The New York-based non-profit organization Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is up to an innovative way of helping human rights activists, journalists, and organizations through the power of Bitcoin. The institution launched a fund, aiming to help software developers in building a more secure network for the digital asset.
In a recent press release, HRF announced that the project will promote human rights on a global scale. The funds which will be collected should serve as a better financial tool for human rights activists, civil society organizations, and journalists around the world.
The non-profit organization is planning to put Bitcoin projects to good use. The idea is to make the whole Bitcoin network in general, much more private, decentralized, and highly resilient. In other words, an independent financial tool that can help different human rights organizations around the world. Software developers themselves could be the driving wheel for this, and the crowdfunding campaign will support such individuals and teams on a daily basis. 95% of donations will go directly to the winning developers, while 5% will support HRF’s human rights advocacy, in general.
The first awarded project is called CoinSwap, on which a UK-based developer Chris Belcher is recently working. The platform helps defeat state and corporate financial surveillance by making it much harder for authorities to trace Bitcoin transactions.
Amid the chaos of the numerous anti-racism protests and riots scattered across the US and other countries, following the death of George Floyd on May 25, it happens that Bitcoin might be a reasonable way to put some security in digital currency transfers.
This is highly necessary for civil organizations and individuals who are working towards preserving human rights.
“Human rights defenders and reporters around the world face increasing financial repression in the form of frozen bank accounts, restrictions on foreign funding, payment surveillance, and general difficulty in earning income or receiving donations.” said HRF chief strategy officer Alex Gladstein.