That’s $53m in ETH, collected by a decentralised, anonymous group of supporters, to help Julian Assange pay for his lawsuit.
Say hello to the world of DAOs.
This is a fascinating act of political subversion using crypto.
Power to the people, but in the wild, crazy world of crypto.
Decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) are not new, they surfaced nearly half a decade ago, but have recently become popular again due to the new surge of interests in crypto.
The DAO is permissionless and decentralised.
It is owned by nobody and owned by everybody at the same time.
You don’t have to ask anyone’s permission to set it up and anyone can donate if they choose to do so.
The DAO collected over $20m in 3 days, breaking records of all kinds.
Then, in just a week, more than $53m from more than 10,000 donators poured in.
That’s 17,422 ETH!
Ethereum’s founder Vitalik Buterin donated 10 ETH himself.
“As of Wednesday morning, AssangeDAO used the $53 million it collected to bid on — and win — the Clock NFT — a digital clock tracking the number of days Assange has spent locked up — by Assange and Pak. The NFT sale proceeds will go to the whistleblower’s legal defense fund and awareness campaign about the “free speech implications of his case,” says the group’s mission statement.”
So here is how it will go down.
Supporters donate to AssangeDAO.
AssangeDAO buys an NFT from Assange.
That gives him the money to pay for lawyers and whatnot.
Ingenious.
Assange and Pak (a popular anonymous NFT artist) co-created an NFT of a digital clock.
It really is just a text of the number of days that Assange has spent in prison.
About 1,035 days so far.
Brutal.
Ok so there is not really much “art” in that NFT but its meaningful I guess.
Meaningful enough to be worth $53m.
This is wild.
There are NFTs, Vitalik, Eth, Assange, DAO, crypto and real-world political drama all swirled into one killer story.
Movies will be made from this one.
Interestingly, there is no way anyone can track or monitor how Assange uses the funds.
The donors are not getting anything back in return, except for that NFT.
Would that NFT be worth more than $53m in the future?
Who knows.
All I know is that there are people out there willing to put their money where their mouth is for a cause they believe in and web3 is just going to grow bigger, bolder and stronger.
Oh and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden did it before Assange.
“He raised $5.4 million in April 2021 by selling an NFT featuring his own face made from pages of a US appeals court decision.”
Power to the people.
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