HRF grants 10 BTC to projects around the world to advance Bitcoin

Today, the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) announced its most recent Bitcoin Development Fund grants at the Oslo Freedom Forum, according to a press release sent to Bitcoin Magazine.

As of this writing, 10 Bitcoins worth $704,740 are currently being granted across 13 projects around the world. According to a press release, the funds will be used to provide education for people living under authoritarian regimes, develop privacy and Lightning networks, advance decentralized communications, and make it easier to provide financial freedom tools to nonprofits and human rights organizations.

HRF’s primary areas of focus for this grant are countries and regions in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

This announcement comes just months after HRF’s last grant in March, when it donated $500,000 to 14 Bitcoin projects around the world. HRF did not disclose exactly how much funding each project is receiving, but the following 13 projects received grants worth a total of 10 BTC today:

• RoboSats is a Tor-only KYC-free platform that allows you to exchange Bitcoin for national currencies in a peer-to-peer manner via the Lightning Network. Robosats, an open source and privacy-first project, is an important platform for individuals living under authoritarian regimes. The funding will support ongoing development (including Android app development), power RoboSats nodes, and strengthen our social media presence.

• The Bitshala Internship Program is a grassroots Bitcoin education initiative in India that provides mentorship, resources, and opportunities to aspiring Bitcoin developers. Amid growing financial oppression in India, Bitcoin development is critical to helping citizens remain financially free. This program allows students to contribute to important free and open source Bitcoin projects such as Bitcoin Core, Coin Selection, and more. The funds will support these internships and help Bitshala establish a hackerspace and community center in Bangalore, inspired by Bitcoin Park and Chaincode Labs.

• Building Bridges to Bitcoin (BBB) ​​is an education initiative by Ideas Beyond Borders (IBB) in the Middle East and North Africa region. By providing educational materials in Arabic, the project empowers local youth to use Bitcoin to fight against tyranny, achieve financial autonomy, protect human rights, and transform their region. Funding covers translation, publishing and management costs of educational materials.

• Flash is a Nostr-powered Lightning wallet designed to connect Caribbean island economies with Bitcoin. Founded by Dread, Flash aims to provide this historically underbanked and politically repressed region with access to a global online marketplace and physical Bitcoin platform. The funding will support Flash’s development, training materials, onboarding of local businesses and adoption campaigns across the Caribbean.

• Bitcoin Seoul is a Bitcoin conference dedicated to broadening understanding and adoption of Bitcoin. The event will bring together industry experts, local policymakers, and a variety of speakers and attendees to explore Bitcoin from a general and technical perspective. The funds will not only support open source initiatives, but will also help create a space for North Korean defectors to meet Bitcoin developers and collaborate on human rights efforts in North Korea.

• Margot Paez’s research examines the relationship between Bitcoin mining, human rights, and sovereignty. Her research explores how Bitcoin mining can reduce corruption and waste in the energy system, and expand power and electricity for those without power, given that without power people cannot easily realize their civil liberties. We will explore whether it exists. She also examines how certain trends in Bitcoin mining could lead to overall network decentralization, making the software a more censorship-resistant tool for the world’s most vulnerable populations. These funds will aid Margot’s graduate studies.

• Verifying Lightning Signers (VLS), an open source project that enhances the security of the Lightning Network by separating private keys from Lightning nodes. VLS adds an additional layer of protection for Bitcoin users and lowers the barrier to running Lightning nodes. This will enable more users to enhance their financial autonomy. The allocated funds will be used to hire full-time Rust developers to fix bugs and handle feature requests.
• OpenSats is a 501(c)(3) public charity that funds free and open source projects, education, and research. Since most OpenSats donations go directly to 100% open source contributors, these funds will support OpenSats core operating costs and allow us to scale our operations and grow our team.

• main pointIt is a non-profit Bitcoin education platform founded in Kenya. Felix Mukungu. The East Africa initiative aims to increase the financial freedom of Kenyans and others in the wider Great Lakes region through education, entertainment and engaging content. Funding supports in-person meetings, course creation, stipends, and student compensation upon course completion.

• Terry Yu, a software engineer working on three Nostr-related projects: The Nostr SDK helps developers create Nostr-based apps for Apple devices. Conference App Comingle; There is also Damus, a decentralized social platform. This grant will support Terry’s continued development of these projects, helping to strengthen free expression and censorship-resistant communications for people around the world.

• Paulo Sacramento, a Bitcoin-focused UX designer and researcher. He is studying the successful adoption of Brazil’s Pix digital payment system to learn lessons for widespread Bitcoin adoption, especially for unbanked and underserved communities. There are big lessons to be learned when citizens choose between CBDC-like platforms and open source options like Bitcoin. This grant will help support research activities conducted over the past two years.

• Blockchain Commons is a non-profit organization supporting the continued development of FROST, a next-generation security protocol to improve the resiliency and security of private keys. This is a critical component that allows users to control their identity and Bitcoin in a sovereign way. For example, FROST could help make “multi-signature” solutions (which appeal to human rights activists) much more flexible and robust. The funding will support the organization of two FROST roundtables among members of the FROST ecosystem.

• Summer of Bitcoin is a global internship program that empowers college students to contribute to Bitcoin open source development and design. Students gain valuable experience and potential career opportunities while earning a Bitcoin salary. This grant supports student salaries, mentor compensation, and program operations. The program attracts thousands of applicants from over 50 countries each year and helps promising individuals, especially from authoritarian regimes, find roles in the Bitcoin community.

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