On June 10, 2020, the Human Rights Foundation announced a fund for Bitcoin developers12. Its first grant went to Chris Belcher, a UK-based developer working on CoinSwap. CoinSwap makes Bitcoin payments much harder for authorities to trace. The grant came to close to $50,000, Bitcoin Magazine reported on June 10, 20204.
Alex Gladstein, HRF's chief strategy officer, spoke for the fund at launch13. One anonymous donor started it with $100,000, free of conditions, Aaron van Wirdum wrote4. By August 25, 2026, HRF said its fund had granted $12.2 million in BTC to 383 projects in 70 countries12.
The first grant
Why would a human rights group pay for code? HRF's launch page gave the reason. “Unlike banking and payment services in the traditional financial system, Bitcoin is global and borderless,” the Human Rights Foundation's page said1. Its weak spot was privacy. “At the moment, the Bitcoin network is improving but is far from as usable and private as it needs to be with authoritarianism and surveillance on the rise in many countries,” Gladstein said.
Belcher put the stakes in plain terms. “Obviously if they used Bitcoin without privacy, their governments can spy on their transactions and cause them problems,” he told Bitcoin Magazine4. He had built JoinMarket, another privacy tool, before CoinSwap1. Belcher also described how he had paid for his Bitcoin work before. “Sometimes I would do freelance coding work unrelated to Bitcoin when I needed the money,” Belcher said.
HRF set a split for gifts to the fund. Of every donation, 95 percent would go straight to developers1. The other 5 percent would support HRF's wider advocacy.
Both sides, in their own words
Can open source code protect dissidents from their own governments?
“At the moment, the Bitcoin network is improving but is far from as usable and private as it needs to be with authoritarianism and surveillance on the rise in many countries”
“This is my basic argument: blockchain does nothing to solve any existing problem with financial (or other) systems”
Who the fund paid next
The second round came on August 6, 2020. HRF gave 1 BTC each to three developers: Openoms, Evan Kaloudis and Fontaine5. Each had built a tool for using a Bitcoin or Lightning node from a phone or a small computer.
By May 31, 2021, a single round paid $210,000 to six recipients6. One was Abubakar Nur Khalil, a Nigerian developer. The January 2022 round was priced in satoshis, the smallest unit of a bitcoin. That round gave 425 million of them to 10 projects7.
That January list reached past code. Farida Nabourema got 50 million satoshis for a Bitcoin academy in Togo7. Roya Mahboob, from Afghanistan, got the same to relaunch The Women's Annex. Meron Estefanos got 25 million satoshis for Bitcoin teaching in Eritrea and the Horn of Africa.
What the coverage missed
Launch coverage framed the fund around Bitcoin's core software. Decrypt's Colin Harper called it a fund "to support open-source development for Bitcoin’s core protocol"3. By December 2022, a newsroom and a democracy platform sat on the list too.
The December 20, 2022 round shows the spread. Gleb Naumenko, a Ukrainian developer, got $50,000 for Bitcoin Core work8. Raseef22, a Middle East outlet published from Beirut, got $25,000. So did New Belarus, a digital democracy platform. Another $15,000 paid travel to the Africa Bitcoin Conference in Ghana.
Running totals that drift
HRF's April 1, 2025 release was the first read for this piece to print a running total. That release listed 284 projects in 62 countries, worth $7.8 million in BTC9. In May 2025 it printed 298 projects and $8.5 million. October 2025 brought 319 projects and $9.6 million.
The January 13, 2026 release repeated those October figures exactly, $9.6 million and 319 projects10. That release itself announced 1.3 billion satoshis for 22 more projects. In April 2026 the count jumped to 367 projects in 68 countries9. By The CryptoLately.com Desk's arithmetic, that equals October's 319, plus January's 22, plus the 26 projects of the April round11. Bitcoin Magazine's Micah Zimmerman reported that April round as 1.5 billion satoshis for 26 projects.
One slip runs the other way. The count rose by 14 projects between April and May 2025, though the May round named 22, by The CryptoLately.com Desk's arithmetic9. By August 25, 2026, HRF counted 383 projects in 70 countries12. That release added more than 500 million satoshis for 16 projects, and April's 367 plus 16 gives 383, by The CryptoLately.com Desk's arithmetic.
HRF's Bitcoin Development Fund grew from 284 projects in April 2025 to 383 in August 2026
Running totals of projects and countries, from Human Rights Foundation (HRF) grant releases
- Projects funded
- Countries reached
- Height: Count since 2020
Source: Human Rights Foundation [9].
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Projects funded | Countries reached |
|---|---|---|
| Apr 2025 | 284 | 62 |
| May 2025 | 298 | 62 |
| Oct 2025 | 319 | 62 |
| Jan 2026 | 319 | 62 |
| Apr 2026 | 367 | 68 |
| Aug 2026 | 383 | 70 |
The money problem its backers point at
Backers of the fund point to places where money loses value fast. A 2022 letter from 20 human rights activists cited "currency catastrophes" in Cuba, Afghanistan and Venezuela, The Block reported15. World Bank data show what people in three grantee countries face16. In Lebanon, consumer prices rose 154.76 percent in 2021 and 221.34 percent in 2023. Ghana's inflation hit 38.11 percent in 2023. Nigeria's reached 33.24 percent in 2024.
The United States offers the baseline. Its prices rose 8.00 percent in 2022, the highest of these six years there16. In 2023, US prices rose 4.12 percent. By 2024, the US rate was 2.95 percent, against 45.24 percent in Lebanon.
Consumer prices in Lebanon rose 221.34 percent in 2023, against 4.12 percent in the US
Yearly consumer price inflation in four countries, 2019 to 2024, in percent
- Lebanon
- Ghana
- Nigeria
- United States
- Height: Inflation, percent
Source: World Bank [16].
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Lebanon | Ghana | Nigeria | United States |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 3.01% | 7.14% | 11.40% | 1.81% |
| 2020 | 84.86% | 9.89% | 13.25% | 1.23% |
| 2021 | 154.76% | 9.97% | 16.95% | 4.70% |
| 2022 | 171.21% | 31.26% | 18.85% | 8.00% |
| 2023 | 221.34% | 38.11% | 24.66% | 4.12% |
| 2024 | 45.24% | 22.85% | 33.24% | 2.95% |
The case for the fund
Gladstein argued that Bitcoin's coders needed a funder outside the industry. “In today’s world, Bitcoin developers are often free agents, relying almost exclusively on the generosity of exchanges and corporations,” Alex Gladstein said at launch1. “Hopefully, HRF’s fund can inspire other organizations in the non-profit and academic space to support Bitcoin research and software development,” he added.
He told Decrypt the aim reached past one grant. “Broadly speaking, the long-term goal is to help meaningfully improve the privacy and resilience and decentralization of the protocol while also inspiring more non-profits to get involved with Bitcoin development,” Gladstein said3.
The case against
Bruce Schneier, a security technologist, disputes the premise that code can fix these problems. “This is my basic argument: blockchain does nothing to solve any existing problem with financial (or other) systems,” Schneier wrote on June 24, 202213. “Those problems are inherently economic and political, and have nothing to do with technology,” he wrote.
On June 1, 2022, Schneier and 25 other technologists sent a letter to Congress1314. The letter took aim at the privacy claim directly. “Similarly, most public blockchain-based financial products are a disaster for financial privacy; the exceptions are a handful of emerging privacy-focused blockchain finance alternatives, and these are a gift to money-launderers,” the letter said.
Those 20 activists had answered with their own letter, The Block reported on June 7, 202215. The activists argued that crypto helps people fight "monetary colonialism," in a phrase The Block quoted.
What to watch
The fund's own counter comes first: 383 projects in 70 countries as of August 25, 202612. Next, check whether each release's totals equal the last one's plus the new round. The World Bank's next readings for Lebanon, Ghana and Nigeria will show whether the money problem the fund's backers cite is easing16.
Sources
- Human Rights Foundation, "HRF's Bitcoin Development Fund," Human Rights Foundation (via Internet Archive), June 10, 2020, https://web.archive.org/web/20200613074256/https://hrf.org/programs_posts/devfund/
- Human Rights Foundation, "Post by @HRF announcing the Bitcoin Development Fund," X, June 10, 2020, https://x.com/HRF/status/1270753984437944320
- Colin Harper, "Human Rights Foundation will help arm activists worldwide with Bitcoin," Decrypt, June 10, 2020, https://decrypt.co/31899/human-rights-foundation-activists-worldwide-bitcoin
- Aaron van Wirdum, "The Human Rights Foundation Is Now Funding Bitcoin Privacy Development, Starting With CoinSwap," Bitcoin Magazine, June 10, 2020, https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/the-human-rights-foundation-is-now-funding-bitcoin-privacy-development-starting-with-coinswap
- Human Rights Foundation, "Second Round of Bitcoin DevFund Grants Announced," Human Rights Foundation, Aug. 6, 2020, https://hrf.org/latest/second-round-of-bitcoin-devfund-grants-announced/
- Human Rights Foundation, "HRF Bitcoin Development Fund makes $210,000 in gifts," Human Rights Foundation, May 31, 2021, https://hrf.org/latest/hrf-bitcoin-development-fund-makes-210000-in-gifts/
- Human Rights Foundation, "HRF announces 425 million satoshis of new Bitcoin Development Fund gifts," Human Rights Foundation, Jan. 5, 2022, https://hrf.org/latest/hrf-announces-425-million-satoshis-of-new-bitcoin-development-fund-gifts/
- Human Rights Foundation, "HRF Bitcoin Development Fund Grants $325,000 to 12 Projects on 5 Continents," Human Rights Foundation, Dec. 20, 2022, https://hrf.org/latest/hrf-bitcoin-development-fund-grants-325000-to-12-projects-on-5-continents/
- Human Rights Foundation, "Bitcoin Development Fund (archive of grant announcements)," Human Rights Foundation, read Oct. 13, 2026, https://hrf.org/latest-category/bitcoin-development-fund
- Human Rights Foundation, "HRF's Bitcoin Development Fund Announces Support for 22 Projects Worldwide," Human Rights Foundation, Jan. 13, 2026, https://hrf.org/latest/hrfs-bitcoin-development-fund-announces-support-for-22-projects-worldwide/
- Micah Zimmerman, "HRF's Bitcoin Development Fund Announces Support for 26 Projects Worldwide," Bitcoin Magazine, Apr. 1, 2026, https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/hrfs-bitcoin-development-fund-26-projects
- Human Rights Foundation, "HRF Grants 500M+ Satoshis to 16 Freedom Tech Projects Worldwide," Human Rights Foundation, Aug. 25, 2026, https://hrf.org/latest/hrf-grants-500m-satoshis-to-16-freedom-tech-projects-worldwide/
- Bruce Schneier, "On the Dangers of Cryptocurrencies and the Uselessness of Blockchain," Schneier on Security, June 24, 2022, https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2022/06/on-the-dangers-of-cryptocurrencies-and-the-uselessness-of-blockchain.html
- 26 computer scientists, software engineers and technologists, "Letter in Support of Responsible Fintech Policy," concerned.tech (via Internet Archive), June 1, 2022, https://web.archive.org/web/20220601090029/https://concerned.tech/
- Sam Venis, "Open letter to Congress highlights rift among technologists over blockchains," The Block, June 7, 2022, https://www.theblock.co/post/150612/open-letter-to-congress-highlights-rift-among-technologists-over-blockchains
- World Bank, "Inflation, consumer prices (annual %), Lebanon, Ghana, Nigeria and United States, 2019 to 2024," World Bank, read Oct. 13, 2026, https://api.worldbank.org/v2/country/LBN;GHA;NGA;USA/indicator/FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG?date=2019:2024&format=json