Who And Why Received The 5 BTC In Grants From The Human Rights Foundation?

For the second quarter of 2012, the Human Rights Foundation’s Bitcoin Development Fund distributed 500 million satoshis in grants. The receiving projects came from “Cuba, Turkey, Pakistan, Ghana, Venezuela, Burma, and beyond,” according to Chief Strategy Officer Alex Gladstein. In this round, the Human Rights Foundation focused on “Bitcoin software development, community building, censorship monitoring, translation and design.”

According to Gladstein, the foundation’s aim with this program is “to help the network and its apps become better human rights tools for activists, journalists, and others at risk.” Of course, Bitcoinist covered the first round of Bitcoin Development Fund grants. The next one goes live in September, but projects can apply right now. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, though. Let’s focus on this quarter’s grantees and everything they’re doing for bitcoin.

The Human Rights Foundation Gave 100 Million Satoshis To:

• The Africa Bitcoin Conference received a full bitcoin. It will take place “in Accra on Dec. 7-9, the event will unite Bitcoin/Lightning builders from across Africa.” The event was announced and appeared in Bitcoinist coverage of the Bitcoin 2022 conference.

More info: https://www.afrobitcoin.org/

BTC price chart for 04/27/2022 on BinanceUS | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com

The Human Rights Foundation Gave 50 Million Satoshis To:

• A half of a bitcoin went to, “Venezuelan Bitcoin developer Francisco Calderón for his work on LNp2pbot, a peer-to-peer telegram bot that allows users to trade Bitcoin using the Lightning Network and fiat in a non-custodial way.” This project is very active and gaining traction throughout the Spanish-speaking world.

More info: https://github.com/grunch/p2plnbot

Francisco Calderón responded, “So beautiful to see my flag here. Thank you Alex and the Human Rights Foundation for supporting this project and share our vision of a better future for all people.”

• A half of a bitcoin went to, “Rene Pickhardt for his ongoing work on the Lightning Network: to make payments more reliable and improve routing and efficiency, while also mentoring other developers and providing valuable education in the space.” To the grant, Pickhardt responded, “Thank you so much for supporting us and our work! This is highly appreciated and really makes a difference!”

More info: http://www.rene-pickhardt.de/

• Another half went to, “Ruben Somsen and Dhruv for their pioneering work on Bitcoin spacechains that could one day be used to create dollar assets and enhanced privacy for Bitcoin users across the globe.” Ruben responded, “I’d also like to thank Dhruv for his absolutely invaluable collaboration with me on this project (follow him if you don’t already!), and the Human Rights Foundation for recognizing the massive potential and helping us to allocate our time to it with a generous donation.”

• A half to each of these, “outlets worldwide to help expand coverage of: Bitcoin/cryptocurrency adoption; the rise of CBDCs, and the weaponization + politicization of fiat currency.” These grants were sponsored by Paxful. The company said, “Putting those sats to good work. We are proud to support independent journalism, getting us one step closer to bringing Bitcoin to the 100%.”

1. From Cuba – https://eltoque.com/
2. From Burma – http://english.dvb.no/
3. From South Africa – https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/

• The final half to “Netblocks to study the impact of government restrictions on the Bitcoin protocol. The grant will help extend public interest research and reporting to cover emergent threats to connectivity for the Bitcoin network.”
  Netblocks responded, “Digital currency has become an enabler of human rights, but little is understood about the impact of network restrictions on Bitcoin and the blockchain of network disruptions and internet shutdowns. Thanks to the Human Rights Foundation for supporting this research”

More info: https://netblocks.org/

The Human Rights Foundation Gave 25 Million Satoshis To:

• A quarter of a bitcoin to, “Paulo Sacramento for his work on the Bitcoin Design Guide, a project whose ultimate goal is to make bitcoin non-custodial applications more intuitive and accessible.” More info here and here.

• Another quarter to, “Farooq Ahmed and friends at “Bitcoin Pakistan” to translate various BTC resources into Urdu. Spoken by more than 60 million people worldwide, Urdu is a top-20 global language with precious little Bitcoin content.” Farooq responded, “Really excited to bring some Urdu content for the Bitcoin community in Pakistan. There’s literally no resources available in Urdu as of right now. And a lot of people have been asking for that at “Bitcoin Pakistan.”

That’s it for this quarter. See you all in September. And remember, your project can apply here, right now.

Featured Image: Bitcoin Development Fund logo from official site | Charts by TradingView