- Whistleblower Edward Snowden has partnered with PleasrDAO and political crusader Daniel Ellsberg for a live NFT auction
- The auction is in honor of Ellsberg’s Pentagon Papers released in 1971
- The auction’s proceeds will fund Snowden and Ellsberg undertakings respectively
Notorious whistleblower Edward Snowden and political activist Daniel Ellsberg have teamed up with Web 3.0 platform PleasrDAO to conduct a live NFT auction. Snowden and Ellsberg are members of the Freedom of the Press Foundation which unveiled an NFT piece in 2021 that PleasrDAO purchased for $5.4 million. The current collection is a joint effort between the whistleblower and the political activist in honor of the activist’s 1971 Pentagon papers, with the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) providing an auction platform known as PleasrHouse.
Documentary Turned NFT
Set to premiere on January 12, the first digital collectibles will feature clips from a documentary produced by the Web 3.0 platform. According to the platform’s marketing head Chris Eberle, the inaugural NFTs will also be the first on the Web 3.0 auction house that has been in development for some time.
Introducing PleasrHouse, Episode 01
Going LIVE with @DanielEllsberg @snowden @FreedomofPress
Thursday 3pm EST
Grab ur whistles and sign up for notifs:https://t.co/BuN3ETlibB ✨ pic.twitter.com/bNMPKFH2r0— ✨ PleasrDAO (@PleasrDAO) January 10, 2023
According to PleasrDAO, the auction house is an experiment on how to bring live auctions to online platforms, adding that it will hold similar events focusing on other things apart from politics as is the case with the inaugural show.
From Talk Shows to NFTs
Eberle disclosed that PleasrHouse focuses on live-streaming talk shows touching on the internet, culture and art and later turning them into digital collectibles. For PleasrDAO’s head of marketing, there are precious educational and entertaining benefits of popular documentaries and shows such as SNL, Adult Swim and PBS and turning them into NFTs can help take them closer to their fans.
Apart from the $5.5 million Snowden NFT, PleasrDAO also owns a $4 million music NFT featuring a rare Wu-Tang Clan Album. The opening of the online auction house shows how Web 3.0 is replicating services and products in the physical world. Snowden was also revealed in April last year to have been a surprise co-creator of Zcash.
