NEWSLETTER
Today, the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) announced its most recent round of bitcoin Development Fund grants, according to a press release sent to bitcoin Magazine.
10 btc, currently worth $590,000 at the time of writing, is being awarded to 20 different projects around the world that focus on technical education for people living under authoritarian regimes, bitcoin development conferences, decentralizing mining, and providing more private financial solutions to human rights groups. The main focus areas of these grants are centered around Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
While HRF did not disclose how much money each project will specifically receive, the following 20 projects are the recipients of today's grant round worth 10 btc, or 1 billion satoshis, in total:
African Bitcoinersa community dedicated to familiarizing Africans with bitcoin. Key initiatives include a “bitcoin for Beginners” course, free Lightning payment routing for merchants, and the ability to purchase airtime and data with bitcoin. On a continent plagued by political and economic turmoil, bitcoin can serve as a path to financial sovereignty. Funding will support the production of educational materials and operational expenses including salaries, infrastructure, and tools.
Stratospherea bitcoin Core developer focused on improving the privacy and decentralization of the bitcoin protocol. His work includes improving the privacy of the peer-to-peer (P2P) network, reviewing critical pull requests on the libsecp library, and mentoring new talent. His work is important in helping protect users from financial surveillance and censorship by authoritarian regimes. This funding will support his full-time development efforts.
Coraclea Nostr web client designed to create an empowering social networking experience. Powered by mutinousRecent and planned updates include customizable and shareable feeds, enhanced direct messaging for privacy, and the development of encrypted public and private communities. By leveraging Nostr, Coracle could offer a new censorship-resistant communications platform for human rights activists. The funding will support the hiring of a full-time developer.
Portan open-source e-wallet designed to provide better bitcoin privacy. Started by the Mutiny team, Harbor is now an independent project run by x.com/benthecarman”>Ben Carman and x.com/futurepaul”>Pablo MillerHarbor incorporates multiple mints, is Tor-only, and automates fund management. Financial tools like Harbor can help empower human rights defenders facing government surveillance by offering strong privacy guarantees. This grant will support the development of Harbor’s 1.0 production release.
The Foundation 256 The mission is to make bitcoin mining free and open, and supporting developments in the Bitaxe initiative is the flagship project to achieve that mission. Bitaxe offers an affordable entry point for home mining, offers protection from surveillance in authoritarian regimes, and allows people to mine bitcoin discreetly. The funds will support various engineers developing and improving Bitaxe with the goal of making the Bitaxe format available to more ASIC manufacturers.
Kiveclaira community in the Democratic Republic of Congo that educates people about bitcoin. Led by x.com/gloirekw”>Gloria WanzavalereKiveclair, co-founder of the Africa bitcoin Conference, organizes monthly meetups, training sessions for activists, journalists, and developers, and provides shelter for refugees. He is also planning his first local conference. Funds will cover the cost of meetings, educational materials, purchase of equipment, and rental of an educational space.
Jeff Gardnera full-time developer focused on bringing end-to-end encryption to Nostr Direct and group messaging without centralized servers, making them resistant to state intervention. Their work is vital to enabling private communication channels for individuals and activists. The funding will support continued development, the allocation of rewards to community contributors, and the performance of a security audit of the project.
Silencea self-custodial, privacy-focused bitcoin wallet with built-in silent payments. Powered by x.com/TheSingerLouis”>Luis singerSilentium can help protect activists’ financial privacy by allowing them to receive bitcoin donations via unique addresses generated from a static public key. This prevents surveillance systems from linking transactions to activists’ identities. This grant will support the wallet infrastructure, which includes a full cloud node, a web server, and the hiring of a software developer.
btc Shule, an educational initiative of x.com/belyi_nobel”>Belyï Nobel for thisThe project provides Burundians with the knowledge and skills needed to use bitcoin to make payments without censorship under Burundi’s authoritarian regime. The project is structured around three key initiatives: a bilingual educational platform (Kirundi and French), a physical hub for organizing meetups, and a bitcoin support community via WhatsApp and Telegram. The grant will support the development of the digital platform, educational materials, and the construction of the center.
Etta Walletan open source, self-custody mobile Lightning wallet x.com/rukundo__”>love collinsoftware developer and co-founder/CTO of Africa JunctionThe wallet is designed to improve usability and accessibility. It seeks to challenge the dominance of custodial wallets and empower citizens in the Global South to take full control of their funds. This grant will support further development of the wallet, improve localization efforts, and foster a growing community of users.
Tor Relay Operator Associations will support increased network reliability and performance as recommended by the Tor ProjectThe funding will enable relay operator associations to deploy nodes that improve the stability and reliability of Onion services and increase the network’s robustness against DoS attacks. Tor is vital for human rights activists, as are bitcoin and Lightning nodes that use Onion services.
Rikto Xonghotia bitcoin education initiative led by Anurag Saikia, Basanta Goswami, and Pallab Goswami. Focused on creating a circular bitcoin economy in the state of Assam (a region marked by underdevelopment), the project offers online bitcoin education in Assamese. It also plans to establish a physical bitcoin center in the town of Titabar. This grant will support teacher salaries, development of the center, and the acquisition of bitcoin nodes and mining equipment to boost local economic growth.
x.com/yesbitcoinhaiti”>Yes bitcoin Haitia grassroots organization led by Val, Papouche, and Armand. It seeks to empower Haitians living in political and financial crisis with bitcoin. As it is a new project, it will be carried out in phases: first, the project leaders will complete the bitcoin Diploma course offered by x.com/thecore21m”>The core; they will then translate educational materials into Haitian Creole and organize workshops. Funding will be used to cover the salaries of project leaders, the purchase of equipment and the production of educational materials.
bitcoin Indonesiaan educational initiative led by Dimas, Marius, Keypleb, and Diana. It focuses on creating an educational platform in Bahasa Indonesia (local language), expanding the local bitcoin community, and connecting Indonesian talents with bitcoin-related companies to boost job opportunities. It has also successfully organized the largest bitcoin conference in the country. This grant will support content creation, community outreach, and operational expenses.
bitcoin++a bitcoin-only developer conference series hosted by software developers and educators x.com/niftynei”>Lisa NeigutThe conference features long-form talks and workshops for developers eager to dive into the intricacies of bitcoin technology. Held in cities including Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and Austin, bitcoin++ has explored key topics such as scripting, mempooling, and soon, eCash. Funds will cover travel expenses for developers from authoritarian countries to attend the upcoming bitcoin++ mints ecash conference in Berlin.
TABConfa bitcoin conference organized by twitter.com/miketwenty1″>Michael Tidwell in Atlanta, Georgia. Its mission is to create a forum for protocol and application developers to discuss and collaborate on bitcoin. Through collaborative workshops and interactive activities, attendees can share their ideas, knowledge, and experiences to promote bitcoin development and innovation. Funds will be used to cover conference expenses and travel costs for developers in need of financial assistance.
Baltic honey badgerThe world's first non-profit conference exclusively about bitcoin, organized by Keep, keepWith its cypherpunk roots, the conference fosters discussions on technologies that support financial freedom, security, and privacy, especially for those living in authoritarian regimes. Funding will cover travel expenses for activists and human rights defenders to deepen their knowledge of bitcoin as a human rights tool.
LaBitconf and Decentralizetwo annual conferences in Argentina. LaBitconf, organized by x.com/RodolfoBits”>Rodolfo Andragnesis the longest-running bitcoin conference in Latin America. Funds will cover travel expenses for software developers and keynote speakers. Decentralize, a one-day event held in three cities across the country, offers discussions, workshops, and networking opportunities for attendees. Funds will also cover travel expenses and conference equipment. Given Argentina’s current economic challenges, these conferences provide an opportunity for Argentines to explore bitcoin as a tool for financial freedom.
satellite conferenceSouth America’s largest bitcoin-only conference. Held in São Paulo, Brazil’s economic hub, Satsconf connects the local community with global thought leaders, including macroeconomists, veteran bitcoin educators, freedom advocates, and developers who are shaping the future of bitcoin. Funds will go towards covering speaker travel expenses, event logistics, and the hackathon.
Solidarity Summit: Together with political prisoners, an event based in Vienna organized by x.com/hagir222″>Hager Eissa which brings together former political prisoners, human rights defenders and others to address the challenges facing political prisoners. The Summit promotes dialogue, advocacy and support for political prisoners around the world and serves as a catalyst for change. HRF support will help add a financial freedom component to the program. A documentary will also be produced to further highlight these issues. Funding will cover venue and event logistics, program development, speaker costs and film production.
HRF is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that promotes and protects human rights worldwide, with a focus on closed societies. HRF continues to raise support for the bitcoin Development Fundand interested donors can find more information on how to donate bitcoins. hereHRF grant applications can be submitted here.
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