AssangeDAO concludes raise with $53M to help Julian fight for freedom

February 9, 2022 Coin Telegraph

AssangeDAO

The AssangeDAO pulled in 17,422 Ether from 10,000 people, with the funds set to be used to win the NFT auction that is supporting Assange’s legal battles.

The Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) supporting Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s legal plight has concluded its raise, generating a whooping 17,422 Ether (ETH) worth roughly $53.7 million.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the AssangeDAO intends to use the fund to bid on a one-of-one NFT from a drop called “Censored” by digital artist Pak in collaboration with Assange. The proceeds of the sale will go towards Assange’s defense fund and additional awareness campaigns as he fights extradition to the U.S. this month.

Assange has been languishing in a U.K. jail for the past three years, with U.S. prosecutors seeking to try him on espionage charges. Supporters say that Assange is a whistleblower, journalist and publisher.

BREAKING: Almost US $55m ($54.2m/ 17,422 ETH) raised by over 10,000 @AssangeDAO contributors in defense of #WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange at end of funding cycle

Fund now available for bidding on the @muratpak
'Clock' auction:https://t.co/d0vHsPWhkA
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) February 8, 2022

At the time of writing, Pak and Assange’s “One Thousand Thirty Four” one-of-one NFT has a current top bid of 4,242.42 Ether ($13 million) with the auction set to close later today. The NFT collection was launched on Feb. 7, which was also the deadline for Assange’s lawyers to plead their case against his extradition.

The Assange DAO’s $53.7 million figure marks the largest ever raise from a DAO using the community funding hosting platform Juicebox, ousting the widely popular ConstitutionDAO which raised $49 million from the community in late 2021 to bid on a copy of the 1st edition print copy of the United States Constitution.

More than 10,000 people backed the fundraiser, showing strong support for Assange and the values around transparency that he and Wikileaks stands for.

Just contributed 10 ETH to @AssangeDAO.
It is a disgrace for our society that exposing war crimes condemns you to rot in prison. pic.twitter.com/ZNWUTVuRFe
— Martin Köppelmann (@koeppelmann) February 4, 2022

Pak spoke to Artnet earlier this week, and outlined that Assange’s cause was precisely what they were looking for as the message behind their latest drop:

“I am in love with creating different mechanisms to communicate my messages. For ‘Censored,’ the drop needed a good reason to exist and Julian was just the perfect fit.”

“The biggest message is censored as usual,” they added.

The Censored drop also includes an open edition with unlimited mints within a specific time frame, and Pak stated that the proceeds will be donated to “information freedom, digital privacy, education, health, and human and animal rights” organizations.

“In other words, everything that is censored eventually returns to the people,” they said.

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Censored NFTs

“Details about the contents and ideas of the Censored collection have not been revealed. However, considering the two partners in crime, it will definitely attract attention,” said DappRadar.

A collaborative NFT project from belagued Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and pseudonymous digital artist Pak is set to drop next week.

Assange has been confined in a London prison since April 2019 after his asylum status in the Ecuadorian embassy of London was terminated. The following month he was indicted on 17 counts of espionage in the Eastern District Court of Virginia relating to classified documents he published on Wikileaks.

His legal team is currently fighting an extradition case which could see him face the charges in the United States and spend the rest of his life behind bars.

The project with Pak — who generated a whopping $91.8 million last year on Nifty Gateway last year from his project dubbed the “The Merge” — is set to come out on Monday, coinciding with the deadline for Assange’s legal team to plead its case.

The name of the NFT drop is called “Censored” and refers to Assange’s journalistic history of reporting on classified material relating to corruption, crime, war and spying. It is unclear if the proceeds from the sale will go towards supporting Assange, or whether it is purely focused on bringing attention to such a highly monumental day.

"Censored" reminded me of why I designed the open edition mechanism in the first place.

...to reach.
— Pak (@muratpak) February 2, 2022

Unlike Wikileaks in which private information is freely shared with the public, specific details of the project such as pricing, the content depicted in the NFTs and the platform used for the sales have not been revealed. However, it will involve a one-of-one up for auction and an open edition open to anyone.

In late Jan, Wikileaks provided a hint, sharing an image on Twitter that reads “one thousand” which could suggest how many open edition NFTs there will be.

Censored is a collaboration with Julian Assange.
It's about you.

It consists of two parts, a dynamic 1/1 and a dynamic open edition, for you all to participate.

It will be here on February 7th. https://t.co/QvKlk3oIs8
— Pak (@muratpak) January 30, 2022

Decentralized application (DApp) focused data aggregator DappRader has earmarked the project as something to keep a keen eye on, noting in a Tuesday blog post that:

“This collaboration makes a lot of sense. Pak is among the most revolutionary artists of the day. At the same time, Assange aims to shine a light on international affairs and political problems through WikiLeaks.”

“Details about the contents and ideas of the Censored collection have not been revealed. However, considering the two partners in crime, it will definitely attract attention,” the post added.

Assange is not the first controversial figure to flock to NFTs to shine a light on a cause. Cointelegraph reported in December that Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the dark web marketplace the Silk Road, generated $6.2 million via the auction of his first NFT.

The NFT depicting Ulbricht’s original hand-drawn artwork was purchased by the FreeRossDao, a decentralized autonomous organization set up to help free Ulbricht from imprisonment.

Opinion: Why Won’t Wikipedia Classify NFTs as Art?

January 24, 2022 The Crypto Briefing

‘Emergency’: Wikipedia editors vote against classifying NFTs as art

January 13, 2022 Coin Telegraph

beeple

“Wikipedia really can't be in the business of deciding what counts as art or not, which is why putting NFTs, art or not, in their own list makes things a lot simpler,” editor “jonas” wrote.

A group of editors on Wikipedia, the free user generated encyclopedia, have voted against classifying NFTs as a form of art and have come to a consensus to shelve the issue until a later date.

A survey and debate started on the platform at the end of December revolving around the most expensive art sales by living artists and whether NFT art sales should be deemed as “art sales” or “NFT sales.”

“Wikipedia really can't be in the business of deciding what counts as art or not, which is why putting NFTs, art or not, in their own list makes things a lot simpler,” editor “jonas” wrote.

Much of the discussion centered on whether an NFT represented the art or if it was simply a token that was separate to the underlying art. The editors were torn on the definitions and some felt that there was a lack of reliable information to conclude from.

A call for votes found five editors opposed to including NFTs in art sales and just one in support. A consensus was made on Jan. 12 to remove sales such as Pak’s NFT collection that fetched $91 million and Beeple’s $69 million NFT from the top art sales list, and re-open the discussion at a later date.

The decision seems contentious when looking at Beeple's NFT “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” in particular, which depicts a collage of original artworks from a renowned digital artist that sold at the prestigious Christie’s art auction house last year in March. The New York Times also described Beeple as the “third highest selling artist” alive at the time.

According to Wikipedia’s guidelines, neither unaminty or a vote is required to form a consensus. To reach a decision, the consensus must factor in all participating editor’s legitimate concerns that fall within the platform’s policies.

What do Wikipedia editors know anyway?

However, the consensus position didn’t go down well with the sole NFT supporting editor “Pmmccurdy” who argued:

“How can we have a consensus when, from the start, I have argued in support of including NFTs on this list. The overwhelming evidence from secondary sources places NFT art as art and thus worthy of inclusion on this list.”

“If we agree Beeple and Pak are artists, why would their sales not count on this list? I don't understand the logic here,” they added.

Editor “SiliconRed” responded that the consensus they were reading was that: “NFTs should be removed from this list for now with the intention to re-open discussion at a later date. To my understanding, this incorporates all concerns, including yours.”

NFT proponents such as Nifty Gateway co-founder Griffin Cock Foster were irked by the issue, noting on Twitter earlier today that:

“This is pretty messed up to see - Wikipedia mods are trying to say that *no* NFT can be art — as in, if it's an NFT, it can’t be classified as art.”

Foster’s twin brother Duncan also chimed in, labeling it an “Art Emergency” as he called the community into action via a post that was re-tweeted by Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss.

“Wikipedia works off of precedent. If NFTs are classified as 'not art' on this page, then they will be classified as 'not art' on the rest of Wikipedia. Wikipedia is the global source of truth for many around the world. The stakes couldn't be higher!” he said

Art Emergency!!

There is a debate happening rn on @Wikipedia that has the potential to * officially categorize NFTs as ‘not art’ on all of Wikipedia. *

Wikipedia is a global source of truth. Having NFTs categorized as ‘not art’ would be a disaster!

:
— Duncan Cock Foster (@DCCockFoster) January 12, 2022

Everipedia, a decentralized Web3 equivalent of Wikipedia, responded to the platform by comparing its approach to NFTs and art:

“Everipedia editors have created over 100 pages on #NFT collections while Wikipedia is moving to mark NFTs as "not art" across their platform. It's time for NFT projects to move to Everipedia $IQ, a Web 3.0 encyclopedia which supports art and innovation.”

This isn’t the first time Wikipedia has had issues with reporting crypto-related information. Cointelegraph reported in September 2020 that anti-crypto activist and senior Wikipedia editor David Gerard helped remove an entry relating to Australian blockchain software firm Power Ledger.

Gerard stated the post was deleted on the “basis of being a pile of press-release churnalism, and the only genuine press coverage was about how Power Ledger was a scam,” despite the entry being sourced from reputable publications such as TechCrunch and The Economic Times.

Pak