The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) has given $455,000 to dozens of projects around the world through the Bitcoin Development Fund. The grants focus on improving Bitcoin scale, privacy and decentralization, global education, censorship-resistant communication, and community building efforts, with areas of focus including Africa and Asia. HRF has committed more than $2.7 million in BTC and USD since early 2020 to more than 80 open source developers, educators, and initiatives around the world according to a press release sent to Bitcoin Magazine.
One of the scholarship recipients is Miron Stephenos, who will use $50,000 to create the Bitcoin Innovation Hub Uganda. The center aims to provide local youth with practical skills to become sovereign individuals and will host local meetups to serve as a hub for Bitcoin awareness and learning. The press release states that Ugandans are having difficulty receiving remittances due to high fees and obstacles in obtaining identity cards.
Calvin Kim Received $100,000 to research and implement a peer-to-peer (P2P) protocol and implement Utreexo block messages/transactions to prepare Utreexo to launch the mainnet. Utreexo is a Bitcoin scaling solution for faster verification and synchronization of full Bitcoin nodes. The grant will support Kim’s work on improving Bitcoin scaling.
Another recipient is Cali For Cashu, which received $50,000 to develop a free and open source protocol that enables Chaumian ecash on top of Bitcoin. The Cashu protocol hides user balances and transaction history, providing near-perfect privacy for users of custodial Bitcoin wallets.
0xB10C They were awarded $50,000 “for their work on Bitcoin Core Tracepoints, P2P Monitor, Fork Monitor, and Bitcoin Data and Mining Pool Monitor.” In addition, Rutzel Received $50,000 for Raspiblitza do-it-yourself lightning node that can run on a Raspberry Pi.
$25,000 went to Popspace BKK for Thailand residency program, while International Freedom Conference He was awarded $25,000 for the Freedom Academy.
$25,000 also went to Hampus Sjoberg to Lightning walletan open source non-custodial Bitcoin and Lightning wallet, and the $10,000 will go to noro to Senegal Bitcoina group that hosts meetups, creates educational content, and joins local Bitcoin merchants.
Charlene Faderbo I got $10,000 for Bitcoin offer in Africa, providing education, insights, and thoughtful conversations to “deepen understanding of Bitcoin across the African continent,” the press release described. Finally, $10,000 will go to Lauren Marcel to Bitcoin dadaa women-focused organization with contributors based in Kenya and abroad that educates African women in the Bitcoin space.
HRF’s Bitcoin Development Fund aims to accelerate the development of privacy-preserving technologies for Bitcoin users and support infrastructure improvements to make Bitcoin more accessible worldwide. The next round of giveaways will be announced in August 2023.