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. The money is awarded to 18 projects that focus on global education, bitcoin Core development, mining decentralization, and allowing closed society developers to participate and present at industry conferences.
This announcement comes just a few months after their last round of grants in late September, in which they also donated $500,000 to bitcoin projects around the world. While HRF did not disclose exactly how much money each project receives, the following 18 projects are the recipients of today's round of grants worth $500,000:
Monster, a decentralized peer-to-peer bitcoin exchange built by Venezuelan developer Francisco Calderón on Nostr. Mostro aims to establish an open protocol and specialize for developers in authoritarian regimes. The funding will support Mostro's progress in helping users in restrictive financial environments buy and sell bitcoin in a censorship-resistant manner.
My First bitcoin, a non-profit organization providing open source bitcoin education in Central America. Its bitcoin Diploma is already used in countries such as El Salvador, South Africa, Portugal, Honduras, Cuba, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia and Uruguay. HRF funding will specifically support international expansion and translation of these materials into closed societies.
Arabic Hodl, which is making bitcoin more accessible to more than 400 million Arabic-speaking people around the world. The funds will support the creation of how-to guides, privacy and self-custody tutorials, educational podcasts, and foundational books on bitcoin principles in Arabic, as well as best practices and how to get started using and contributing to the network.
network blocks to support their efforts to monitor and report on global Internet restrictions and shutdowns. The critical impact of the closures on human rights activists, journalists and the general public's right to freedom of expression, access to information and political participation requires continued monitoring. The funding will also support coverage of emerging threats to Internet connectivity, particularly those affecting the bitcoin network.
In Lorraine for his work in Stratum V2, an update to the current protocol that bitcoin miners use to communicate with pools. Stratum V2 allows mining pool users to select transactions for proposed blocks, rather than relying on pool templates, increasing bitcoin's censorship resistance by reducing problematic pool power. Lorban will use HRF funds to improve the Stratum V2 Reference Implementation (SRI) and its testing tool, the Message Generator (MG).
Juan Carlson for his continued contributions to updating and improving the bitcoin Core App project, allowing users to run bitcoin on their phones. Through this work, John hopes to reduce technical barriers, making self-custody and self-verification of bitcoin transactions more accessible to a broader audience. The funding will also support its efforts to expand support for Android phones and tablets.
bitcoin Area to expand its free educational content about bitcoin in multiple languages. Area bitcoin, founded by Carol Souza and Kaka Furlan, is a leading bitcoin educational resource based in Brazil, operating primarily in Portuguese and having over 300,000 followers. The funds will support the development and translation of videos and articles into Spanish and English to help reach a broader audience in Latin America.
Berta Valle for bitcoin educational work in Nicaragua, focused on the community of human rights defenders. It will use funds to establish an interactive online bitcoin training program for Nicaraguan dissidents and civil society leaders and help them become more resilient and robust in their efforts to resist the Ortega regime.
Plant them, an educational initiative led by Indian Bitcoiners that provides guidance and resources to developers entering the bitcoin space. Bitshala will use funds to create a repository of tutorials and technical presentations, organize study groups, conduct public relations reviews, and foster a vibrant bitcoin community in India.
Hack.BS, a non-profit association based in Italy. The funds will be used to open a cypherpunk hackerspace, which will act as a collaborative work center during the day and an active events space, hosting meetings, workshops and hackathons during the night. The funds will also be used to help internationalize the center and bring global expertise in the areas of financial freedom and privacy advocacy.
bitcoin Deepa, also known as the Satoshi Pearl, to expand Sri Lanka's bitcoin community. The funds will support monthly bitcoin meetups in cities such as Colombo, Galle, Kandy and Ella; help merchants adopt self-custodial bitcoin acceptance methods; the introduction of BoltCard-based Lightning solutions; and improve education through translations. The funds will also support the launch of a Sinhala-language podcast, “bitcoin Katha.”
Exemption, a non-profit organization that translates bitcoin educational content into native African languages such as Shona, Malagasy, Amharic, Kiswahili, and Lingala. The funding will support Exonumia's efforts to translate additional content into more languages, raise awareness about bitcoin, and grow communities geared toward financial freedom.
Louise, for their efforts in creating a beginner's guide to bitcoin privacy, with a focus on activists, dissidents, and NGOs operating in hostile environments. The guide will help newcomers learn about privacy risks, assess personal threat vectors, learn privacy-preserving techniques, and understand bitcoin technology to make careful and informed privacy decisions.
Surge, a project founded by Hadiya Masieh that supports free bitcoin education for diaspora and exile communities in the UK, particularly Middle Eastern refugees. The funds will be used to host workshops, create training materials, set up wallets, embark refugees with their first satoshis, and educate refugees on how to send bitcoins to their families back home.
Kulpreet Singh for his work on Braidpool, a peer-to-peer mining pool proposal designed to improve bitcoin's censorship resistance. Braidpool allows miners to build their blocks, reducing the influence of pool operators to delay or prevent payments. The funds will allow Kulpreet to further develop Braidpool to increase bitcoin's censorship resistance and greater decentralization.
seed signer, a DIY bitcoin signing device that anyone, anywhere, can build on their own. The funds will facilitate the final stages of MicroPython research and development, remove dependencies on Raspberry Pi, and enable operations on affordable microcontrollers to make bitcoin self-custody even more affordable for the masses.
bitcoin++, a series of conferences focused on developers around the world. With a focus on full-length conferences and workshops, developers will dive deep into the cutting edge of bitcoin technology. The funding will cover educational efforts, general conference expenses, as well as travel expenses for developers from authoritarian countries.
bitcoin Atlantis, a bitcoin conference taking place March 1-3 in Madeira, Portugal. HRF funding will help human rights defenders, civil society leaders and educators working in dictatorships attend the event, share their experiences and gain new contacts and resources.
MORE ABOUT HRF
The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)3 organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies. HRF continues to rally support for the bitcoin development fundand proposals for support can be sent to [email protected].
