Good morning, friends!

Financial Freedom Report #127 is here and brings news from Gaza, where Palestinians report that they are unable to access their own money after the Bank of Palestine froze accounts without warning.

In #Bitcoin news, Ashigaru released a desktop wallet that includes CoinJoin, a privacy-preserving technique that obfuscates transaction details by mixing the inputs of multiple transactions.

We inlcude an essay from software engineer Innocencia Ndembera, who shares her reflections on discovering Bitcoin and the opportunities it offers Malawi.

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Good afternoon, friends!

The AI for Individual Rights newsletter #11 is out.

A recent report revealed potential advances in North Korea’s AI capabilities that enable dangerous surveillance use cases.

Meanwhile, Chinese AI company Z.ai launched an open-weight model that performed nearly on par with OpenAI and Anthropic’s models, despite being cheaper. But what is the risk of relying on a model that is developed by a company operating in an authoritarian regime? Read the newsletter to find out.

We end with reflections from HRF Chief Strategy Officer Alex Gladstein on how AI has advanced freedom over the past three months and how HRF’s recent efforts put these new abilities into the hands of dissidents.

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Good morning, friends!

Financial Freedom Report #126 has been published and covers new economic reforms being passed by the Communist Party of Cuba, but critics warn these represent not a genuine economic opening, but rather a controlled transfer of state assets into the hands of politically connected insiders.

In #Bitcoin News, Cashu developers announced they are adding Payjoin support to the ecash protocol, potentially improving privacy at the edges of the system.

We include a podcast episode with activist Win Ko Ko Aung, who shares his journey from growing up under military rule in Burma to becoming a leading advocate for Bitcoin and financial freedom.

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Good morning, friends!

Financial Freedom Report #126 has just been published and covers new economic reforms passed by the Communist Party of Cuba. Rather than a genuine economic opening, though, critics warn it could instead represent a controlled privatization of state assets into the hands of politically connected insiders.

In #Bitcoin news, Cashu developers announced they are working on Payjoin support for the ecash protocol, which could help improve privacy at the edges of the system.

We include a podcast episode featuring activist Win Ko Ko Aung, who shares his journey from growing up under military rule in Burma to becoming a leading advocate for Bitcoin and financial freedom.

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Good morning, friends!

Financial Freedom Report #125 is here and covers the alarming escalation of a law proposed by the military junta in Burma that would grant officials real-time access to citizens' financial and communications data.

In #Bitcoin news, we cover the launch of Bark on Mainnet, another backend for Bitcoin wallets and applications to use the Lightning Network and provide users with fast and low-cost payments.

We include El Faro's account of the Bukele government freezing the bank accounts and property of two shareholders of the independent media outlet.

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Good morning, friends!

Financial Freedom Report #124 is here and covers an alarming attempt by the Kenyan government to sell datasets it collects from public service portals like eCitizen.

In Bitcoin news, we highlight developments of a new layer-two called Cube, an attempt to expand the capabilities of Bitcoin without changing core operational realities.

We also feature this year’s Freedom Tech track at the 2026 Oslo Freedom Forum, where dissidents, technologists, and human rights defenders explored how Bitcoin, Nostr, Bitchat, and open-source AI can help people communicate, transact, and resist authoritarian repression.

Enjoy the report.

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The Human Rights Foundation just published “Bitcoin for Nonprofits: A Guide To Help Your Movement Achieve Financial Freedom.”

This is a practical guide for civil society organizations to accept and manage Bitcoin donations. It covers key tools, privacy best practices, real-world case studies from activists already using it, and common misconceptions.

If you work with or support nonprofits, please help share this guide. The more organizations that can receive sats, the harder they will be for dictators to shut down.

Read or download the PDF: https://hrf.org/latest/bitcoin-for-nonprofits-a-guide-to-help-your-movement-achieve-financial-freedom/

Good morning, friends!

Financial Freedom Report #121 is here!

In El Salvador, officials froze the assets of two members of El Faro, one of the country’s leading independent media organizations, a textbook case of financial repression to silence independent journalism.

In freedom tech news, we cover the launch of Maple AI's new private Personal Intelligence Platform that expands Maple from a private AI chatbot into a suite of encrypted AI tools.

We include an interview with Afghan activist and tech entrepreneur Roya Mahboob, who explains why Bitcoin is perceived radically differently in places like Kabul or Tehran than it is in New York or London.

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Good evening, friends!

Financial Freedom Report #119 is now published.

In Kenya, several Binance users are reporting account freezes at the request of law enforcement.

In freedom tech news, we highlight a new Mini App inside the Fedi ecash app that connects to India's widely used UPI payment network and enables private, Bitcoin-based payments for everyday purchases.

We end with an episode of the new renaissance capital podcast, featuring Ideas Beyond Borders founder Faisal Saeed Al Mutar, who discusses the conflict in Iran and how Bitcoin is being adopted across the Middle East.

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Good morning, friends!

Financial Freedom Report #118 went out this morning and lays bare Uganda's attempt to pass a Foreign Agents law that would severly curb not only international funding for civil society, but even target everyday citizens conducting remittances.

For freedom tech, we share details on the upcoming Hack for Freedom taking place at Bitcoin Park in Nashville, Tn. — pairing activist captains with developers to tackle real world problems.

We end with the latest in the HRF x PubKey Freedom Tech Series where HRF's Alex Li joins Calle in New York to discuss his creation of freedom tech like Bitchat, Cashu, and Clawi.

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Good morning, Nostr!

This week’s Financial Freedom Report #115 examines how India’s central bank is negotiating to expand its digital rupee CBDC for cross-border institutional and retail transactions.

In freedom tech news, early Bitcoin developer Martti Malmi released Nostr VPN, a tool that allows users to manage their own private networks without centralized accounts, centralized servers, or reliance on any single company.

We include a recent discussion at PubKey in Washington, DC, where human rights advocates Leopoldo López, Berta Valle, and Anaïse Kanimba discuss opposing authoritarian regimes and the role of freedom tech in supporting their efforts.

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Good afternoon, friends!

This month's AI for Individual Rights newsletter #8 is out.

We cover a new report revealing how eleven African countries have collectively spent over $2 billion on Chinese-built “smart city” AI-powered surveillance systems.

Meanwhile, NVIDIA has committed $26 billion to building open AI models and partnered with Mistral AI to co-develop them. Open models can be accessed privately, bringing powerful capabilities to human rights defenders operating under surveillance.

We close with some reflections from HRF’s Alex Gladstein on OpenClaw, an open-source AI assistant. He argued that it represents a Satoshi Nakamoto-like turning point: the moment individuals gained the ability to control their own intelligence.


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