Five Million Ways to Appreciate Edward Snowden
Edward Snowden’s “Stay Free” non-fungible token art piece auctions for more than $5 million to benefit Freedom of the Press Foundation
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Edward Snowden’s “Stay Free” non-fungible token art piece auctions for more than $5 million to benefit Freedom of the Press Foundation
“I've donated a unique #NFT to charity to support the defense of journalists and whistleblowers,” Snowden tweeted 15 April 2021.
Described as a “unique, signed work that combines the entirety of a landmark court decision ruling the National Security Agency's mass surveillance violated the law, with the iconic portrait of the whistleblower by Platon (used with permission). It is the only known NFT produced by Snowden,” and was made “using open source software,” the piece ultimately fetched 2,224 ethereum (more than five million dollars at the time of final bid).
Largesse goes to the Freedom of the Press Foundation, where Snowden serves as Board President. Director of Development Louise Balsmeyer called it “the single largest donation we’ve ever had” and stressed how funds “will be an incredible boost to our work protecting and empowering journalists, through our development on SecureDrop, hosting digital security trainings through the Digital Security Training Program, documenting attacks on the press through the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, and uplifting our advocacy work.”
Launched on foundation.app, Stay Free is a commemoration of the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals ACLU v. Clapper decision of 7 May 2015. In it, the appellate court “held that the statute the government is relying on to justify the bulk collection of phone records – Section 215 of the Patriot Act – does not permit the gathering of Americans’ sensitive information on such a massive scale. The case was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union in June 2013, immediately after NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden disclosed the existence of the program.”
We discuss the NFT on The Hash
PleasrDAO won the final bid after a rather dramatic late rally from the likes of cryptocurrency exchange luminaries such as Kraken’s Jesse Powell. With only an hour left in the auction, Powell offered $1,000,000, which publicly shocked Snowden, and seemed to spur the excitement of late-comers. Little-known @xaix2k took Powell’s challenge and began to make a real run at Snowden’s NFT, causing Snowden to call xaix2k an “absolute madman.”
Ultimately, the way in which Stay Free was purchased might be as revolutionary as Snowden’s work itself. PleasrDAO is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that “distributes the ownership of the DAO in the form of tokens. That gives every member a fraction of its assets—the two NFTs and any funds in the treasury. Each member participates in the DAO’s governance through a group chat,” Decrypt revealed.
Decentralized money used by decentralized groups to purchase open source-generated art on a decentralized platform will be put in the service of bringing greater accountability to centralized authority.
Quick Bytes
The Block Buys Out Non-Employee Shareholders
Kia Kokalitcheva of Axios revealed crypto news outlet The Block “bought out its non-employee shareholders, including its investors and co-founders (who have left the company),” citing a need for “flexibility to better compensate existing and future employees in an increasingly competitive talent market, and to be independent from outside investors and interests.” The deal used “a mix of debt and cash from CEO Mike McCaffrey, the company returned to its investors 1.5 times the capital they paid in, plus interest.” News Director Frank Chaparro told Kokalitcheva how The Block wants “to be disentangled from [potential conflicts of interest] so we can cover it independently — we have been doing that, but this cements that independence."
Cam’s Wife Still Doesn’t Believe It’s Real
A heart-warming piece by Barstool Sports outlined recently how a group of cryptocurrency enthusiasts are looking to have fun, do good, and spread the power of crypto. The latest example involves legendary troll @CryptoCobian who teamed with followers and sponsors to scour obscure Twitch streams and pump a channel with loads of cryptocurrency. “Cameron Ferguson,” Barstool explained, “was performing live music to an audience of exactly zero people. Guy had 7 total followers when everyone hopped in and was just doing this for the love of music. All of a sudden hundreds of people started watching him play and were blown away with how good he was. Cobie guided Cameron through the chat to create a Twitter account (he actually didn't have one god bless his soul) and from there he got on Blockfolio and put his Ethereum address in his bio so people could donate to him. Cobie threw in a few thousand bucks off the bat.” In the end, Cameron walked away with nearly $85,000.
The Coinbase COIN Dump That Might Not Have Been
After a historic direct public listing, Crypto Rand claimed Coinbase “CFO … sold 100% of their stock shares,” and Peter Schiff said that Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong “dumped 71% of his shares”, showing what appeared to be incontrovertible proof of lacking faith in the exchange’s future. The news spread, and haters used it to further dunk on Coinbase and its supposed real intentions. While it is true that Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong sold $291.8 million in shares on opening day, these actually represented roughly 1.5% of his holdings. Similarly, CFO sold 15% of her holdings. Perhaps the haters are just confused by big numbers.
Central Bank of China Groks Bitcoin as Investment
Chinese media outlet Wu Blockchain reported, “Li Bo, deputy governor of the Central Bank of China, said that crypto assets such as Bitcoin should be used as investment tools or alternative investments. This is the first time that the Chinese government has recognized the asset value of cryptocurrencies.” Apparently the Deputy Governor went on to explain “crypto assets are an investment option,” according to Wu. “It is not a currency in itself, but an alternative investment product. China is studying regulatory policies,” adding “that for stablecoins issued by private companies, stricter supervision than Bitcoin is required.”
Venmo Pushes Bitcoin Microtransactions and Trading
“Beginning to roll out today,” Venmo announced on 20 April 2021, “crypto on Venmo offers customers a way to start their crypto journey alongside the many ways they already use Venmo to spend and manage their money.” Using parent company PayPal’s teaming with Paxos, “Venmo customers can start their crypto journey with as little as $1 by clicking on ‘Crypto’ in the Venmo menu at the top right in the app. Customers will have the ability to buy and sell cryptocurrency using funds from their balance with Venmo, or a linked bank account or debit card. All transactions are managed directly in the Venmo app.”
By C. Edward Kelso, NBTV contributor.
Find more of Kelso’s work here: @coinfugazi / coinfugazi.com