today, Human Rights Foundation HRF announces its latest tour Bitcoin Development Fund Grants, according to a press release sent to Bitcoin Magazine.
10 Bitcoin is currently worth $590,000 at the time of writing, and is being given away across 20 different projects around the world that focus on technical education for people living under authoritarian regimes, Bitcoin development conferences, decentralized mining, and providing human rights groups with more private financial solutions. The main areas of focus for these grants are Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
While the Human Rights Fund did not disclose how much money each project is receiving specifically, the following 20 projects are the recipients of today’s round of grants worth 10 BTC, or 1 billion satoshis, in total:
Bitcoin Africaa community dedicated to introducing Africans to 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. With the continent experiencing political and economic turmoil, Bitcoin could serve as a path to financial sovereignty. The funding will support the production of educational materials and support operational expenses, including salaries, infrastructure, and tools.
Stratospherea Bitcoin Core developer focused on enhancing the privacy and decentralization of the Bitcoin protocol. Their work includes improving peer-to-peer (P2P) network privacy, reviewing critical withdrawal requests in the libsecp library, and mentoring new talent. Their work is critical in helping protect users from financial surveillance and censorship by authoritarian regimes. This funding will support their full-time development efforts.
Coraclea web client from Nostr designed to create a social media experience that empowers individuals. Developed by hoodlodRecent and planned updates include customizable and shareable feeds, privacy-enhanced direct messaging, and the development of encrypted public and private communities. By leveraging Nostr, Coracle can offer a new censorship-resistant communications platform for human rights activists. The funding will support the hiring of a full-time developer.
The portHarbor is an open-source cryptocurrency wallet designed to provide better privacy for Bitcoin. Started by the Mutiny team, Harbor is now an independent project led by Ben Carman and Paul MillerHarbor includes multiple minting tools, is Tor-only, and automates money management. Financial tools like Harbor can help empower human rights defenders facing government surveillance by providing strong privacy guarantees. This grant will support development of a production version of Harbor 1.0.
256 Foundation The mission is to make Bitcoin mining free and open, and supporting developments in the Bitaxe initiative is the leading project in achieving this mission. Bitaxe provides an affordable entry point for home mining, protects against surveillance in authoritarian regimes, and enables individuals to mine Bitcoin anonymously. The funds will support the many engineers who are building on and improving Bitaxe with the goal of making the Bitaxe form factor available to more ASIC manufacturers.
Kevcleara community in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that works to educate people about Bitcoin. Led by Glory and EnzavaleriKiveclair, a co-founder of the Africa Bitcoin Conference, hosts monthly meetups and training sessions for activists, journalists, and developers, and provides shelter for refugees. The company also plans to hold its first local conference. The funds will cover the cost of meetups, educational materials, equipment purchases, and rental of educational space.
Jeff Gardnera full-time developer focused on bringing end-to-end encryption to Nostr Direct and group messaging without the need for central servers, making it resilient to state interference. His work is vital to enabling private communication channels for individuals and activists. The funding will support continued development, allocate rewards to community contributors, and conduct a security audit of the project.
silenceA privacy-focused self-custody Bitcoin wallet with built-in silent payments. Developed by Louis SingerSilentium can help protect activists’ financial privacy by enabling them to receive Bitcoin donations through unique addresses generated from a fixed public key. This prevents surveillance systems from linking transactions to activists’ identities. The grant will support the wallet’s infrastructure, including a full cloud node, web server, and the hiring of a software developer.
BTC Shule, an educational initiative by Belyï Nobel for thatThe project equips Burundians with the knowledge and skills to use Bitcoin for uncensored payments under Burundi’s authoritarian regime. The project is based on three main initiatives: a bilingual educational platform (Kirundi and French), a physical hub to host meetups, and a Bitcoin support community via WhatsApp and Telegram. The grant will support the development of the digital platform, educational materials, and construction of the hub.
Itawaltan open-source, self-custodial mobile Lightning wallet from Colin loveSoftware Developer and Co-Founder/CTO of Splice AfricaThe 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 money. This grant will support further development of the wallet, improve localization efforts, and foster a growing community of users.
The Tor Network Operators Association works to support increased network reliability and performance, as recommended by Tor ProjectThe funding will allow relay operator associations to deploy nodes that improve the stability and reliability of onion services and increase the network’s resilience against denial-of-service attacks. Tor is vital to human rights activists, as are Bitcoin and Lightning nodes that use onion services.
Recto Shonkhotia Bitcoin education initiative led by Anurag Saikia, Basanta Goswami, and Pallab Goswami. The project focuses on creating a circular Bitcoin economy in Assam (a backward region), and offers online Bitcoin education in Assamese. It also plans to set up a physical Bitcoin hub in the town of Titapar. The grant will support teachers’ salaries, development of the hub, and purchase of Bitcoin nodes and mining equipment to boost local economic growth.
Yes Bitcoin HaitiIt is a grassroots organization led by Val, Babouche, and Armand. It seeks to empower Haitians living in political and financial turmoil using Bitcoin. As a new project, it will be implemented in phases: First, project leaders will complete a Bitcoin diploma course offered by nucleusThey will then translate the educational materials into Haitian Creole and host workshops. The funding will support project leaders’ salaries, equipment purchases, and production of educational materials.
Bitcoin Indonesiaan educational initiative led by Dimas, Marius, Kieplip, and Diana. It focuses on building an educational platform in Indonesian (the local language), expanding the local Bitcoin community, and connecting Indonesian talent with Bitcoin-related businesses to boost job opportunities. It also successfully hosted the country’s largest Bitcoin conference. This grant will support content creation, community outreach, and operational expenses.
Bitcoin++A series of developer conferences dedicated solely to Bitcoin, organized by software developers and educators. Lisa NigotThe conference features extensive lectures and workshops for developers keen to delve into the intricacies of Bitcoin technology. Bitcoin++, which has been held in cities including Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and Austin, has explored key topics such as scripting, memory pools, and soon eCash. The funds will cover travel expenses for developers from authoritarian countries to attend the upcoming Bitcoin++ mints ecash conference in Berlin.
TABConfthe Bitcoin conference hosted by 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, participants can share their insights, knowledge, and experiences to advance Bitcoin development and innovation. Funds will be used to cover conference expenses and travel costs for developers in need of financial assistance.
Baltic HoneybirdThe world’s first non-profit conference dedicated solely to Bitcoin, hosted by Hoddle HoddleRooted in crypto, the conference fosters discussions around 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 understanding of Bitcoin as a human rights tool.
labitconf and Decentralizationtwo annual conferences in Argentina. LaBitconf, hosted by Rodolfo AndragnisThe longest-running Bitcoin conference in Latin America. The funds will cover travel expenses for software developers and keynote speakers. Descentralizar, a one-day event held in three cities across the country, offers discussions, workshops, and networking opportunities for attendees. The funds will also support travel expenses and conference equipment. Given Argentina’s ongoing economic challenges, these conferences provide an opportunity for Argentines to explore Bitcoin as a tool for financial freedom.
satsconfThe largest Bitcoin conference in South America. Satsconf is held in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s economic hub, and connects the local community with global thought leaders, including macroeconomists, veteran Bitcoin educators, freedom advocates, and developers shaping the future of Bitcoin. Funds will support travel expenses for speakers, event logistics, and the hackathon.
Solidarity Summit: Standing with Political Prisoners, a Vienna-based event organized by Hajar Issa The Global Summit on Political Prisoners is a global initiative that aims to unite former political prisoners, human rights defenders and others to address the challenges faced by political prisoners. The summit promotes dialogue, advocacy and support for political prisoners around the world and serves as a catalyst for change. The Human Rights Foundation’s support will help add a financial freedom component to the program. A documentary will also be produced to further highlight these issues. Funds will cover venue and logistics costs for the event, program development, speaker costs and production of the film.
The Human Rights Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that works to promote and protect human rights worldwide, with a focus on closed communities. The Human Rights Foundation continues to mobilize support for human rights. Bitcoin Development FundInterested donors can find more information on how to donate Bitcoin. hereApplications for grant support can be submitted by the Human Resources Fund. here.
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