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.