The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) through its Bitcoin Development Fund has given grants totalling $475,000, or approximately 2 billion satoshis to organizations focusing on censorship-resistant communication, Bitcoin education in authoritarian regimes, core development, and building local community and education in Africa and Southeast Asia.
The organizations include Qala, EasePay, Exomunia and the Africa Bitcoin Conference which operate in Africa. The $100,000 to Qala will allow it to continue their 13-week fellowship program, as well as sponsor six Qala fellows to attend the Oslo Freedom Forum, a conference where industry leaders and activists gather to create new partnerships and collaborations.
Qala is fellowship program that trains the next generation of African Bitcoin and lightning developers.
The $75,000 to the Africa Bitcoin Conference, the largest Bitcoin-focused conference on the African continent. The funds will be used for the 2023 conference which aims to host a much larger audience and to spark even more impact. In 2022, the conference brought together hundreds of activists, developers, investors, and entrepreneurs.
EasePay, a company that provides Bitcoin micropayment solutions to businesses in Nigeria, education on Bitcoin usage, and access to marketplaces for businesses to accept Bitcoin for their products has received $25,000 through its founder Ekenimoh Elyan. Elyan aims to increase Bitcoin adoption in Nigeria, where a population of over 200 million suffers under double-digit inflation and financial repression.
Since early 2020, HRF has allocated more than $2.2 million in BTC and USD to more than 70 developers, educators, and open-source initiatives across the world. HRF continues to raise support for the Bitcoin Development Fund, with the next round of gifts to be announced in May 2023.
Other contributions include $50,000 to William Casarin for his work on Nostr, a decentralized, censorship-resistant, open-source, Lightning-native protocol that allows for a global social network. $50,000 to Bitcoin for Fairness, a nonprofit founded by Anita Posch focused on raising awareness and understanding of Bitcoin for people in disadvantaged communities and in authoritarian states. $50,000 to Vasil Dimov for his work on Bitcoin Core, ensuring the continued development and stability of the Bitcoin protocol.
$50,000 to Lorban for their work on Stratum V2, a protocol that helps decentralize Bitcoin mining pools and $25,000 to Emmanuel Bronshtein for his contributions to Wallet Scrutiny, a project that verifies the security of Bitcoin wallets by examining products for transparency and potential attacks.
