The Human Rights Foundation has launched a fund to support development that makes Bitcoin more private. To start, $50,000 will go to the developer of CoinSwap.
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The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) has announced the latest beneficiaries of its ongoing Bitcoin Development Fund: Bitcoin developer Ben Kaufman and the team at Global Mesh Labs will each receive grants of $25,000.
HRF launched its fund last year and it has supported privacy- and sovereignty-enhancing Bitcoin projects like CoinSwap, JoinInbox, Zeus, Fully Noded and package relay. This latest round of grants was backed by cryptocurrency exchange Gemini and its Gemini Opportunity Fund.
Kaufman will be using the grant to improve Specter Desktop, an interface that makes interacting with Bitcoin Core much more user friendly. The project aligns with HRF’s focus on sovereignty, as it makes it easier to run a full Bitcoin node free of reliance from any third-party service.
“Specter is optimized to allow users to fully harness the power of hardware wallets, air-gapped devices and multisignature setups, and is aimed at expanding the number of Bitcoin full nodes and strengthening Bitcoin’s decentralization,” according to an HRF press release shared with Bitcoin Magazine. ���Ben’s work on Specter will make it easier than ever for anyone to be their own bank.”
The team at Global Mesh Labs, which includes Richard Myers, Fodé Diop and Will Clark, are working on Lot49, an Android application that adapts Bitcoin and Lightning Network implementations to serve regions with low and intermittent internet connectivity.
“With Lot49, Richard, Fodé and Will aim to make Bitcoin more usable in mobile-first environments with spotty internet connectivity, unstable currencies and poor infrastructure,” according to the release.
HRF is working to raise additional support for the Bitcoin Development Fund and to award grants to several Bitcoin projects per year. Gifts, which are tax deductible, can be made through HRF.org/DevFund and support proposals can be submitted to [email protected].