Financial Freedom Report #118
Welcome to this week’s Financial Freedom Report.
We start in Uganda, where officials are pushing a Foreign Agents bill that may sharply limit funding for civil society organizations. This legislation would give officials sweeping power to sever nonprofit funding, criminalize advocacy, and impose harsh prison sentences on activists and watchdog groups.
In freedom tech news, we highlight HRF’s AI Hack for Freedom II, an upcoming event in Nashville that pairs top developers with activist “captains” to build tools addressing real-world problems related to freedom, privacy, and decentralized technology. The hackathon exemplifies how AI is increasingly being brought into the freedom tech landscape alongside Bitcoin and other open systems, to bolster individual liberation.
We also include the latest segment of the HRF x PubKey Freedom Tech series, where developer Calle joins HRF’s Bitcoin Development Lead, Alex Li, to discuss his projects: Cashu, Bitchat, and Clawi AI. Private payments, offline messaging, and open-source AI are becoming practical tools for activists and those under repression, demonstrating how freedom tech succeeds when people rely on it in moments of need.
SUBSCRIBE HERE
GLOBAL NEWS
Uganda | Foreign Agents Bill Threatens Civil Society
Uganda’s Parliament is reviewing the Protection of Sovereignty Bill, which would severely restrict individuals and civil society organizations from receiving funds from international sources. The bill requires anyone deemed an “agent of a foreigner” — including Ugandans receiving money from relatives living abroad — to register with the state or face up to ten years in prison. Those charged with the offense of “economic sabotage” could receive up to 20 years in prison. Ostensibly framed as a defense of national sovereignty, the legislation would cut off support for organizations that help women and children to access essential services, communities to receive aid, and activists to speak out against state abuse and corruption. In practice, it would enable the Ugandan regime to asphyxiate independent civil society and to intimidate groups whose only real offense is serving people the state has failed. Similar “foreign agent” laws have been passed in authoritarian regimes like Russia, Georgia, Nicaragua, and elsewhere.
Russia | VPN and Digital Asset Crackdown Deepens Digital and Financial Control
The Russian regime is once again escalating control over both internet access and digital assets. Officials have ordered more than 20 major companies — including banks, retailers, and media outlets — to actively block users from accessing their platforms via virtual private network (VPN) services. To enforce the measures, officials handed companies a blacklist of prohibited VPNs along with instructions for detecting and blocking them. Firms that refuse to comply risk losing privileged regulatory status, including tax benefits and mandatory pre-installation on devices sold in Russia. Simultaneously, Russia’s central bank is pushing new rules requiring identity verification for digital asset traders using domestic platforms, which would make it harder for Russians to withdraw funds into self-custodial wallets without authoritarian state permission. Together, the measures tighten control over two of the last available avenues for digital and financial privacy in Russia.
Yemen | Currency Stabilization Effort Triggers Cash Shortage
Yemen’s central bank is attempting to slow the collapse of the local riyal currency through tighter controls on exchange firms, remittances, and access to foreign currency. But the measures have also created a severe cash shortage, as banks and exchange companies are now refusing to convert foreign currency or are limiting daily exchange to as little as 50 Saudi riyals per person. As a result, many businesses have closed, while government workers are being paid in low-denomination banknotes that must be carried in bags. Some patients have also been denied medical treatment because health facilities won’t accept foreign currency.
In context: Yemen has been devastated by more than a decade of war between the Saudi-backed government and the Iran-aligned Houthi rebel movement. The conflict has shattered the economy, displaced millions of people, and left many families dependent on remittances or irregular salaries to survive.
India | Central Bank Framework Prioritizes CBDC Expansion and Global UPI Growth
India’s central bank released a new medium-term strategy, called Utkarsh 2029, that places digital financial infrastructure at the center of its agenda. The framework calls for expanding the digital rupee, a central bank digital currency (CBDC), to facilitate efficient cross-border payments. It also promotes the international expansion of UPI, India’s state-backed instant payment system that is also integrated with the CBDC. As financial activity increasingly shifts online, India’s central bank is doubling down on globally scalable payment rails it can program and surveil, helping shape a future in which more financial activity flows through state-regulated digital platforms.
China | Central Bank Encouraging Bank Blockchain Usage
China’s tax and financial regulators have directed domestic banks to implement blockchain to centralize data sharing between the state and the financial industry. While framed as a way to reduce shadow banking and credit gaps for small businesses, this system enables Chinese officials to analyze financial behavior without informing businesses about the specific data being shared or its purpose. In effect, China is hoping to use blockchain not to decentralize finance, but to make financial activity easier to surveil and control from the top down.
RECOMMENDED CONTENT
How Freedom Tech Wins with Calle
In the latest installment of the HRF x PubKey Freedom Tech Series, freedom tech developer Calle joins Alex Li, HRF’s Bitcoin Development Lead, to discuss his creation of Cashu, Bitchat, and Clawi AI. The conversation offers a window into how private payments, offline communication, and open-source AI can support people living under repression. It includes anecdotes about Bitchat’s rapid uptake during pro-democracy protests and internet shutdowns in places like Nepal and Uganda, showing how freedom tech does not win on ideals alone. It wins when it becomes useful and reliable enough for ordinary people to use.
————————————————————————————————————————
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. On June 2, theFreedom Tech track will explore how tools like Bitcoin, offline messaging like Bitchat, decentralized communication protocols like Nostr, and open-source AI are helping human rights defenders resist repression.
Buy Tickets
————————————————————————————————————————
HRF | AI Hack for Freedom II Announced
AI Hack for Freedom II will take place on May 9–10, 2026, in Nashville, Tennessee. Hosted by AI Freedom Lab at Bitcoin Park and sponsored by HRF, this hackathon pairs developers with activist “captains,” each of whom brings a real-world problem tied to freedom, privacy, or human rights. Teams then spend the weekend using AI to build solutions tailored to these needs. The event reflects that AI does not have to be solely a tool for freedom itself to be useful. It can also help people build faster, adapt and improve existing freedom tech, and turn good ideas into usable technology for those facing censorship, surveillance, and repression. Apply today.
ChapSmart | Bitcoin-to-M-Pesa Service Added to AQUA Wallet
ChapSmart, a Tanzanian Bitcoin-powered remittance platform, is now integrated into AQUA Wallet, an open-source, non-custodial Bitcoin wallet. The integration gives users in Tanzania two main options within the app. First, they can use their balance in M-Pesa (the country’s leading mobile money platform) to buy bitcoin, which is then delivered directly to their AQUA wallet. Second, they can receive international remittances in bitcoin and convert them to Tanzanian shillings via M-Pesa, all within the app. The result is that Aqua users do not need to leave the app, use a bank, or rely on a separate remittance platform to move between bitcoin and mobile money tools in Tanzania.
Core Lightning | Negative Routing Fees Released
Core Lightning, a program for running a Lightning Network node, has released version 26.04. The Lightning Network is Bitcoin’s rapid payment layer, comprising a network of nodes that enable quick, low-cost transactions. The main feature of this update is splicing, now enabled by default, which lets operators add or remove funds from existing payment channels without shutting them down, saving fees and delays. The update also enhances payment reliability, reduces startup times for larger nodes, introduces real-time bitcoin-to-fiat conversions, and enables users to attach personal notes to payments. Together, the changes make Lightning more flexible and easier to use while strengthening its privacy and efficiency.
Breez | New Stable Balance Feature
Breez, a company building on the Lightning Network, introduced Stable Balance, a new feature for its software development kit (SDK), which developers use to integrate Lightning payments into their applications. This feature allows users to keep a US dollar balance while sending and receiving bitcoin. When bitcoin is received, it is automatically converted to dollars, and when payments are made, dollars are converted back to bitcoin. Users only see a stable dollar balance without needing extra steps or new wallets. The feature could potentially benefit nonprofits that need permissionless money but can’t afford to expose themselves to Bitcoin’s volatility. However, the dollar balance relies on a newer stablecoin, which introduces a different kind of risk: users must trust the issuer to remain solvent, redeem funds reliably, and not freeze, mismanage, or lose the stablecoin’s underlying value.
bitcoin++ | “Villain Edition” Heads to Hoover Dam
bitcoin++, a bitcoin developer conference, will host its “Villain Edition” on April 23–24 at the Hoover Dam Spillway House in Nevada, just ahead of the 2026 Bitcoin Conference. The event is an unconference-style summit that will bring together hundreds of participants to discuss Bitcoin protocol proposals, quantum threats, and potential soft-fork ideas. The “villain” theme is tongue-in-cheek. It plays on the idea that Bitcoin developers are often portrayed by critics as subversive or disruptive, especially when they work on tools that weaken authoritarian financial control, or even just the status quo.
RECOMMENDED CONTENT
Bitcoin’s Quantum Readiness: Exposure, Mitigations, and Upgrade Paths by Presidio Bitcoin
Presidio Bitcoin, a Bitcoin-focused research firm, has published a new paper examining how prepared Bitcoin is for a future in which quantum computers become capable of breaking today’s cryptography. The report argues that the main risk is not to Bitcoin’s supply cap or consensus rules, but to coins with exposed public keys that could become vulnerable to theft. It outlines the extent of Bitcoin’s exposure, how better custody practices can reduce it today, and how post-quantum signature upgrades could help Bitcoin transition over time.
If this email was forwarded to you and you enjoyed reading it, please consider subscribing to the Financial Freedom Report here.
Support the newsletter by donating bitcoin to HRF’s Financial Freedom program via BTCPay.
Want to contribute to the newsletter? Submit tips, stories, news, and ideas by emailing ffreport @ hrf.org.
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.
Subscribe to newsletter
Write a comment