The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) launched the Bitcoin Humanitarian Alliance on April 10th, forming a coalition of activists, humanitarian organisations and democratic movements that utilize Bitcoin (BTC) to support civil liberties and provide assistance in a financially oppressive environment.
The initiative will connect frontline groups operating in jurisdictions where the financial system is routinely weaponized to block dissent, monitor critics, freeze donations, and disrupt humanitarian activities.
The alliance’s purpose is to provide a sharing platform for these organizations to exchange knowledge about using Bitcoin as a financial tool that can withstand censorship.
It also seeks to deepen collaboration between the humanitarian sector and Bitcoin developers to build tools to address privacy, access and survivability under an authoritarian regime.
Tools for assistance and resistance
HRF I said Many authoritarian governments are leveraging traditional banking infrastructure to restrict opposition movements and financial access to aid networks.
Regions such as Nigeria, Venezuela, Russia and China have excluded activists from the financial system through blocked accounts, suspended transfers and targeted surveillance. The HRF said Bitcoin is an alternative mechanism for transferring value in these environments, maintaining privacy and ensuring operational continuity.
The Bitcoin Humanitarian Union is seeking to formalize and expand the use of Bitcoin in this context by building a global network of practitioners. The 13 founding members of the Alliance are activists from around the world, from Latin America to Asia.
Additionally, Alliance members are already using Bitcoin to raise unprotected donations, safely pay local staff, and move cross-border aid without relying on centralized intermediaries. Others turn to Bitcoin and store value in jurisdictions with a sophisticated inflationary economy or strict capital controls.
Over the next few years, the alliance plans to hold workshops, conferences and develop educational materials for nonprofit organizations interested in incorporating Bitcoin into their businesses.
It will also document the role of Bitcoin in providing financial resilience to dissidents and aid recipients and making its findings available to media and policy organisations.
Ongoing BTC engagement for HRF
The HRF highlights the need for a clear distinction between Bitcoin and the broader “crypto” ecosystem, noting that BTC’s decentralized architecture and fixed monetary policy offers structural advantages for activists seeking financial neutrality.
The foundation warned that other digital assets that rely on centralized entities or with fluctuations in governance models could reintroduce risks that opposition would avoid.
The Bitcoin HumaniTarian Alliance expanded HRF’s involvement in Bitcoin and expanded in 2020 with the establishment of the Bitcoin Development Fund.
Since its inception, the fund has issued more than $5.5 million to 174 grants to support open source Bitcoin projects, including privacy tools, custody solutions and educational resources.
HRF uses the fund to support initiatives such as wallet development, lightning infrastructure and training programs for civil society groups operating under hostile regimes.
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