Agora: Connecting Freedom Fighters to Uncensorable International Support
Agora gives activists a censorship-resistant platform to organize, document, and receive direct Bitcoin support from a global community.
When a government bans social media, freezes bank accounts, and shuts down the internet during protests, what does an activist do? That's not a hypothetical. It's the daily reality for people fighting authoritarian rule in Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Cambodia, Uganda, and Nicaragua. Agora was built to answer that question.
Power to the People
Agora is a decentralized activist platform built on Nostr and Bitcoin. It gives activists a censorship-resistant space to organize their communities, document what's happening on the ground, and receive direct international financial support — without any government or corporation being able to stop it.
It was built by Team Soapbox using our own tools — MKStack and Shakespeare — at the Human Rights Foundation's AI Hack for Freedom, a hackathon at Bitcoin Park in Austin where world-renowned dissidents were paired with open-source developers to build tools for activists under authoritarian regimes. Agora was named one of the winners.
Participate
in country-specific actions led by global freedom fighters
Discover
global actions, led by trusted pro-freedom voices
Support
on-the-ground activists directly with Bitcoin
Amplify
the voices of the global resistance beyond censored platforms
Venezuela: The Pilot
Agora's first pilot is launching in Venezuela, in partnership with Leopoldo López and the World Liberty Congress, as part of their ongoing campaign to free political prisoners and restore democracy. López captained the team at the hackathon, arriving not with a feature wishlist but with problems — real ones faced daily by people fighting for basic freedoms under the Maduro regime.
Venezuela is ground zero for the kind of digital repression Agora is designed to defeat. X was banned. Payment processors are cut off. Internet connectivity is throttled during protests. Political prisoners languish in detention. Within hours of the hackathon launch, Venezuelan activists were already using the app — sharing images from the ground, earning bitcoin for their contributions, and organizing through country-specific feeds that no government can shut down.
"This is something that we've been thinking about for a while. And now we have a tested platform. We have a community that is already engaged. We have a huge potential for growth in different countries. And we have a group of developers that are very excited to continue to work on this."
— Leopoldo López
López has spoken extensively about why Venezuela's struggle matters beyond its borders. As he put it at Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute, speaking on the global fight for democracy:
"If Venezuela succeeds, it will send a powerful message to the world that democracy can overcome even the most entrenched autocracies. Venezuela can be the spark for a fourth wave of democratization."
— Leopoldo López
He also underscored the coordinated nature of the threat: "We are witnessing a coordinated assault on democratic principles. Authoritarian regimes are learning from each other, sharing strategies to suppress dissent and undermine institutions." His response — and Agora's purpose — is to build equally coordinated networks of support going in the other direction.
How Agora Works
Every feature in Agora exists to solve a specific problem that activists face under authoritarian rule.
Country-Specific Feeds and Actions
Activists join their country's community to see what's happening locally, coordinated by verified country organizers — trusted leaders who can pin urgent posts, moderate content, and guide on-the-ground efforts. A global activism feed connects movements across borders.
Activist Actions with Bitcoin Bounties
Organizers post "actions" — specific tasks like documenting a protest, photographing a political prisoner's family, or gathering evidence of human rights violations. Activists complete the action and earn sats. Direct, permissionless, instant. No bank account required. This is the core engine: turning international solidarity into real, tangible support for people on the front lines.
Self-Custodial Lightning Wallet
The app includes a built-in self-custodial Lightning wallet powered by the Breez SDK. When bank accounts are frozen and payment processors are cut off, Bitcoin still works. A $10 zap from Germany reaches an activist in Caracas instantly, with no intermediaries and no permission required.
Bluetooth Mesh Networking
When internet shutdowns happen — at exactly the moments activists need communication most — Agora's Bitchat integration enables offline messaging via Bluetooth mesh. Messages sync automatically when connectivity returns.
AI Assistant
A privacy-focused AI assistant powered by Maple AI provides real-time summaries of country feeds, strategy suggestions, and contextual information.
26 Languages
Agora supports 26 languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Shona, Pashto, Farsi, Khmer, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Burmese, Turkish, Vietnamese, Bengali, Urdu, Thai, Ukrainian, Swahili, Amharic, Filipino, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, and English.
Why Nostr and Bitcoin?
López's framework identifies technology as central to the fight for democracy: "From providing uncensored internet access to using cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to bypass financial restrictions, innovation can empower pro-democracy movements in autocratic states."
That's precisely why Agora is built on Nostr and Bitcoin rather than conventional infrastructure. Traditional platforms have a single point of failure: the company that runs them. One legal notice and your entire network disappears. Nostr has no company to pressure. Your identity is a cryptographic key — no government can revoke it, no platform can ban it, no server seizure can erase it.
Bitcoin solves the money problem. When bank accounts get frozen and payment processors cut you off, Lightning payments still work. The Maduro regime has frozen accounts and banned platforms. Iranian activists have seen the same. So have people in Belarus, Myanmar, Hong Kong. The tools people take for granted — payment apps, social media, messaging — become weapons when controlled by authoritarian states.
Expanding Globally: 2026 Pilots
Venezuela is the start. This year, Agora will be launching pilots in partnership with the World Liberty Congress in four additional countries:
Nicaragua
Under the Ortega-Murillo regime, opposition leaders face arbitrary imprisonment and exile.
Zimbabwe
Decades of political repression and economic warfare against civil society.
Cambodia
Hun Sen's government has systematically dismantled opposition and independent media.
Uganda
Activists and journalists face targeted harassment, arrest, and internet shutdowns.
As López has argued, "Building coalitions is essential. We must leverage global networks and share lessons learned to effectively counter authoritarianism." Agora is the infrastructure for those coalitions.
The Point
There's something powerful about building tools for people who actually need them. Not engagement metrics or growth hacking. Just: does this help someone stay safe? Does this help them organize? Does this help them get paid when their bank account is frozen?
That's what Agora is for. And as López put it, "The responsibility of safeguarding democracy lies with every generation." The tools to meet that responsibility need to exist before the moment demands them.
This is why Soapbox exists. Every tool we build — Ditto, MKStack, Shakespeare, and now Agora — shares the same DNA: decentralized infrastructure that no single entity can control. The full story of how Agora was built is in our Building Agora post.
Download Agora, follow development on GitLab, or support freedom tech by building with Shakespeare.