Square Crypto, Human Rights Foundation Ramp Up Bitcoin Development Grants

The Human Rights Foundation’s Bitcoin Development Fund, launched in June 2020, announced three new grant recipients this week on the heels of a similar announcement by fellow grant distributor Square Crypto.

• Lloyd Fournier became the latest out of nearly a dozen Bitcon contributors sponsored by Square Crypto in some form when the payments firm announced he would receive a grant on Aug. 3. Fournier’s grant proposal said he plans to experiment with payment channels and the Lightning Network, exploring options comparable to the oracles popularized by decentralized finance (DeFi) systems.
• Yet another Lightning developer, Evan Kaloudis, earned a HRF grant for his work on Zeus, an iOS and Android app for using a Lightning node on a phone with privacy tools like a VPN or Tor on Aug. 4.
• With regards to CoinJoins, HRF funded a developer who goes by Openoms, the creator of JoinInbox, that makes it easier for bitcoiners to transact in a relatively private and decentralized way using a Raspberry Pi microcomputer to access JoinMarket, a grassroots CoinJoin option.
• The creator of Fully Noded, who goes by Fontaine, received an HRF grant to continue work on his Tor-friendly iOS app for using a bitcoin node on a regular mobile phone.
• The HRF grants are 1 bitcoin each, or just over $11,000 as of press time.

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