Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and CEO of Block (formerly Square), discussed the impact of a Bitcoin (Bitcoin)-powered Universal Basic Income (UBI) strategy with US congressional candidate and full-time elementary school teacher Aarika Rhodes.
“The ambiguity of information compels and encourages people to engage in negative (financial) behaviors that don’t work for them, their community, or family.” said Dorsey while noting the lack of transparency within the existing centralized financial system.
“If there’s one thing about Bitcoin that needs to be focused on – the operations are transparent, the code is transparent, the policy is transparent.”
This basic foundation of BTC is what Dorsey believes has the potential to solve numerous use cases and problems as a direct result of using fiat currency. Through business initiatives like Start Small, the entrepreneur has invested over $55 million in the United States and abroad to experiment with UBI.
“We are in the process of testing the UBI-like concept with Bitcoin as well.”
Dorsey’s BTC-powered UBI experiment will involve creating a small, closed-loop community of sellers and traders who adhere to Bitcoin standards. Based on the happiness quotient and the willingness to participate, he wants to identify use cases for broad implementation.
Rhodes firmly believes that the inclusion of Bitcoin will reduce costs associated with bank fees:
“If you have something like Lightning (network) where you can transact at very low fees, that’s a benefit for everyone. It doesn’t matter where we are economically.”
Regarding financial literacy, Dorsey said that while adopting the Bitcoin standard inculcates long-term thinking, his skepticism about a BTC-powered universal basic income will diminish based on the results of ongoing experiments:
“Just this action of owning it (BTC) will change the mindset of people in fundamental ways that are net positive and connected in their communities and encourage other actions like sellers and traders around them doing similar things.”
In addition to the benefits that the Bitcoin standard brings, Dorsey also pays attention to its negative effects. In a final note, he highlighted the inefficiencies within government policies and how the UBI is helping to address some of the challenges:
“If you intend to help people by giving them money directly, that is far better than the money that governments (federal and local) are giving out to these existing support structures. It doesn’t help people.”
Related: Jack Dorsey: Diem was a waste of time, Meta should have focused on BTC
In a recent interview with MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, Dorsey said so Facebook (later renamed Meta) should have used an open protocol like bitcoin instead of trying to create its own currency, diem.
As Cointelegraph reported, Dorsey added that increasing BTC accessibility would also benefit many of Meta’s instant messaging and voice-over-IP services, such as Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
