The Human Rights Foundation’s Bitcoin Development Fund (BDF) has announced a new round of grants totalling 1.3 billion satoshis (a fraction of Bitcoin) to support 22 projects focused on strengthening Bitcoin infrastructure, privacy tools, education, and censorship-resistant financial technologies around the world.
The grants, representing one of the largest quarterly funding rounds from the HRF’s BDF, were awarded to teams and initiatives working on a diverse set of Bitcoin-related challenges , from protocol improvements and mining decentralisation to grassroots training and Lightning Network development. The awards aim to accelerate open-source innovation and expand Bitcoin’s accessibility in regions facing restrictive financial environments.
“The goal of these grants is to support builders and educators who are strengthening permissionless, censorship-resistant financial systems,” the HRF said in its announcement, noting that recipients were chosen based on their potential to contribute meaningfully to Bitcoin’s core infrastructure and its adoption as a tool for financial freedom.
Among the recipients are initiatives focused on Bitcoin decentralisation and core protocol work, including contributions to the Bitcoin Core codebase and enhancements to network resilience. Projects such as Stratum V2 and Braidpool were supported to help decentralise mining coordination and reduce reliance on centralised pool structures.
Another segment of funded work addresses education and developer training. For example, the Learning Bitcoin from the Command Line curriculum and Bitcoin community organisations in Indonesia and Thailand received grants to expand technical training, helping new developers and users better understand the fundamental mechanics of Bitcoin and how to interact with it securely.
The foundation also funded tools and initiatives aimed at enhancing financial privacy and freedom technologies. This includes support for decentralized applications like Zapstore, which focuses on permissionless software distribution, and BTCPay Server, a self-hosted payment processor that enables businesses and nonprofits to accept Bitcoin without relying on centralized intermediaries.
Furthermore,this round of grants includes projects such as the Africa Free Routing Lightning Developer Bootcamp, which targets Lightning Network development training across multiple African countries. These efforts are designed to boost local capacity and contribute to the resilience of censorship-resistant payment infrastructures in regions with significant economic repression or restricted access to traditional financial services.
The Human Rights Foundation launched its Bitcoin Development Fund to support open-source work that furthers Bitcoin’s use as a tool for financial autonomy and human rights. Since its inception, the fund has backed hundreds of projects globally, spanning software development, education, privacy enhancements, and decentralised financial tools.
The HRF’s latest funding round reflects a holistic approach to advancing Bitcoin’s ecosystem, one that prioritises not just innovation but also accessibility and resistance to censorship across diverse global environments.
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