Looking back on 2025, financial and digital repression under authoritarian regimes continued to grow. But so did the innovation pushing back against it. Below, members of HRF’s Freedom Tech team share the projects that stood out to them over the past year. These are practical tools already being used by human rights defenders, nonprofits, and everyday people to save, operate, organize, and retain their freedoms in a world that too often denies them.
Together, they offer a glimpse of how technology can be used to resist control, preserve freedom, and keep civil society alive.
Top 15 Freedom Tech Projects
Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer
Maple AI is a terrific addition to the freedom tech stack. In a world where AI tools are becoming increasingly essential for human rights defenders, having an AI tool that doesn’t invade your privacy or share your data with authoritarians is a priority. Users can even pay with Bitcoin to further enhance privacy. Maple is probably the best one-stop package for this today, enabling users to enjoy the power of the top open-source models while benefiting from end-to-end encryption. Think: Signal, but for AI.
Christian Keroles, Director of Financial Freedom
Cashu is a protocol for creating ecash on top of Bitcoin. It enables Bitcoin-backed mints, effectively banks, to use Bitcoin and the Lightning Network as reserves to issue private digital ecash. It provides users with flexible payments and strong privacy properties. Cashu is not perfect. Tokens are still IOUs issued by a mint, so users take on trust and custody risk. Even so, Cashu can provide meaningful privacy and scaling benefits that complement the broader Bitcoin ecosystem and help people who need privacy-preserving digital money today.
Justin Moon, AI Technical Lead
I’m on board with AI-assisted software development. It allows both experienced engineers and newcomers to build useful software faster than ever before. The problem is that many coding agents today are closed or hard to customize. What excites me about OpenCode is that it’s building a fully open, forkable stack for coding agents. I used OpenCode and its OpenTUI library to build a personal agent tailored exactly to my workflow. In the AI future, open source won’t just mean auditability; it will mean I can have my AI agent customize software precisely to my needs, and OpenCode makes that possible.
Jhanisse Vaca Daza, Freedom Fellowship Director
Cuidemos el Voto is a citizen-led election monitoring system that used AI, mobile tools, and tens of thousands of volunteers to scrutinize the integrity of Bolivia’s 2025 election. Operating under intimidation and weak institutions, the project verified tally sheets, tracked incidents, and ran an independent rapid count using machine learning. More than 60,000 volunteers submitted real-time data nationwide, enabling a parallel audit that confirmed official results. This work matters because it shows how AI, when placed in the hands of organized citizens instead of states, can help defend democracy under authoritarian pressure.
Femi Longe, Global Bitcoin Development Lead
TollGate is open-source software that anyone can install on their WiFi router in order to share internet access discreetly with their neighbors in exchange for bitcoin. Traditional Internet Service Providers (ISPs) collect personal information from customers and monitor internet traffic. TollGate instead allows anyone to become an ISP and use Bitcoin to access the internet privately. I am excited about TollGate because it demonstrates bitcoin as a form of freedom money while also enabling extended internet access in a privacy-preserving manner.
Ayelen Osorio, Content and Research Lead
My top pick is Bitaxe. It’s the first open-source Bitcoin mining device designed for individuals. Not just large corporations with warehouses and capital. Bitaxe lets anyone run a small miner from home using open hardware and transparent software that people can inspect, modify, and improve. That matters. When more people can mine, Bitcoin’s hashrate spreads out and the network becomes harder to control. In a system built to concentrate power, Bitaxe quietly does the opposite. It puts participation back where it belongs – with the people.
Nicholas Anthony, CBDC Tracker Fellow
Vexl is an app that provides a simple and private way for people to buy and sell bitcoin directly with each other. Like classifieds in the newspaper, you post what you’re looking for, the app matches you with someone you can trust from within your social circles, and you connect. This tool excites me because it makes Bitcoin access more open, more human, and more censorship-resistant. Considering financial privacy is at the core of financial freedom, Vexl is a welcomed change of pace amidst today’s ever-increasing financial surveillance.
Arsh Molu, Events and Operations Lead
BTCPay Server is a self-custodial, open-source tool that lets anyone accept Bitcoin payments without relying on banks, payment processors, or intermediaries. It enables individuals, nonprofits, and businesses to receive money peer-to-peer. No one can freeze funds, censor transactions, or take a cut. I’m excited about BTCPay Server because it gives activists and organizations in restrictive environments full control over their money and a practical way to operate freely in the global economy.
Harrison Friedes, AI for Individual Rights Program Associate
Shakespeare is an easy-to-use web interface for vibe coding web tools that integrate with Nostr. “Vibe coding” involves using AI to create digital tools with nothing more than a written or spoken prompt and no coding experience. When combined with Nostr, a decentralized and censorship-resistant social media protocol, the result is powerful: people can create and deploy their own tools without technical barriers, and connect them to freedom technologies like Bitcoin.
Alex Li, Bitcoin Development Lead
Ark is a new Bitcoin layer that lets people send and receive payments more privately and instantly without needing channels, inbound liquidity, or on-chain fees for everyday transactions. It abstracts away the technical complexity of Lightning and provides easier onboarding, making self-custodial Bitcoin payments far more accessible to ordinary users. I’m excited about this work because it expands more private, low-cost, and censorship-resistant payments to people who need them most.
Zac Guignard, Financial Freedom Content and Research Associate
Silent Payments is a privacy-preserving way to receive bitcoin. It enables nonprofits and dissidents to share a single, static address with the public while each donation they receive still goes to a unique address. This makes it much harder for dictators to track who is receiving money or map out civil society donor networks by watching the blockchain. I’m encouraged by Silent Payments because they make Bitcoin safer to use for human rights defenders and NGOs. It protects those who depend on permissionless money but cannot afford to be seen using it.
Judy Imasuen, Bitcoin Development Fund Operations Associate
Banxaas is a platform that enables currency swaps between the West African CFA Franc and bitcoin. It serves human rights defenders in Senegal and has recently expanded to Côte d’Ivoire, using the Lightning Network and mobile money networks. I’m excited about this because it not only facilitates Bitcoin transactions for Senegalese and Ivorian activists but it also addresses real infrastructure gaps in intra-African trade while empowering users with greater financial sovereignty.
Win Ko Ko Aung, Global Bitcoin Adoption Fellow
Bitcoin Aid for Myanmar delivers earthquake relief directly to survivors in war-torn areas using Bitcoin. In doing so, it bypasses government corruption, broken banks, and broad economic sanctions that do not empower regular people. It has already funded tens of thousands of meals and basic needs with fully transparent, peer-to-peer donations. I’m excited because this replicable model proves that Bitcoin can be a real lifeline for the 6.2 billion people who live in authoritarian countries and are at heightened risk from natural disasters due to fragile systems.
Sarah Moorman, AI for Individual Rights Content and Research Associate
Routstr is an LLM marketplace built on Nostr’s decentralized communications protocol. Users can log in pseudonymously with a Nostr key and buy or sell access to others’ AI accounts using bitcoin. This makes it difficult for AI model providers to trace or attribute individual queries. Built on Nostr’s decentralized infrastructure, Routstr cannot be shut down or censored. I am excited about this project because it gives activists a permissionless, more private way to access top AI models even if governments or AI companies attempt to block them.
Adela Masic, Financial Freedom Operations Associate
Tando is an app that allows people in Kenya to spend bitcoin anywhere M-PESA is accepted. It instantly converts bitcoin into the local currency and delivers it straight to a recipient’s M-PESA account. By connecting Bitcoin to the payment system millions already rely on every day, Tando turns bitcoin into something people can use for real purchases and remittances. I’m hopeful about this work because it opens a practical path to financial independence, giving Kenyans a faster, more open way to move money on their own terms.
The projects highlighted above reflect where Freedom Tech proved its value in 2025: under authoritarian regimes where the tools are tested under real pressure. As we begin 2026, our focus continues to be supporting the builders and tools that expand individuals’ financial and digital freedoms.
We’re grateful to be learning about and advancing innovation alongside a community that believes freedom is worth defending and building for.
