The Human Rights Foundation is awarding 10 Bitcoins to 20 projects around the world

Today, the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) announced the latest round of grants from the Bitcoin Development Fund, according to a press release sent to Bitcoin Magazine.

10 BTC, 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, decentralization of mining, and providing groups for human rights with more private financial solutions. . The main areas of interest for these grants are centered on Latin America, Asia and Africa.

While FRH didn’t reveal how much money each project is getting specifically, the following 20 projects are the recipients of today’s grant round worth 10 BTC or 1 billion satoshis in total:

African Bitcoiners, a community dedicated to integrating Africans into Bitcoin. Key initiatives include a “Bitcoin for Beginners” course, free Lightning payment routing for merchants, and the ability to buy airtime and data with Bitcoin. With the continent plagued by political and economic turmoil, Bitcoin can serve as a pathway to financial sovereignty. The funding will support the production of educational materials and support operational expenses, including salaries, infrastructure and tools.

Stratospher, a Bitcoin Core developer, focused on improving the privacy and decentralization of the Bitcoin protocol. Their work includes improving peer-to-peer (P2P) network privacy, reviewing critical pull requests from the libsecp library, and mentoring new talent. Their work is important to help protect users from financial surveillance and censorship by authoritarian regimes. This funding will support their full-time development efforts.

Coracle, our web client designed to create a social media experience that empowers people. Developed by hodlbod, recent and planned updates include customizable and shareable feeds, improved privacy direct messages, and the development of encrypted public and private communities. Using Nostr, Coracle could provide a new censorship-resistant communication platform for human rights activists. The funding will support the hiring of a full-time developer.

Harbor, an open-source cash wallet built to provide better Bitcoin privacy. Started by the Mutiny team, Harbor is now an independent project led by Ben Carman and Paul Miller. Harbor incorporates multiple mints, is Tor only, and automates fund management. Financial tools like Harbor can help empower human rights defenders facing government surveillance by providing strong privacy safeguards. This grant will support the development of the Harbor 1.0 production release.

The mission of the 256 Foundation is to make Bitcoin mining free and open, supporting developments from the Bitaxe initiative being the flagship project in achieving this mission. Bitaxe provides an affordable entry point for home mining, providing protection from surveillance in authoritarian regimes and allowing individuals to mine Bitcoin discreetly. The funds will support more engineers building and improving Bitaxe with the goal of making the Bitaxe form factor available with more ASIC manufacturers.

Kiveclair, a community in the Democratic Republic of Congo that educates individuals about Bitcoin. Led by Gloire Wanzavalere, co-founder of the Africa Bitcoin Conference, Kiveclair hosts monthly meetings, training sessions for activists, journalists and developers, and provides shelter for refugees. It is also planning its first local conference. The funds will cover the costs of meetings, educational materials, equipment purchases and the rental of an educational space.

Jeff Gardner, a full-time developer focused on bringing end-to-end encryption to Nostr Direct and Group Messages without centralized servers, making them resilient against state intervention. His work is vital to enabling private channels of communication for individuals and activists. The funding will support continued development, reward community contributors, and perform a security audit of the project.

Silentium, a self-custodial, privacy-focused Bitcoin wallet with built-in silent payments. Developed by Louis Singer, Silentium can help protect activists’ financial privacy by allowing them to receive Bitcoin donations through unique addresses generated by a static public key. This prevents surveillance regimes from linking transactions to activist identities. This grant will support the infrastructure of the wallet, including a full cloud node, a web server and the hiring of a software developer.

BTC Shule, an educational initiative of Belyï Nobel Kubwayo. It equips Burundians with the knowledge and skills to use Bitcoin for uncensorable payments under Burundi’s authoritarian regime. The project is structured around three key initiatives: a bilingual educational platform (Kirundi and French), a physical center for hosting meetings, 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 center.

EttaWallet, an open source mobile Lightning wallet with personal custody, by Collin Rukundo, a software developer and co-founder/CTO of Splice Africa. The wallet is designed to improve usability and accessibility. It aims to challenge the dominance of custodial wallets and empower citizens of 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.

Associations of Tor relay operators to support increased network reliability and performance as recommended by the Tor Project. The 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 well as Bitcoin and Lightning nodes that use onion services.

Rikto Xonghoti, a 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 the Assamese language. They also plan to set up a physical Bitcoin center in the city of Titabar. This grant will support teacher salaries, center development and the purchase of Bitcoin nodes and mining equipment to boost local economic growth.

Yes Bitcoin Haiti, a grassroots organization run by Val, Papouche and Armand. It seeks to empower Haitians living in political and financial turmoil with Bitcoin. As a new project, it will run in stages: first, the project leaders will complete the Bitcoin Diploma course offered by The Core; next, they will translate educational materials into Haitian Creole and host workshops. Funding will support project leaders’ salaries, equipment purchase and production of educational materials.

Bitcoin Indonesia, an educational initiative led by Dimas, Marius, Keypleb and Diana. It focuses on building an educational platform in Bahasa Indonesia (the local language), expanding the local Bitcoin community, and connecting Indonesian talent with Bitcoin-related companies to generate career opportunities. It has also successfully hosted the largest Bitcoin conference in the country. This grant will support content creation, community expansion and operational expenses.

Bitcoin++, a Bitcoin-only developer conference series hosted by software developer and educator Lisa Neigut. The conference features long-form lectures and workshops for developers eager to dive into the intricacies of Bitcoin technology. Held in cities such as Mexico City, Buenos Aires and Austin, Bitcoin++ explored key topics such as scripts, mempool and soon eCash. The funds will cover travel expenses for developers from authoritarian countries to attend the upcoming Bitcoin++ Mints Ecash conference in Berlin.

TABConf, a Bitcoin conference hosted by Michael Tidwell in Atlanta, GA. Its mission is to create a forum for protocol and application developers to debate and collaborate on Bitcoin. Through collaborative workshops and interactive activities, participants can share their knowledge, insights and experience to further Bitcoin development and innovation. Funds will be used to cover conference expenses and travel costs for developers in need of financial assistance.

Baltic Honeybadger, the world’s first Bitcoin-only non-profit conference hosted by Hodl Hodl. With its cypherpunk roots, the conference promotes discussion of technologies that support financial freedom, security and privacy, especially for those in authoritarian regimes. The funding will cover travel expenses for human rights activists and defenders to deepen their knowledge of Bitcoin as a human rights tool.

LaBitconf and Descentralizar, two annual conferences in Argentina. LaBitconf, hosted by Rodolfo Andragnes, is the longest running Bitcoin conference in Latin America. Funds will cover travel expenses for software developers and keynote speakers. Descentralizar, a one-day event held in three cities across the country, offers debates, workshops and networking opportunities for participants. Funds will also support travel expenses and conference equipment. Given Argentina’s ongoing economic challenges, these conferences offer Argentines an opportunity to explore Bitcoin as a tool for financial freedom.

Satsconf, the largest Bitcoin-only conference in South America. 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 shaping the future of Bitcoin. The funds will support travel expenses for speakers, event logistics and the hackathon.

The Solidarity Summit: Standing with Political Prisoners, a Vienna-based event organized by Hager Eissa, brings together former political prisoners, human rights advocates 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. FRH’s support will help add a financial freedom component to the program. A documentary will also be made to further highlight these issues. The funds will cover venue and event logistics, program development, broadcaster costs and film production.

HRF is a non-partisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies. FRH continues to raise support for the Bitcoin Development Fund, and interested donors can find more information on how to donate bitcoin here. Applications for grant support from FRH can be submitted here.