Btrust Appoints New Board of Directors to Guide Bitcoin’s Next Phase of Development
Btrust, a non-profit organization dedicated to expanding the open source development of Bitcoin, has announced the appointment of a new Board of Directors, marking the completion of a historic governance transition and the launch of the organization’s next strategic chapter.
Following a global, open call and a rigorous, multi-stage selection process, Janet Maingi, Bruno Garcia, and Laurence Aderemi have assumed full management responsibilities, the organization said. Bitcoin Magazine.
The selection was guided by Btrust’s Genesis Principles, which prioritize transparency, fairness, and objective alignment – values that have anchored the organization since its inception.
The change fulfills a mandate set in 2021, when Btrust was founded with a 500 BTC endowment from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and rapper Jay-Z – a donation worth around $24.5 million at the time of the announcement. The offering was intended to finance the development of Bitcoin across Africa and India, where Dorsey and Jay-Z deliberately stepped back from governance in favor of an independent board with full decision-making authority.
The first board – made up of Obi Nwosu, Ojoma Ochai, Carla Kirk-Cohen, and Abubakar Nur Khalil – was tasked with building the operational and financial base of the organization before enabling an orderly handover to the successor board.
Btrust’s long-term bitcoin development mission
During the multi-week transition period that ended on April 30, 2026, the incoming and outgoing boards worked closely together to ensure continuity in all governance, financial direction, and operations. The provision includes budget reviews, document consolidation, and the implementation of independent audits designed to strengthen accountability.
“Today marks an important milestone for Btrust,” said CEO Abubakar Nur Khalil, who was formally appointed to the top post in late 2025 after a short tenure. “We hope the new board will strengthen our impact and protect our long-term mission.”
The new board brings deep and complementary expertise including Bitcoin infrastructure, power systems, and open source software development. Their appointment comes at a crucial time for the organization, which has been gradually expanding its footprint in the Global South.
In 2023, Btrust acquired Qala, a Bitcoin and Lightning Network developer training company, and rebranded it as the Btrust Developer Program to accelerate the pipeline of open source contributors from Africa. Recently, Btrust has signed an expansion in Latin America as part of its comprehensive global strategy.
With the governance transition complete, Btrust moves forward with renewed institutional clarity. The main goal of the organization – to ensure that the Bitcoin ecosystem remains open, inclusive, and robust by separating who builds it – remains unchanged. The new board is expected to guide grantmaking strategy, strengthen oversight of the Building Program, and deepen Btrust’s presence in underrepresented engineering communities around the world.
