The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) has announced its second round of funding for 2026, distributing more than 600 million satoshis—valued at $472,807—to 16 projects operating in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The grants originate from the HRF's Bitcoin Development Fund.
According to the NGO, the initiative aims to strengthen the Bitcoin protocol, expand practical Bitcoin access, and facilitate secure messaging and community infrastructure for dissidents, journalists, and activists facing authoritarian regimes or financial repression.
Bitcoin Payments and Infrastructure
- BitSpenda: Offering a mobile money-to-bitcoin bridge in Nigeria, Kenya, Cameroon, Uganda, and Ghana, this non-custodial tool lets users send bitcoin from a Lightning wallet directly to a mobile money account in local currency.
- Project Island Resilience: Building on the Flash wallet in Jamaica, the project plans to add offline payments via Bluetooth, near-field communication (NFC), and ecash to maintain financial access during power outages and internet shutdowns.
- Bitzed: Created in Zambia, this account-free platform connects mobile money networks directly to self-custodial Lightning wallets, bypassing traditional banks and centralized exchanges.
Bitcoin Development
- Libbitcoinkernel: Developer yuvicc is working to turn Bitcoin's core security and transaction rules into reusable software modules, helping developers build secure wallets without duplicating complex code.
- Utreexo Wallet Integrations: Developer Luis Schwab is utilizing Floresta, a lightweight node that embeds directly into wallet apps, allowing users to verify transactions locally and privately without relying on centralized servers.
- BDK-Dart: Software developer John Osezele is releasing a major toolkit update for Flutter to lower barriers for developers building self-custodial Bitcoin mobile apps.
- WalletScrutiny: This project audits Bitcoin wallets for transparency to verify that distributed software matches its open-source code.
Decentralized Communications
- Vector Privacy: A permissionless, end-to-end encrypted messenger built on Nostr that is expanding to iOS and desktop with voice and video calls.
- Flotilla Chat: A Discord-style platform built on Nostr that separates user identities from hosting providers to reduce censorship risks for civil society groups.
- OpenAlert: Developed by Fernando Diego Pergolini and Jorge Carlos Franco, this alternative notification platform uses the Nostr network for encrypted, self-destructing critical emergency alerts.
- 0xchat: A messaging app built on Nostr featuring Tor integration for location privacy and a built-in Cashu wallet for private Bitcoin payments.
Bitcoin Mining and Education
- 256 Foundation: A nonprofit working to open-source every component of a Bitcoin miner, from hardware to software, to reduce reliance on centralized manufacturers and enhance network decentralization.
- My First Bitcoin: An educational initiative growing its global Educator Training Program to help communities under authoritarian rule achieve financial freedom.
- Agora: A decentralized activist platform built on Nostr and Bitcoin undertaking a 9-month pilot deployment in Venezuela for censorship-resistant communication and peer-to-peer fundraising.
- HODL (Hands On Design Lab): An education initiative running structured cohorts for early-career designers in India to improve the user interface and user experience of Bitcoin tools.
- Hack4Freedom: A two-week developer education program training women in Africa and Brazil to build on Bitcoin and open-source freedom tech projects.
