Various projects supporting censorship resistance and Bitcoin education have received funding from HRF.
The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) has awarded 2 billion satoshis, approximately $475,000, from the Bitcoin Development Fund to 10 global projects. The funding will support areas such as censorship-resistant communications, Bitcoin education in authoritarian regimes, core development and community building and local education, with a focus on Africa and Southeast Asia. The grant includes $100,000 for Qala, a fellowship program that trains the next generation of African Bitcoin and Lightning developers, allowing the program to continue a 13-week fellowship and sponsoring six Qala fellows to attend the Oslo Freedom Forum.
HRF has also awarded $75,000 to the Africa Bitcoin Conference, the largest Bitcoin-focused conference in Africa, and $50,000 to William Casarin for his work on Nostr, a censorship-resistant, open-source and decentralized social networking platform. In addition, $50,000 went to Bitcoin for Justice, which focuses on raising Bitcoin awareness for disadvantaged communities and in authoritarian countries. Another $50,000 went to Vasil Dimov, the top 20 contributor to Bitcoin Core, to ensure the continued development and stability of the Bitcoin protocol.
Another $25,000 grant was awarded to Emmanuel Bronshtein for his contribution to Wallet Scrutiny, Exomunia for developing Bitcoin educational resources, Ekenimoh Elyan for EasePay, and Bitcoin Myanmar for financial freedom education. HRF has provided more than $2.2 million in BTC and USD to more than 70 developers, educators and open-source initiatives around the world since early 2020. The organization continues to raise support for the Bitcoin Development Fund, with the next prize pool to be announced at May. 2023.
“Bitcoin is a powerful tool for human rights defenders around the world,” and the grant supports the belief that “financial freedom is a human right,” said Alex Gladstein, HRF’s Chief Strategy Officer. “We are proud to support the amazing work of these individuals and organizations that use Bitcoin to fight for human rights and freedom, especially in areas where it is most needed.”
HRF is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and donations are tax deductible to the maximum extent allowed by law. Proposals for support can be sent to dev.fund@hrf.org, and more information can be found on the HRF website.