Ukraine to launch an NFT collection to depict Russian-Ukrainian war
The Ukrainian Government said it will launch a non-fungible-token (NFT) collection to tell the story of its Russia’s invasion. Alex Boryakov, the country’s deputy miner of digital transformation told The Guardian that the collection will be “like a museum of the Russian-Ukrainian war. We want to tell the world in NFT format.”
For the uninitiated, NFTs are any digital items such as drawing, painting, music, GIF, etc., that are recorded on a Blockchain dributed database. NFTs are immutable, meaning that once uploaded they cannot be modified or edited.
Bornyakov said each NFT art would represent a story from the war. Every piece of art would be backed with a reliable news source. “We want it to be cool, good-looking, and it takes time,” he told The Guardian.
According to data collated Merkle Science, Ukraine has already received over $88 million in cryptocurrency donations alone, and the government currently has about $7 million in Ethereum in its wallet. The Ukrainian government has been asking for financial support in cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, and Polkadot, Dogecoin, TRON, Solana, and in NFTs.
In a tweet on March 11, Boryakov explained that the crypto funds received are being used to buy goggles, optics, helmets, bulletproof vests. Atleast 5500 bulletproof launches, 500 ballic plates, 3,427 medicines, 60 walkie talkies, 410,000 packed lunches, 3,125 thermal imager and 500 helmets have been bought using the cryptocurrency donations received globally.
Earlier this week, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collection announced that it has donated $1 million in cryptocurrency Ethereum to Ukraine’s official crypto wallet address. In a tweet, BAYC’s official handle said: “It’s been inspiring seeing our community come together in support of Ukraine – almost $1m in ETH has been donated to Ukraine wallets containing a BAYC ecosystem NFT. Today we’re matching that with a $1m ETH donation of our own.”
BAYC NFT is owned famous celebrities, such as basketball icon Steph Curry, music art Post Malone, and even American TV host Jimmy Fallon. More recently, rap art Eminem is the latest to jump into the NFT craze with his first BAYC purchase that cost 123.45 Ether worth $452,000 (Rs 3.36 crore approx.)
Meanwhile, cryptocurrency wallet Metamask and NFT marketplace OpenSea are banning all accounts based in the sanctioned countries the US government. This development comes as the US and its allies imposed sanctions on Russia following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
