The Human Rights Basis (HRF) has introduced 1.5 billion satoshis in new grants by way of its Bitcoin Improvement Fund (BDF), increasing assist for initiatives targeted on Bitcoin infrastructure, privateness, and schooling.
The funding spherical targets open-source builders, researchers, and academic initiatives working throughout Bitcoin’s ecosystem, with an emphasis on instruments that strengthen monetary privateness and censorship resistance. In line with HRF, the grants are meant to advance Bitcoin-based applied sciences that may assist dissidents and human rights defenders working below authoritarian regimes.
The group estimates its efforts finally serve billions of individuals residing below restrictive political techniques, the place entry to open monetary networks and uncensorable fee rails may be restricted or surveilled. Supported initiatives will span software program growth, Bitcoin analysis, and grassroots teaching programs throughout Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
HRF stated the initiative is designed to bolster Bitcoin’s position as a software for monetary freedom, enabling journalists, nonprofit organizations, and activists to extra securely talk, manage, and obtain assist globally by way of Bitcoin.
HRF’s grantees for the primary quarter of 2026 embody:
Bitcoin Privateness
Bitcoin Core P2P Privateness Enhancements
Bitcoin Core P2P privateness enhancements are an essential space of ongoing work. Bitcoin Core developer Naiyoma is creating enhancements to make it tougher to trace nodes operating throughout a number of networks. This work strengthens the privateness of Bitcoin’s most generally used software program implementations. HRF’s grant will allow Naiyoma to work full-time on these enhancements, serving to activists and on a regular basis customers run Bitcoin infrastructure extra safely in environments the place monetary exercise could also be monitored.
JoinMarket-NG
Bitcoin’s public ledger makes transactions traceable. CoinJoin is a privateness method that improves this by combining a number of customers’ transactions. This makes it tougher to hyperlink funds to particular people. JoinMarket-NG is a brand new implementation of this system that makes use of a peer-to-peer liquidity market, the place some customers present liquidity and earn charges, whereas others pay for elevated privateness. This grant will assist growth and the exterior safety audits wanted to totally launch JoinMarket-NG as an open-source software that improves monetary privateness for individuals who want it most.
Bitcoin Funds
Banxaas
Many individuals in heavily-authoritarian West Africa lack easy methods to transform between native forex and Bitcoin with out banks or custodial providers. Banxaas is an area platform created by Bitcoin developer Nourou that enables folks to immediately trade between the CFA franc and bitcoin with out requiring accounts. Eradicating the numerous limitations widespread to centralized exchanges provides a means for extra folks in West Africa to make use of Bitcoin. HRF’s grant will assist finalize Banxass’s cell app growth and combine extra cell cash suppliers into the service to broaden bitcoin funds throughout the area.
ChapSmart
Tanzanians sending and receiving cash throughout borders face among the highest remittance charges on this planet, shedding a good portion of each switch to banks and intermediaries. ChapSmart, a Bitcoin software constructed by software program developer Brian Mosha, helps Tanzanians ship remittances, pay payments, and entry Bitcoin — immediately and affordably — by bridging the Lightning Community on to M-Pesa. It connects Bitcoin to current fee rails, making the app usable for on a regular basis actions. HRF’s grant will assist growth, outreach, and schooling to assist Tanzanians protect their financial savings and transact extra freely below the nation’s more and more authoritarian regime.
Minmo
Centralized digital asset exchanges require customers to submit delicate person knowledge. This creates surveillance dangers for human rights defenders transacting below dictatorships. Minmo provides an alternate. It connects customers with trusted native brokers who facilitate exchanges between fiat currencies and bitcoin with out counting on centralized platforms. Embedding these providers into apps and neighborhood networks permits folks to entry bitcoin by way of trusted intermediaries slightly than data-collecting exchanges. HRF’s grant will assist Minmo’s operational progress, infrastructure, and broaden entry to bitcoin for dissidents going through monetary repression.
Tando
In Kenya, most retailers depend on M-PESA, a cell cash system for digital funds. To supply Kenyans with larger monetary freedom and world fee choices, African technologist Sabina Waithira Gitau co-founded Tando, a fee app that lets anybody pay retailers with bitcoin whereas retailers obtain Kenyan shillings by way of an integration with M-PESA. This enables Kenyans to spend bitcoin from their very own Lightning wallets as on a regular basis cash in Kenya. HRF’s funding will assist Tando’s enlargement into new nations within the area, enabling extra folks to transact with the worldwide cell cash that’s bitcoin.
Tapnob
Throughout a lot of Africa, utilizing bitcoin for on a regular basis funds usually requires excessive charges or difficult withdrawal processes. Tapnob addresses this by permitting customers to purchase bitcoin by way of native financial institution transfers and convert solely the quantity wanted into native forex. This lets folks cowl day by day bills or ship cross-border assist in native forex, whereas preserving the worth of their financial savings in bitcoin. HRF’s grant will assist Tapnob’s enlargement throughout the continent and the event of academic sources to assist people use bitcoin to transact extra freely.
Bitcoin Improvement
rawBit
Constructing safe functions on Bitcoin requires understanding how transactions and scripts work on the protocol degree, which may pose a steep studying curve for brand new builders. The rawBit platform lowers this barrier with a free, open-source visible editor that lets customers construct and examine uncooked transactions utilizing drag-and-drop instruments. Serving to extra builders perceive Bitcoin’s underlying mechanics strengthens the open-source infrastructure upon which individuals below monetary repression rely. Whereas the platform already consists of 14 interactive classes, HRF’s grant will assist new modules on superior matters like Taproot and the Lightning Community.
doblon8
Safely approving Bitcoin transactions with out exposing delicate knowledge to the web is an actual concern for some customers. One resolution is air-gapped signing, the place a Bitcoin transaction is made with out ever connecting to the web. Sparrow Pockets, a non-custodial Bitcoin pockets, helps this performance utilizing a webcam integration to scan QR codes. Bitcoin developer doblon8 is enhancing this characteristic by changing outdated scanning software program with quicker, extra dependable code. This grant will assist strengthen this characteristic, making it simpler and safer for human rights defenders to make use of Sparrow Pockets to handle their bitcoin.
Bitcoin Neighborhood
Bitcoin Benin
Benin stays tied to the CFA franc, a colonial-era financial system that limits financial sovereignty and restricts entry to the worldwide economic system. Bitcoin Benin, an area group of educators and builders, is constructing a Bitcoin Information Hub to develop an alternate. The Hub shall be a bodily studying middle and co-working area the place people can learn to use and construct Bitcoin instruments. HRF’s grant will assist the hub’s infrastructure and the 2026 Bitcoin Mastermind convention, funding workshops and coaching applications anticipated to succeed in greater than 1,000 members.
Bitcoin for Good
Refugees, asylum seekers, and folks residing below authoritarian rule are sometimes excluded from conventional banking techniques. This makes it troublesome for already weak folks to ship, obtain, and retailer their cash. Bitcoin for Good, a program of the Groundswell Challenge based by the late human rights activist Hadiyah Masieh, works with these teams to assist use Bitcoin for remittances, financial savings, and direct donations. This system gives hands-on coaching for people who can not depend on standard monetary providers. HRF’s grant will fund neighborhood outreach and documentation to broaden this system and replicate it in new communities.
Bitcoin Home Malaysia
In Malaysia’s evolving political and regulatory atmosphere, there’s rising consciousness of how monetary techniques and insurance policies can affect public expression and neighborhood engagement. Bitcoin Home Malaysia, an schooling hub in Kuala Lumpur based by Nostr developer Shaun Time, provides hands-on studying for college kids to discover Bitcoin and different open-source applied sciences that promote free expression and monetary autonomy. This grant will assist operations and technical workshops, serving to a area people construct and use instruments that strengthen resilience in opposition to censorship and centralized monetary constraints.
Summer season of Bitcoin
College students all over the world — notably these residing below dictatorships and damaged economies — lack a pathway to contribute to Bitcoin’s open-source growth. Summer season of Bitcoin meets this want by offering a worldwide internship that pairs college students with skilled mentors. Contributors contribute to Bitcoin’s codebase by way of a developer observe and enhance person interfaces by way of a designer observe whereas gaining hands-on expertise. HRF’s funding will assist pupil stipends and mentorship compensation, serving to domesticate a extra numerous group of contributors to Bitcoin’s growth that displays world wants.
Sure Bitcoin Haiti
In Haiti, persistent forex instability makes it troublesome for many individuals to protect the worth of their work and financial savings. Native schooling initiative and neighborhood Sure Bitcoin Haiti is constructing a round economic system the place people and retailers can earn, spend, and save with out counting on the native forex. The initiative additionally undertakes academic outreach to native human rights defenders. HRF’s grant will assist Bitcoin adoption and management growth to equip Haitians and native civil society with the instruments to transact freely in Bitcoin and protect the worth of their hard-earned labor inside an open, borderless monetary system.
Freedom Tech
The Activist Atlas
Oftentimes, activists meet at conferences, construct highly effective connections, after which lose contact as soon as the occasion ends. To foster ongoing collaboration, Cato Coverage Analyst Nick Anthony and Bitcoin educator Paco de la India created the Activist Atlas, an interactive digital platform that enables changemakers to remain linked, uncover each other’s work, and coordinate year-round whereas introducing freedom applied sciences like Bitcoin for donations and Nostr for safe communication. HRF’s grant will assist the platform’s launch and assist develop a worldwide community of activists utilizing freedom tech to stay impressed and operational.
Krux
Securely holding bitcoin usually requires specialised signing gadgets that depend on proprietary parts. This makes them pricey or troublesome to acquire in corrupt regimes or weak economies. Krux is open-source software program that transforms extensively out there gadgets into safe Bitcoin signing gadgets. It helps offline transactions and is out there in 10 languages to broaden accessibility. HRF’s grant will assist software program developer Odudex in refining the mission so extra folks can securely maintain bitcoin below authoritarian regimes.
LearnNostr
Regardless of its potential as a censorship-resistant communication protocol, Nostr stays troublesome for newcomers to grasp and use. To decrease these hurdles, academic platform LearnNostr gives a beginner-focused introduction that breaks the protocol down into sensible classes. Created by knowledge scientist Cristy Almonte, the curriculum teaches real-world use instances (resembling pseudonymous identities and safe publishing) for these residing below the grip of dictators. HRF’s funding will assist the platform’s growth and assist extra folks residing below censorship talk safely.
NetBlocks Web Observatory
Authoritarian regimes more and more shut down the web and block platforms to silence dissent, obscure human rights abuses, and disrupt monetary options. NetBlocks, an web observatory based by technologist Alp Toker, tracks and paperwork these disruptions in actual time. Its reporting creates a worldwide file of web censorship that helps maintain authoritarian regimes accountable. HRF’s assist will maintain this monitoring so activists and civil society can expose digital repression because it occurs.
Bitcoin Analysis & Schooling
AmityAge
In lots of authoritarian nations, activists and civil society teams face forex instability, monetary restrictions, and surveillance. To alleviate these ache factors, Bitcoin initiative AmityAge launched the Bitcoin Educators Academy, a program that prepares native educators to show monetary sovereignty below repression. HRF’s assist will fund occasion prices for 5 academies, coaching 75 educators in important smooth and communication expertise to show self-custody and using permissionless monetary instruments of their areas in a transparent and comprehensible means.
Base58
For Bitcoin to perform as freedom cash, its growth should stay impartial and impartial. To higher perceive whether or not funding influences that independence, Base58, a technical Bitcoin schooling college, will publish “Funding and Open Supply Contributions to Bitcoin,” a analysis report analyzing how funding sources form open-source contributions utilizing quantitative and visible knowledge. HRF’s assist will fund the personnel and gear wanted to finish this two-month examine.
Bitcoin Coverage Norway
Norway is contemplating a Bitcoin mining ban that would set a precedent throughout Nordic and European democracies if policymakers misunderstand Bitcoin’s broader position in monetary freedom. This might present cowl for authoritarian regimes to implement extra repressive insurance policies. To handle this danger, the Bitcoin Coverage Norway launched Bitcoin Schooling for Norwegian Policymakers. This initiative will present officers, help organizations, and media with evidence-based analysis and testimonials from dissidents resisting authoritarian regimes on Bitcoin’s human rights functions. HRF’s grant will assist operations, journey, and outreach to make sure decision-makers perceive Bitcoin’s worth and keep away from insurance policies that would limit entry to this expertise.
BTC Shule
In Burundi, state management over monetary entry leaves little room for impartial options. BTC Shule, an area Bitcoin neighborhood based by social entrepreneur ₿elyï, will launch an eight-month accelerator program to coach builders to construct open-source Bitcoin instruments fitted to this particular atmosphere. This system will supply meetups and mentorship for members. HRF funding will assist a hackathon, stipends, and operational prices to construct freedom tech tailor-made to Burundi’s native monetary realities below an authoritarian regime.
Daniel Batten
Authoritarian regulation usually determines whether or not folks can legally use Bitcoin, shaping its potential as a software for monetary freedom within the locations the place it’s most wanted. Bitcoin researcher Daniel Batten will study this difficulty by way of data-driven analysis and academic outreach. His work will deal with informing and coaching activists and civil society in nations resembling Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Egypt. HRF’s grant will assist fund the analysis, manufacturing, and outreach that allow people to make use of Bitcoin extra freely.
DIYbitcoin
In repressive environments, entry to Bitcoin instruments may be pricey, restricted, or monitored. DIYbitcoin is a useful resource that helps people bypass these limitations by instructing them how one can construct and function their very own {hardware} utilizing open-source software program and inexpensive, off-the-shelf parts. The mission will create a multilingual library of visible do-it-yourself guides tailor-made to communities throughout Latin America, Africa, and Asia. This grant will fund workshops and educator coaching to assist native communities undertake self-custody and run their very own Bitcoin infrastructure.
Financial Inclusion Group
Monetary exclusion is more and more utilized by dictators to silence civil society and limit democratic participation. To doc and expose this rising sample, Jorge Jraissati, president of the Financial Inclusion Group, is main a analysis initiative titled Documenting, Speaking, and Defending Victims of Monetary Exclusion. The mission will doc 100 instances of dissidents lower off from monetary techniques worldwide. It is going to share these tales by way of articles, podcasts, and social media to succeed in greater than three million folks. HRF’s grant will assist researchers and operational prices to publish these instances.
SeedSigner Person Information
{Hardware} wallets are one of many most secure methods to retailer Bitcoin, however they are often costly and technically difficult, particularly for these new to self-custody. SeedSigner, an open-source {hardware} pockets, permits customers to construct their very own signing gadgets from cheap, extensively out there parts. Nevertheless, its restricted documentation could make the setup course of more difficult for newcomers. Straightforward, a contributor to the SeedSigner mission, is making a step-by-step person information to simplify the method. HRF’s funding will assist the event of this useful resource, serving to human rights defenders with restricted sources securely retailer and handle their bitcoin.
