bitcoin."
His visit followed reports that Block Inc (formerly Square) had invested $2 million (Ksh258 million) in Gridless, a Kenyan startup focused on sustainable bitcoin mining, founded by Erik Hersman. As of the latest Forbes report, Dorsey’s net worth is estimated at $5.6 billion (Ksh723.2 billion).
Dorsey co-founded Square (now Block) with Jim McKelvey in 2009, taking it public in 2015 before renaming it in December 2021.
He also co-founded Twitter in 2006, served as CEO until 2008, returned as CEO from 2015 to 2021, and stepped down from the board in May 2022. He had retained a 2.4% stake at Twitter after the social media company was sold for $44 billion (Ksh5.4 trillion).
