Would Bitcoin be useful for defending citizens’ rights? The Human Rights Foundation, an organization that defends human rights around the world, has just distributed $325,000 in grants to projects closely related to the Bitcoin (BTC) ecosystem for their activities in favor of individual freedoms.
upport for the Bitcoin ecosystem (BTC)
While the distrust of regulators and some of the institutions is growing towards cryptocurrencies since the fall of FTX, nonprofit organizations continue to stand by the sector. Recently, The Human Rights Foundation funded 12 projects around the Bitcoin (BTC) ecosystem for a total of $325,000 distributed.
The foundation is a non-profit organization whose goal is to promote respect for human rights internationally. In addition, the values it defends are close to those of the Web3 ecosystem in supporting global and secure access to finance for all, as outlined on its website:
“In 2020, The Human Rights Foundation launched a fund to support software developers who make the Bitcoin network more private, decentralized and resilient so that it can better serve as a financial tool for human rights activists, civil society organizations and journalists around the world.”
Regarding the foundation’s recent financial investments, they have mainly taken place in Africa, Central America, South Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. These geographic areas are strategic because they are the places where Bitcoin-related innovation is growing fastest among local populations.
Who has benefited from these funds?
Regarding the structures that received a grant, we can divide them into three categories. On the one hand, there are coders who are directly involved in improving the Bitcoin blockchain by focusing their activities on the security and scalability of the network, such as developers Gleb Naumenko and Matias Furszyfer.
On the other hand, we distinguish projects focused on democratizing Bitcoin to the greatest number of people. Projects such as Bitcoin4India and Bitcoin Mountain were awarded $25,000 each for their participation in educating the Indian and Cameroonian populations about Bitcoin.
Finally, funding was also awarded to the New Belarus and Raseef 22 projects, which aim to improve respect for human rights in politically stressed regions where Bitcoin can be used as a vehicle for representative democracy.
Since the creation of its dedicated Bitcoin fund in 2020, The Human Rights Foundation has distributed grants to around 60 developers within 20 different projects, for an estimated total of $1.8 million.
If you would like to give to the foundation: https://hrf.org/devfund
If you want to submit projects to support, send an email here: dev.fund@hrf.org
