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femilonge 7 months ago
HRF’s Bitcoin Development Fund Announces 1.3 Billion Satoshis (13 BTC) Support for 22 Freedom Tech Projects Worldwide
Bitcoin Magazine
Human Rights Foundation Gives 1.3B Satoshis To 22 Projects
The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) gave 1.3 billion satoshis in new grants from its Bitcoin Development Fund last quarter.
 The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is pleased to announce 1.3 billion satoshis in grants from its Bitcoin Development Fund (BDF). This round of grants supports projects advancing open-source software development, censorship-resistant communications, mining decentralization, and financial privacy for the more than 5.9 billion people living under authoritarian regimes. Grantee projects will improve the underlying Bitcoin protocol, pilot Bitcoin-based payments for dissident support, and provide grassroots Bitcoin education across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. These efforts strengthen the global freedom technology ecosystem, helping human rights defenders, journalists, nonprofits, and everyday citizens connect, organize, and achieve financial freedom in the face of repression. @npub17xvf...c9as’s grantees for the fourth quarter of 2025 include: Stratum V2 (Stratum Reference Implementation) Much of Bitcoin mining still relies on outdated communications protocols that prevent individual miners from choosing the transactions they mine. This leaves block construction in the hands of mining pools, exposing the network to censorship risks. Stratum V2 solves this fault by enabling home miners to build their own block templates. HRF funding will support software developer @npub1vy80...d324's full-time work improving Stratum V2 through performance testing, integration work, and code maintenance, helping individuals regain autonomy within existing pool structures. Braidpool Traditional Bitcoin mining pools rely on a centralized structure where the operator controls reward payouts and transaction selection, creating censorship risks. Braidpool addresses this structural centralization by introducing a peer-to-peer, open-source mining pool design where participants collaboratively construct blocks and coordinate rewards without relying on a central operator. With HRF support, software developer @npub1fdjt...39e6 will contribute to advancing a new, more democratic mining model that strengthens decentralization and transparency. Open Money, Closed Access: Building Financial Freedom (OMCA) In conflict-affected and connectivity-constrained environments, communities are often cut off from formal banking services and safe ways to store or transfer value. OMCA addresses these challenges through Bitcoin-based tools designed for low-cost, private transactions and offline-first use. The program supports the development of local financial infrastructure and resilient communications technologies suited to high-risk contexts. HRF’s support enables individuals to save and transact more securely and discreetly during periods of instability. Learning Bitcoin from the Command Line As Bitcoin evolves, open-source developers need up-to-date resources that teach them how the system actually works. Learning Bitcoin from the Command Line by BlockchainCommons teaches prospective developers how Bitcoin works through a hands-on curriculum and across multiple languages. HRF’s funding will allow the project to update its curriculum to match the latest changes to Bitcoin’s software, helping grow the global pool of contributors who keep Bitcoin accessible and resilient. Voices Uncensored: A Bitcoin-Based Platform for Human Rights Defenders in Azerbaijan In Azerbaijan, the state routinely targets activists and journalists with surveillance, bank freezes, and blocked donations. Voices Uncensored is a Bitcoin-based platform for human rights defenders led by former political prisoner Elchin Mammad. It pairs uncensorable donations and payments with Azerbaijani-language training and educational resources. HRF’s support will equip Azerbaijan’s human rights defenders with the financial independence, privacy, and resilience needed to continue their work under a repressive regime. Bitcoin Famba In Mozambique, citizens face chronic inflation, growing debt, and heavy restrictions on their financial autonomy. @Bitcoin Famba, based in Maputo-Matola, provides accessible Bitcoin education and fosters local circular economies. HRF funding will help dissidents and everyday people access permissionless and censorship-resistant money to achieve financial independence in a repressive political and economic environment. Bitcoin Indonesia & Bitcoin House Bali Indonesians face growing financial surveillance, inflation, and censorship. @BitcoinIndo21, Indonesia’s pioneering Bitcoin gathering, along with its Bitcoin education center, Bitcoin House Bali, offers training on using Bitcoin to protect incomes, preserve financial autonomy, and navigate restrictive banking systems. HRF’s funding will expand its workshops, meetups, and media outreach to make Bitcoin a practical tool for financial freedom across the country. The Bitcoin Learning Center Across Southeast Asia, millions of people face financial surveillance, exclusion from traditional banking systems, and currency instability. The Bitcoin Learning Center, a physical Bitcoin education hub in Chiang Mai, Thailand, brings students from Thailand, Burma, Laos, and Southern China to learn how to counter this financial repression through Bitcoin. HRF support will expand the center’s educational outreach to ensure more people living under authoritarian regimes gain access to open and decentralized financial tools. Devgitotox Bitcoin’s reliability and security depend on a robust codebase. @npub1tum2...uma8 is a Tanzanian Bitcoin Core developer contributing to Bitcoin’s primary software implementation. Her work focuses on improving wallet upgrades, fixing issues with how transactions are created and shared, ensuring nodes connect reliably to the network, and building software testing tools. HRF’s support of Devgitotox helps strengthen the Bitcoin codebase while empowering more women to contribute to Bitcoin Core. Stratospher Bitcoin’s peer-to-peer network can be vulnerable to surveillance and disruption if weaknesses in transaction relay, validation logic, or cryptographic components are not addressed. @npub1c5dn...0pn2, a Bitcoin Core developer from South Asia, strengthens the protocol by improving how nodes (computers running the Bitcoin software) share and spread information, improving validation and cryptographic systems, and enhancing code quality through reviews and testing. With HRF funding, her contributions will help ensure that Bitcoin remains a robust tool for financial freedom. Sovereign Engineering Authoritarian regimes actively suppress financial freedom, leaving human rights defenders in need of open and censorship-resistant financial technologies. @Sovereign Engineering is a long-term development program that supports freedom technologists building on Bitcoin, Nostr, and ecash. Already, the program has catalyzed projects like Blossom, which stores data on public servers in a decentralized manner, and npub.cash, a Nostr-native Lightning address for anyone. With this funding, the program will continue to innovate on freedom technologies that protect civil liberties under repression. OpenSats Initiative, Inc. Open and transparent funding is key to sustaining many of the freedom technologies human rights defenders rely on today. @OpenSats is a public nonprofit organization that supports the projects and the individuals building freedom tech by distributing financial support across the ecosystem. With this grant, OpenSats can fortify its operations and continue channeling resources to the builders who keep freedom tech open, secure, and accessible for people living under tyranny. Africa Free Routing Lightning Developer Bootcamp Bitcoin adoption is rising across Africa, but access to quality education and development training is often limited or unaffordable. @npub1j8w9...8nud’s Lightning Developer Bootcamps address these mismatches by providing structured programs that combine theory, hands-on workshops, and mentorship to software developers. These same developers can then contribute to the Lightning Network and build censorship-resistant financial tools. With HRF funding, the program will expand to ten bootcamps across Ethiopia, Uganda, Burkina Faso, and beyond to foster a continent-wide network of freedom tech contributors. Programming Lightning In many repressive environments, the Lightning Network ecosystem suffers from a shortage of skilled developers, leaving censorship-resistant payment tools underbuilt and unevenly maintained where they are needed most. Programming Lightning is an open-source course that will offer self-paced, multi-language learning with hands-on programming exercises. The curriculum will teach anyone to build on Lightning. This grant will help scale a global community of builders to sustain an open payment infrastructure that activists can use to sustain their work under repression. Zapstore Authoritarian regimes can censor freedom-tech apps on centralized app stores to control information and limit tools for communication and organizing. @Zapstore is an app store built on Nostr, a protocol for decentralized communication. On Zapstore, apps can be independently uploaded and verified by users, without being blocked or removed by dictators. HRF’s support will ensure that dissidents, journalists, and civil society around the world have access to freedom tech without gatekeepers. Validating Lightning Signer Most computers running the Lightning Network software today store private keys on the node itself. This creates an online setup where a breach can allow attackers to drain a user’s bitcoin. Validating Lightning Signer (VLS) solves this by separating key management from the node and validating every transaction before signing, enabling true self-custody and resistance to breaches. With HRF support, VLS will lower the barrier for people to safely control and use their own money on the Lightning Network, even in places where financial and digital rights are under threat. Vexl Dissidents acquiring bitcoin often need to do so privately to protect their identity, donor networks, and personal safety. Yet centralized exchanges often collect vast troves of personal information and monitor user activity. To address this, @npub1mftv...rkl3, an open-source mobile app, allows peer-to-peer bitcoin trading without collecting personal data. With HRF’s support, Vexl can provide human rights defenders and civil society in authoritarian contexts a means to acquire Bitcoin without surveillance and absent gatekeepers. Dhananjay Purohit Dictators frequently restrict the finances of online platforms and independent media to silence dissent. To overcome this, open source developer @Dhananjay Purohit built ngx_l402, a web server module that enables websites and applications to accept bitcoin payments directly for web or API access. With HRF’s grant, Purohit’s work can help embed bitcoin payments into the internet infrastructure layer, keeping the web open, uncensorable, and resistant to centralized financial control. BTCPay Server Under dictatorships, traditional nonprofit fundraising channels can be censored, surveilled, frozen, or cut off without warning. @BTCPay Server uses the permissionless foundations of Bitcoin to work around this. Using this open-source and self-hosted software, NGOs and dissidents can freely accept Bitcoin and Lightning payments directly into their self-custodial wallets. HRF’s renewed support will ensure censorship-resistant crowdfunding in even the most repressive environments. Bitika In Kenya, obtaining bitcoin can be challenging. @npub1pcwq...eat5 addresses this by allowing users to buy bitcoin directly into their Lightning wallets through M-Pesa (the country’s most widely used financial infrastructure). This makes self-custodial Bitcoin use simple and accessible. This grant will help Bitika improve Kenyans' financial independence by expanding access to censorship-resistant money in an increasingly surveilled payments landscape. Threads of Freedom: A Bitcoin Graphic Novel and Learning App Young people, especially women and girls, who live under repressive regimes often lack access to financial education. Threads of Freedom, created by Afghan tech pioneer and founder of the Digital Citizen Fund, Roya Mahboob, provides a culturally-rooted graphic novel and learning app that explains how Bitcoin works and why it matters under tyranny. With HRF support, Threads of Freedom will expand access to education that helps people protect themselves and remain financially autonomous under repression. About BDF BDF supports individuals and projects that make Bitcoin and related freedom technologies more powerful tools for human rights defenders operating in challenging political and financial environments. Since launching in 2020, BDF has granted $10.8 million in BTC to 341 projects across 65 countries worldwide. Learn more about BDF on our website. HRF is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowable by law. Gifts can be made at HRF.org/DevFund, and proposals for support can be submitted to
HRF Bitcoin Development Fund Grant Application Form | monday.com forms
From campaigns to creatives, lead generation & more, manage every request, contact or feedback with monday.com forms
 Follow @npub17xvf...c9as on Nostr for more updates on this project and all of our other programs designed to promote freedom and human rights around the world. image
femilonge 1 year ago
God, forgive me for the times my words have brought hurt rather than hope. I want my words to represent You and to build others up. Let my tongue be quick to give grace, encouragement, and healing. May I speak words that bring life—not only to others, but also to myself. In Jesus’ name, Amen. image
femilonge 1 year ago
🧵 NEW: HRF Bitcoin Development Fund grants 1 billion satoshis to 20 projects worldwide! The grants are focused on global education, privacy, decentralizing mining, and empowering human rights groups with private financial solutions 🌍🌏🌎🎁
Bitcoin Magazine
Human Rights Foundation Grants 10 Bitcoin To 20 Projects Worldwide
The Human Rights Foundation has announced its latest round of grants, totaling 1 billion satoshis worth over $590,000.
 📝📲 African Bitcoiners is helping to onboard Africans to Bitcoin through a “Bitcoin for Beginners” course, free Lightning payment routing for merchants, and the ability to buy airtime & data with Bitcoin. The grant will support operational costs, educational materials & more. Stratospher, a Bitcoin Core developer working to enhance the P2P network privacy, reviewing critical pull requests in the libsecp library, & mentoring new talent. This grant will support their full-time development efforts 🔒⚙️ Jeff Gardner is working on bringing end-to-end encryption to Nostr Direct and Group Messages without centralized servers. Funding will support ongoing development, allocating bounties to community contributors, and conducting a security audit of the project 🛡️💻 🔐🌐 @Coracle, a Nostr web client, developed by @hodlbod. Recent and planned updates include customizable & shareable feeds, improved DMs for privacy, and encrypted public & private communities. Funding will support the hiring of a full-time developer. Harbor, an open-source #eCash wallet started by the @MutinyWallet team but now an independent project led by Ben Carman and Paul Miller. Harbor incorporates multiple mints, is Tor-only, & automates fund management. This grant will support the development of Harbor’s 1.0 production release 🕵️‍♂️💸 The 256 Foundation's mission to make Bitcoin mining free & open starts with the #Bitaxe initiative. Bitaxe provides an affordable entry point for home mining. This grant will support improving Bitaxe with an aim of making the Bitaxe available with more ASICs manufacturers. ⛏️ 👩🏽‍💻🌍 Kiveclair led by Gloire Wanzavalere in the Democratic Republic of Congo, hosts monthly meetups & training sessions for activists, journalists, & developers around Bitcoin and provides shelter to refugees. Funds will cover the cost of meetups, equipment, and space rental. Silentium Wallet, a self-custodial, privacy-focused Bitcoin wallet built by @TheSingerLouis, brings privacy preserving Bitcoin donations to activists via Silent Payments. Funds will support the wallet’s infrastructure, including a full cloud node, web server, & hiring a developer. 🛡️📱 BTC Shule, by Belyï Nobel Kubwayo, educates Burundians, in Kirundi & French, to use #Bitcoin for uncensorable payments under Burundi’s authoritarian regime. The grant will support the development of a digital learning platform & educational materials. 📚🏫 🌍💰EttaWallet, an open-source, self-custodial mobile #Lightning wallet built by Collin Rukundo with improved usability & accessibility for Africa. This grant will support further development of the wallet, improve localization efforts, & foster growing a community of users. #Bitcoin The Tor Project for relay operators to increase network reliability and performance. Funding will allow relay operator to deploy nodes that improve the stability and reliability of onion services and increase network robustness against DOS attacks 🌐 Rikto Xonghoti is developing a Bitcoin circular economy in Assam, India. The project offers online Bitcoin education in Assamese & plans to establish a physical Bitcoin center. The grant will support teacher salaries & acquisition of Bitcoin nodes & mining equipment 💡 Yes Bitcoin Haiti led by @HaitianHODL, empowers Haitians in political & financial crisis with Bitcoin education. The team translates educational materials into Haitian Creole & host workshops. Funding will support salaries, equipment, & producing educational materials 🇭🇹📖 Bitcoin Indonesia is building an education platform in Bahasa Indonesia, hosting the largest local Bitcoin conference & connecting local talent with Bitcoin companies for jobs. This grant will support content creation, community outreach, and operational expenses. Bitcoin++, a Bitcoin-only dev conference organized by @niftynei featuring long-form lectures & workshops. This grant 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, which creates a forum for protocol and application developers to debate and collaborate on Bitcoin. Funds will cover conference expenses & travel costs for developers in need of financial assistance. 🔐 BalticHoneybadger, a non-profit #Bitcoin conference hosted by Hodl Hodl⁩. With its cypherpunk roots, the conference fosters discussions on technologies that support financial freedom, security & privacy. The grant supports travel expenses for activists & conference costs 🇦🇷 LaBitconf, hosted by Rodolfo Andragnes, is the longest-running #Bitcoin conference in #LatinAmerica helping #Argentines explore Bitcoin as a tool for #financialfreedom. Funds will cover travel expenses for software developers and keynote speakers 🇦🇷 Descentralizar, is a one-day #Bitcoin event held in three cities across the #Argentina, offering debates, workshops, and networking opportunities for attendees. The grant will support travel expenses and conference equipment ⚡ 🛠️ Satsconf, the largest #Bitcoin-only conference in #SouthAmerica, connects the local community with educators, advocates & developers shaping the future of Bitcoin. Funds will support travel expenses for speakers, event logistics & the hackathon. Solidarity Summit, Standing with Political Prisoners, an event organized by Hager Eissa will include a #financialfreedom component & a documentary produced on these issues. Funds will cover venue & event logistics, program development, speaker costs, & film production 🎥📢 🌎 HRF is committed to supporting human rights and financial freedom with Bitcoin. If you are working on a #Bitcoin or adjacent freedom tech software (Nostr, eCash etc), education or adoption project that meets our mandate, submit your application at
HRF Bitcoin Development Fund Grant Application Form | monday.com forms
From campaigns to creatives, lead generation & more, manage every request, contact or feedback with monday.com forms
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femilonge 1 year ago
What's the best Nostr app for publishing longform? Something with UX that'll easily challenge Substack or Medium
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