Human Rights Foundation provides $500,000 in support to 14 Bitcoin projects around the world

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

Per release, $500,000 will be awarded across 14 projects around the world focused on global education, Lightning Network development, distributed communications, and making “financial freedom tools” more accessible to nonprofits and human rights organizations. The main areas of focus for this grant are Latin America, Asia and Africa.

The announcement comes just months after its last grant application in December, which donated $500,000 to Bitcoin projects around the world. HRF did not disclose exactly how much funding each project is receiving, but the following 14 projects received grants totaling $500,000 today:

USD E-Cash for Bitcoin calais, a USD-based Chaumian e-cash system built on the Cashu protocol. The system aims to enable private, affordable and reliable use of USD-denominated credits that are interoperable with the wider Bitcoin Lightning Network. USD E-Cash is positioned as an alternative to major stablecoins as it has no ties to the traditional banking system. The core idea is that activists can exchange their Bitcoins for privacy-preserving dollar-denominated E-Cash from anywhere. The funding will support the full development of this project.

BTCPay Server is a free, open-source, self-hosted payment solution that allows individuals and businesses to accept Bitcoin payments. BTCPay provides merchants in difficult political and economic environments with a platform to process global payments, manage crowdfunding campaigns, and provide developers with the opportunity to launch projects based on Bitcoin. Funding for BTCPay servers supports UI/UX improvements, feature enhancements, contributor rewards, and training programs.

The BOB Builders Residency Program is a direct residency for free and open source software (FOSS) developers located in Thailand. The new group of developers will focus on “tools that strengthen Bitcoin’s decentralization” to combat centralizing forces in the software ecosystem. Previous cohorts, also supported by HRF, focused on privacy. Funds will be used to support residents in the second cohort, including living and travel expenses.

Yibaochina.com (议报中文), a popular news platform led by Citizen Power Initiatives for China, serves Chinese scholars, intellectuals and writers overseas. Dedicated to promoting democracy, human rights, and the rule of law in Chinese-speaking communities around the world, Yibao enjoys a significant readership, especially in pro-democracy communities in China. HRF’s grant will support the wages of the site’s writers, editors and translators, as well as social media outreach efforts, as it translates Bitcoin educational materials and news items into Chinese for widespread distribution in the world’s largest dictatorship.

The Bitcoin Innovation Hub is a physical space and community center that promotes social and economic transformation of refugees, asylum seekers and other vulnerable communities, led by Noble Nyangoma in Kampala, Uganda. The hub provides a variety of job training and financial literacy to women and men from a variety of fields, where they learn how to use and earn Bitcoin regardless of what type of ID they have. The funds will support the addition of vocational classes (e.g. digital skills, woodworking, baking) for thousands of students across East Africa, enabling stateless communities to earn Bitcoin through work.

BITCOIN DADA, a non-profit initiative founded by Kenyan entrepreneurs Lorraine Marcel, which aims to empower African women through financial education. BITCOIN DADA provides a safe space for women to learn about and build skills in Bitcoin as a tool for financial freedom. The fund will support expansion across Africa, the creation of multilingual educational resources, and catalyze the adoption of Bitcoin by women-led businesses. This round of grants to Bitcoin DADA and the Bitcoin Innovation Hub are generously supported by Strike’s non-profit initiative.

The Bitcoin Design Foundation, which supports the Bitcoin design community, is dedicated to providing design infrastructure and resources to Bitcoin designers and developers, including buildings for people living under authoritarian regimes and in developing countries. These funds will support the development of the Bitcoin UI Kit (a resource to help people learn, design, prototype, and build full Bitcoin applications) and the Bitcoin Design Guide, which includes privacy and security features. It will help you add new skills for self-sovereignty. . Improving the UX of Bitcoin wallets remains one of the top goals.

Bitcoin Op-Tech is a Bitcoin technology newsletter known for its industry-leading resources, technologies, and techniques tailored for Bitcoin developers, businesses, and organizations. The newsletter regularly addresses privacy, censorship resistance and decentralization issues that are core to HRF’s mission. Bitcoin Op-Tech also offers workshops, documentation, original research, and case studies. Funds are allocated to operating expenses and growth strategies.

Damus Android, a communication application using the nostr protocol. developer: Will Kasarin, Damus guarantees freedom of online speech without censorship, which is important for people living in difficult political environments, and allows users to receive Bitcoin through a “zapping” feature. The funds will be used to develop the Damus application for Android devices, potentially helping to attract millions of new users in authoritarian and developing countries.

Bitcoin Core developer Pablo Martin’s initial work addressed a vulnerability that caused Bitcoin nodes to crash and shut down. Martin continues to contribute, review, and present proposals that advance Bitcoin, including the http-rest interface, bitcoin-cli, p2p, rpc, and wallets within the Bitcoin repository, while also contributing to the Bitcoin Core GUI repository. The funds will support his continued contributions to Bitcoin development, which is critical to keeping Bitcoin a secure tool for activists everywhere.

LNbits, a multi-user and account system for the Lightning Network, allows users to create separate Lightning wallets for friends and family. Created by software developers ben arc, LNbits aims to decentralize custodianship and provides users with a powerful suite of Bitcoin tools that they can run on their own, for others, or as part of a stack. Funding supports salaries, bounties, and educational outreach to key contributors through workshops and video tutorials.

Bitcoin Policy Summit 2024 is a one-day conference that brings together policymakers, academics, and industry leaders to explore the opportunities and challenges of Bitcoin. The goal of the event is to reframe the narrative surrounding Bitcoin, advocate for its benefits in liberal democracies, and highlight its potential to undermine closed societies. The funds will support event planning, speaker travel, and attendance by human rights defenders.

Bitcoin for Billions is an informative video series created by Bitcoin educators. Paco de la India. Initially available in four regional languages ​​- Hindi, Bengali, Marathi and Gujarati – the videos aim to reach a wide audience among the 750 million people in India who speak these languages. Topics include the concept of Bitcoin as the money of freedom and practical guidance on purchasing and self-storing Bitcoin safely. These items are becoming increasingly important under regimes that continue to trend increasingly authoritarian. Grants will be used for research, content creation, translation, and video promotion.

School founded by Scalar School Luciana Pereirais a Brazil-based Bitcoin and Lightning development program dedicated to training early-stage Bitcoin developers. The school provides students with a comprehensive understanding of Bitcoin development, philosophy, and community engagement, preparing them for future opportunities at respected programs like Chaincode Labs. The grants will be used for teacher salaries, training workshops, university outreach and will provide a boost to developers in South America.

More information 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 increase support for the Bitcoin Development Fund and applications for support can be submitted here.