HRF Announces $475,000 Bitcoin Development Fund Grants
The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is pleased to announce its latest round of gifts from the Bitcoin Development Fund. This fund focuses on censorship-resistant communication, Bitcoin education in authoritarian regimes, core development, and building local community and education. Areas of focus include Africa and Southeast Asia. The grants total $475,000, or approximately 2 billion satoshis. Let’s dig into some of the excellent organizations and contributors this grant will help, such as Ekenimoh Elyan, Lorban, Africa Bitcoin Conference, and William Casarin, to name a few.
What is the Bitcoin Development Fund?
The Bitcoin Development Fund (BDF) was created by the HRF to support individuals and organizations that advance the development of bitcoin technologies. BDF has awarded millions in grants since it was founded. These grants are funded by donations from HRF’s supporters around the world by utilizing platforms like Payjoin.
How are funds allocated?
This round of funding will be distributed across three main areas: research and development, community building, and education initiatives around bitcoin technologies. Some of the specific projects that will benefit from this funding include an open-source project aiming to improve mobile wallet security; an initiative to create low-cost bitcoin payment solutions for merchants in Africa; a project utilizing blockchain technology for land registration; an effort to build educational materials about bitcoin technology for students; and an initiative providing digital financial services to vulnerable populations affected by conflict or natural disaster.
Where will these funds go?
Qala, a fellowship program that educates the next wave of African Bitcoin and Lightning innovators, just received $100k to power its 13-week intensive course — plus, they’re sending six Qala fellows to attend this year’s Oslo Freedom Forum. And Africa won’t miss out on all the action either: an extra injection of funds has given life to The Africa Bitcoin Conference 2022 — bringing hundreds together in one space for impactful conversations around cryptocurrency.
Anita Posch’s nonprofit, Bitcoin for Fairness, is on a mission to close the digital divide in Africa! With $50,000 of funding in place for meetups and workshops for human rights activists, those living under authoritarian regimes will finally have access to crucial knowledge about using Bitcoin securely. Vasil Dimov has earned his spot as a top-20 contributor by adding Tor v3, I2P + CJDNS support to the Bitcoin core protocol — not only will this grant allow him more time dedicated specifically toward improving network privacy, but it will provide an enhanced experience overall.
William Casarin is unraveling Nostr, a lightning-native protocol safeguarding financial freedom from censorship. An unforgettable blockchain journey through innovation awaits us and for his efforts, he will be receiving $50,000. $25,000 to Emmanuel Bronshtein for his contributions to Wallet Scrutiny; Emmanuel Bronshtein is working hard to ensure that Bitcoin wallets are safe from hackers. He’ll be using $25,000 of funding to examine products for transparency and potential attacks. Emmanuel’s mission? To protect the cryptocurrency ecosystem with his bug-hunting efforts — so users will know they’re downloading precisely what they need, not leaving themselves open as targets for cybercriminals.
Bitcoin Myanmar helps Burmese people claim financial freedom! Thanks to a $25,000 grant from the Human Rights Foundation and the creators’ courage in fleeing an oppressive military regime for their support of democracy, innocent citizens will now have access to educational content about Bitcoin. Let’s help these brave activists spread knowledge throughout Burma!
HRF continues its mission to provide generous support for Bitcoin development, having generously donated over two million dollars worth of BTC and USD since the start of 2020! A further round of donations will be unveiled in 2023 as they continue raising funds — inspiring change through cryptocurrency worldwide.
Conclusion
The Human Right Foundation continues its mission to promote human rights through advocacy work and technological advancements with this new round of gifts from the Bitcoin Development Fund. With these grants totaling $475k USD or 2 billion satoshis, we hope to help foster growth in African and Southeast Asian countries through empowering communities with access to digital financial services as well as providing educational opportunities about blockchain technology for students worldwide. By supporting these projects, we are helping pave the way for greater economic freedom across continents!