Financial Freedom Report #116

Welcome to this week’s Financial Freedom Report.

In China, officials have ordered the removal of Bitchat from Apple’s App Store. Officials cited violations of regulations governing “internet-based information services with attribute (sp) of public opinions or capable of social mobilization.” The ban follows Bitchat’s growing adoption among demonstrators in Indonesia, Nepal, Uganda, Iran, and elsewhere.

In freedom tech news, we highlight two major grant announcements in the Bitcoin ecosystem. HRF’s latest round of grants from the Bitcoin Development Fund (BDF) gifted 1.5 billion satoshis to 26 open-source freedom tech projects advancing Bitcoin software development, education, and community for people living under authoritarian rule. Similarly, OpenSats, a nonprofit supporting open-source projects and software, shared its 17th round of Bitcoin grants advancing Bitcoin privacy, development, and circular economies.

We include a podcast episode with the co-founders of Cuba Bitcoin, a local Bitcoin education community, who share how P2P exchanges, ecash, and Bitcoin are supporting people living under authoritarian rule, a collapsing currency, and unending electrical blackouts.

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GLOBAL NEWS

China | Offline Messaging App Bitchat Banned

China has ordered Apple to remove Bitchat, the offline messaging app vibe-coded by Jack Dorsey, from its App Store. Officials cited violations of regulations governing “internet-based information services with attribute (sp) of public opinions or capable of social mobilization.” Bitchat operates over Bluetooth mesh networks and enables messages to move locally from phone to phone while devices are offline. It creates a new channel for communication (and money, given that Bitcoin addresses and ecash can travel over bitchat) when dictators shut down the internet, one that China clearly views as a threat.

Why this matters: China’s surveillance panopticon depends on centralized messaging platforms like WeChat and state-controlled payment rails like its digital yuan, where communication and transactions can be filtered, tracked, and controlled. Bitchat removes the state’s ability to fully observe or interrupt coordination and communication. Its growing use in protests across Indonesia, Nepal, Uganda, and Iran highlights a broader trend: individuals are harnessing offline messaging to evade regime-led censorship and crackdowns on demonstrations. 

Russia | Banks to Use State Messenger for Transaction Verification

Russia’s Ministry of Digital Development is drafting legislation that would require banks to confirm customer financial operations through Max, a Kremlin-controlled messaging app. In practice, instead of confirming transactions within their banking app (or via SMS), users would receive a message in the Max app and must approve the action there to complete it. The proposal applies to undefined “significant” actions, granting officials broad discretion over which financial activities require approval. This would insert state-run app verification into everyday banking.* And if Max goes down, significant financial activity may stop entirely.

In context: The proposal would give officials a new layer of control over how and when people can access their money. Already, Max has been used to automatically enroll users in pro-war propaganda channels without their consent, and state officials reportedly use separate phones to avoid installing the app themselves.

India | High Court Curbs Arbitrary Freezing of Bank Accounts

An Indian High Court ruled that investigation agencies cannot freeze the entire balance of bank accounts under investigation. It called blanket account freezes an “extraordinary measure” and said suspending accounts without a direct link to an offense infringes individual rights. The ruling came during a case involving a Mumbai filmmaker whose bank account was frozen. The court stated that the freeze “paralyzed the petitioners’ financial lives,” preventing payment of daily expenses, medical costs, and salaries. It further added that “a bank account is not merely a repository of money but the lifeline of an individual's economic existence.”

Why this matters: While not binding nationwide, the decision may set a positive precedent and influence similar cases across India involving activists and members of civil society whose bank accounts may be targeted to stifle dissent.

Thailand | Central Bank Mandates Justification for Large Cash Withdrawals

Thailand’s central bank now requires customers to provide a formal justification for cash withdrawals of 5 million baht ($152,000) or more. Under these rules, people must update their identification details, demonstrate a clear business or personal purpose for the withdrawal, and supply supporting documents if asked. If explanations are deemed insufficient, a bank can deny the withdrawal. This increased control and monitoring may threaten the financial privacy of marginalized individuals, including Southeast Asian dissidents from regimes like Burma and Cambodia living in Thailand, who lack identification and often rely on the anonymity of cash for their personal safety and work.

Cuba | New High-Denomination Banknotes Released

Financial officials in Cuba are issuing new 2,000- and 5,000-peso banknotes, the highest denominations in its history. Valued at roughly $4 and $10 on the street, these notes mark a significant departure from the regime’s failed bank reform policy, which tried to mandate digital payments. The move comes as the island nation continues to reel from economic instability and authoritarian rule. The currency’s brokenness is most evident in everyday prices. A single 5,000-peso note covers enough for just one carton of 30 eggs, while average salaries range only from 4,000 to 6,000 pesos a month. The regime has devalued the peso currency by more than 95% in the past 5 years, stealing the overwhelming majority of the public’s income and wealth.

RECOMMENDED CONTENT

When repression meets resistance: Internet shutdowns in 2025 by Access Now

Internet shutdowns are no longer isolated incidents but a systematic and escalating tool of authoritarian repression. According to a new Access Now report, 2025 alone saw 313 shutdowns across 52 countries, continuing a steady rise since 2020 and affecting populations in conflict zones, protest movements, and elections. Governments, especially authoritarian regimes, increasingly deploy shutdowns to silence dissent, conceal human rights abuses, and carry out violence and crackdowns under the cover of disconnection. Read the full report here.

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Join Us at the 18th Annual Oslo Freedom Forum

Join HRF this year at the 18th annual Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF), hosted in Oslo, Norway, from June 1–3. This year’s OFF theme of “Dismantling Dictatorship” celebrates the activists, thinkers, technologists, and artists who take tyranny apart with ingenuity, creativity, and solidarity. Together, we celebrate stories of courage and explore bold ideas to advance freedom and unleash human potential through innovative solutions, including freedom tech.

Buy Tickets

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BITCOIN AND FREEDOM TECH NEWS

HRF | Q1 2026 Bitcoin Development Fund Grants Announced

HRF granted 1.5 billion satoshis in its first-quarter round of Bitcoin Development Fund (BDF) grants to support 26 open-source freedom tech projects worldwide. This round supports Bitcoin communities under authoritarian regimes, advances education initiatives and bitcoin payments, and helps provide critical funding to open-source Bitcoin development. Grantees include Tando, a payment app providing Kenyans with a seamless way to use bitcoin for everyday payments; Summer of Bitcoin, a global internship program for students interested in a career in Bitcoin; and Krux, open-source software that turns off the shelf hardware into secure Bitcoin signing devices. Together, these efforts help human rights defenders, journalists, nonprofit organizations, and everyday people connect, organize, and achieve financial freedom.

SHRIMPS | Post-Quantum Signatures Enhance Bitcoin Security 

Jonas Nick, a software developer and Blockstream researcher, developed SHRIMPS, a new type of digital signature for Bitcoin designed for a future with quantum computers. Digital signatures are what allow Bitcoin users to prove ownership of their funds. Today’s signatures are secure, but more powerful computers could potentially break them in the future and compromise Bitcoin as a tool for financial freedom. SHRIMPS uses a different cryptographic approach that is harder for quantum computers to crack. It allows multiple devices, like a phone and a laptop, to safely use the same key and sign transactions independently. Allowing multiple devices to safely share signing ability means users can reduce the risk of loss if one device fails or is confiscated, enabling them to operate more flexibly in difficult environments.

Why this matters: If Bitcoin is to serve as reliable infrastructure for human rights defenders decades from now, it must remain secure against future technological threats. Research on solutions like SHRIMPS helps ensure that Bitcoin can adapt before those risks become reality.

Square | Bitcoin Payments by Default

Square, a point-of-sale provider used by more than four million businesses in the US, has made Bitcoin payments a default feature for merchants. Previously, sellers had to manually enable the option to accept bitcoin. Now, it is in the process of being automatically turned on, shifting the system from opt-in to opt-out. Merchants can still disable the feature if they choose. Nonprofit organizations in the US looking to explore Bitcoin as a humanitarian tool may find this feature useful.

Why this matters: Defaults shape behavior. Making bitcoin payments available by default lowers the barrier for millions to accept bitcoin in the infrastructure they already use and normalizes its use in everyday transactions. This will also make it easier for US-based non-profits that support people in authoritarian regimes to adopt Bitcoin for grants and payments.

MoneyBadger | Bitcoin Payments Expand to Fuel Stations

MoneyBadger, a Bitcoin payments company in South Africa, introduced Bitcoin payments at hundreds of Engen fuel stations and convenience stores. This builds on MoneyBadger’s Scan to Pay QR code integration, which enables bitcoin payments at thousands of merchants. With it, users pay in bitcoin using existing QR codes, with the funds instantly converted into South African rand at checkout. Merchants receive local currency directly, avoiding volatility, while users pay in sats through their own Lightning Network wallets. 

Why this matters: This expands everyday access to Bitcoin payments for those excluded from traditional banking systems, including many refugees and marginalized groups from nearby dictatorships like Zimbabwe who live without access to formal employment or financial services in South Africa. 

OpenSats | 17th Wave of Bitcoin Grants Announced 

OpenSats, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting open-source Bitcoin projects and software, announced its seventeenth round of Bitcoin grants. New grantees include JoinMarket NG, a privacy tool that blends multiple users’ transactions to make individual payments more difficult to trace; rawBit, a tool that helps developers understand how Bitcoin transactions are constructed at a technical level; and Specter DIY, an open-source hardware wallet that users can assemble and verify themselves using off-the-shelf parts. To date, OpenSats has awarded more than 390 grants supporting freedom tech used directly by human rights defenders under authoritarian regimes.

BITCOIN RECOMMENDED CONTENT

Bitcoin in Cuba with Forte, Reyna Chicas, and Catrya

In this episode from New Renaissance Capital, Forte and Catrya, co-founders of the Bitcoin community Cuba Bitcoin join host Frank Corva and Bitcoin Training Coordinator Reyna Chicas to offer a ground-level view of how Bitcoin is being used to navigate Cuba’s restrictive financial system. The conversation accentuates how limited banking access, currency instability, and state controls have pushed Cubans toward alternative means for saving and transacting. The episode highlights efforts to build local infrastructure, including peer-to-peer exchanges like Mostro (built on Nostr), and emphasizes the importance of Spanish-language education to make Bitcoin accessible to everyday users under an authoritarian regime.

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The Bitcoin Development Fund (BDF) is accepting grant proposals on an ongoing basis. The Bitcoin Development Fund is looking to support Bitcoin developers, community builders, and educators. Submit proposals here.

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