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, 2022Unlike 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, 2022Decentralized 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.
Related: Grammy-winner John Legend launches new music and art NFT platform
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.
