The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) has announced its latest round of grants from their Bitcoin Development Fund. Fifteen grants will go towards Bitcoin development and providing developers from repressive regimes financial aid to offset travel costs to speak at Bitcoin events across the world.

A major focus will be on providing support to those from Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. 

Seven $50,000 grants, five $25,000 grants, and three $10,000 grants total at just over half a million US dollars, or about 19 bitcoin.  

The announcement follows the launch of the HRF’s 20 bitcoin bounty challenge, aimed at bettering both Bitcoin and the working lives of those developing it.  

Among the recipients is the Kawaakibi Foundation, focused on more freedoms for Muslim communities and the Arab world. They will receive $50,000 to assist in the creation of a MENA Bitcoin Hub that is hoped will enable activists and journalists to send transactions and receive foreign dominations safely. 

Another $50,000 will be awarded to Vinteum, a non-profit Bitcoin research and development center dedicated to supporting developers in Brazil and the wider Latin America region.  

In May, Alliance delved into the impact of cryptocurrency on philanthropy. Sam Kahler, senior content & SEO manager at The Giving Block, a leading cryptocurrency fundraising solution for charities and non-profits, believes cryptophilanthropy is at a new tipping point. 

“For one thing, crypto investors have good reason to donate crypto instead of cash. In the UK, the US and elsewhere, donors can avoid paying capital gains taxes on appreciated crypto that is donated directly, and can write off the donations as non-cash charitable contributions. For crypto enthusiasts, donating is a golden opportunity to help spread crypto adoption,” he said. 

With the majority of crypto users coming from millennials, followed by Gen X and Gen Z, Kahler believes there is “decades of charitable giving potential ahead of them.”  

“On top of that, their relative affluence and outsized generosity suggest that many of them are major giving prospects – a hypothesis that is backed up by the data.” 

Shafi Musaddique is news editor at Alliance magazine.