The Human Rights Basis (HRF) launched the Bitcoin Humanitarian Alliance on April 10, forming a coalition of activists, humanitarian organizations, and pro-democracy actions leveraging Bitcoin (BTC) to help civil liberties and ship assist in financially repressive environments.
The initiative brings collectively frontline teams working in jurisdictions the place monetary techniques are routinely weaponized to dam dissent, surveil critics, freeze donations, and impede humanitarian operations.
The Alliance goals to offer a shared platform for these organizations to trade information on utilizing Bitcoin as a censorship-resistant monetary device.
It additionally seeks to deepen collaboration between the humanitarian sector and Bitcoin builders to construct instruments that handle privateness, entry, and survivability underneath authoritarian regimes.
Software for assist and resistance
The HRF stated that many authoritarian governments exploit conventional banking infrastructure to limit monetary entry for opposition actions and assist networks.
Areas reminiscent of Nigeria, Venezuela, Russia, and China have seen activists excluded from the monetary system by way of blocked accounts, suspended transfers, and focused surveillance. The HRF stated that Bitcoin is an alternate mechanism for transferring worth, preserving privateness, and securing operational continuity in these environments.
The Bitcoin Humanitarian Alliance seeks to formalize and broaden the usage of Bitcoin on this context by constructing a worldwide community of practitioners. The Alliance’s 13 founding members are activists from world wide, from Latin America to Asia.
Moreover, Alliance members are already utilizing Bitcoin to boost uncensorable donations, pay native employees securely, and transfer cross-border assist with out reliance on centralized intermediaries. Others flip to Bitcoin to retailer worth in hyperinflationary economies or jurisdictions with strict capital controls.
Within the coming years, the Alliance plans to arrange workshops, host conferences, and develop instructional supplies for nonprofit organizations thinking about incorporating Bitcoin into their operations.
It additionally intends to doc Bitcoin’s position in offering monetary resilience for dissidents and assist recipients, making its findings out there to the media and coverage organizations.
HRF’s ongoing BTC engagement
The HRF emphasised the necessity for a transparent distinction between Bitcoin and broader “crypto” ecosystems, noting that BTC’s decentralized structure and stuck financial coverage provide structural benefits for activists in search of monetary neutrality.
The Basis cautioned that different digital belongings, which can depend on centralized entities or have fluctuating governance fashions, can reintroduce the dangers dissidents purpose to keep away from.
The Bitcoin Humanitarian Alliance extends HRF’s involvement in Bitcoin, which scaled in 2020 with the creation of the Bitcoin Growth Fund.
Since its inception, the fund has issued over $5.5 million throughout 174 grants to help open-source Bitcoin initiatives, together with privateness instruments, custody options, and academic assets.
HRF has used the fund to help initiatives reminiscent of pockets improvement, Lightning infrastructure, and coaching applications for civil society teams working underneath hostile regimes.
