Freedom House has been documenting the deterioration of internet freedom for many years. More and more countries are not just blocking individual websites, but are gradually taking control of the very tools for accessing the network.
Against this backdrop, Tor Project and several organizations focused on privacy have decided to raise funds through cryptocurrencies.
The funds will go to ten nonprofit projects. All of them operate in roughly the same area: privacy protection, circumventing blocks, secure communication, and open internet infrastructure.
The organizers are Tor Project and Funding the Commons. The crypto fundraising will begin on May 19. Projects can be supported via Bitcoin, Ethereum, Zcash, Monero and Golem.
According to Tor Project, using Zcash and Monero for such initiatives is quite expected. These coins were originally created with a focus on privacy, just like many tools for bypassing censorship.
According to project representative Pavel Zoneff, services for a free internet are primarily needed by people who want to protect themselves from surveillance and restrictions. And private cryptocurrencies help keep transfers and personal data out of sight.
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Interest in such tools is growing amid increasingly strict internet control in different countries.
Human rights organizations estimate that by 2025, the majority of the world's population will have faced blocks, restrictions, and digital censorship.
Freedom House also notes that authorities are increasingly trying to control the technologies through which people access the open internet.
Quadratic Funding Instead of the Influence of Major Donors
A starting pool of $115,000 has already been prepared for the campaign. The funds were provided by Cake Wallet, Zcash Community Grants, Logos, and Octant.
This money will be distributed through a joint funding pool until June 18. The system is designed so that projects with broad community support carry more weight, rather than those with a few major donors.
The model is based on quadratic funding. Here, the number of participants is more important than the size of a single transfer.
For example, ten people each sending $10 will have a greater impact than one person donating $100.
Organizers believe that this approach helps distribute funds more fairly and gives the community more influence over project selection.
Funding the Commons Director David Casey considers quadratic funding one of the ways to finance important digital infrastructure without complete dependence on large investors and funds.
Tor Project also says that the connection between the crypto community and the project itself has existed for a long time and is quite natural.
Tor Project fundraising director Al Smith recalled that many crypto projects already use the Tor infrastructure to enhance privacy.
According to him, more than 60% of bitcoin nodes operate via Onion Services.
Because of this, Tor Project decided to work more closely with the crypto community and jointly support services related to privacy and free access to the internet.
Tor Project itself remains a nonprofit organization. The project is primarily known for the Tor browser, which helps hide internet traffic and bypass blocks.
There Is Less and Less Internet Freedom in the World
Freedom House writes that the situation with internet freedom has been worsening for many years in a row.
In the Freedom on the Net 2025 report, problems were recorded in almost 40% of the countries in the study list.
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Internet control is becoming especially strict in Asia. Over the past year, China, India, North Korea, Thailand, Myanmar and several other countries have introduced dozens of new restrictions for internet users. About 2 billion people have been affected. But pressure on the open internet is increasing not only in Asia.
At the beginning of the year, the US left the Freedom Online Coalition, an alliance that dealt with issues of open internet and digital rights.
After this, Tor Project began to say that such initiatives are finding it increasingly difficult to count on stable external funding. Project head Isabela Fernandes said that the organization had to rely more on its own community and donor network.
According to her, Tor Project has long tried not to rely on a single source of money. This approach helps survive difficult periods and support small projects that struggle to get large grants.
Amid growing censorship, people are increasingly using VPNs and other ways to bypass blocks.
But in many countries, restrictions have gradually reached these services as well. In some places, VPNs are already completely banned, while in others, strict restrictions on their use are being introduced.
The decline in internet freedom over the past 15 years. Source: Freedom House
In January, during protests over economic problems, the authorities in Iran almost completely shut down the internet across the country. After that, people began to use Bitchat, a P2P messenger by Jack Dorsey, which works via Bluetooth and does not depend on a network connection, much more often.
