For months now people have been telling me that NFTs are the future and I still don’t see it. The concept is solid but has anyone really done anything exciting or important with it yet? Well, colour me wrong, as it would appear one recent campaign has actually done something not only interesting with the technology but something genuinely benevolent.
Launched last night, RaidPutin.com consists of a collection of 11,193 NFTs (one for each day since Ukraine declared its independence in 1991) which constitute an imagining of the mad tyrant’s very own personal art collection. What’s more, 100% of the proceeds will go directly to three Ukrainian NGOs working on the ground: Return Alive, Everybody Can, and the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund.
“Putin is raiding Ukraine. We’re raiding his home”
A collaborative campaign between two creative agencies based in Sweden and Romania, the collection includes generative art pieces that reimagine the Russian president in several contexts and national surroundings, with props like the infamously long table, representing the isolation that he’s committed himself to in the wake of the invasion.
The only way to stop the raid from turning into additional NFTs is for Putin to put a stop to the war. The initiative was born through a collaboration between two creative agencies: Sweden’s Ikonia, an NFT incubator; and Heraldist, an international marketing agency focused on startups and headquartered in Transylvania, Romania, with offices across Europe and the US.
According to CEO Patrik Arnesson, Ikonia currently has about twenty co-workers based in Ukraine, so this crisis hit them not only professionally but on a very personal level.
He explains: “When Heraldist came to us with this idea we immediately loved it. There’s a humorous and satirical touch that is so powerful because you know Putin will be offended by the laughs. He would never allow it. But he can’t remove this collection from the blockchain, ever.”
The Heraldist team, meanwhile, is based just a few miles from the Ukrainian border so the war hit them even closer to home. So they couldn’t just sit idly by watching the humanitarian crisis unfold.
A spokesman for the team said: “The collaboration came together through a desire to put our creative strengths to work towards a much-needed cause and use our creativity and expertise to help raise much-needed funds to help civilians fleeing their homes, as well as to rebuild their country once this horrible nightmare is over. Plus, anything we can do to further damage Putin’s already-tarnished reputation along the way is a huge bonus.”
Raiding for freedom
Funds from all purchases via the site will be directly donated and split between the three NGOs. When users resell their NFTs, a 10% royalty fee will again be donated to the three NGOs. People can join the waiting list right now at RaidPutin.com with the collection set to drop on April 18th.
It’s strictly first come first served, with rarer pieces translating into higher donations, and the rarest piece (the Matryoshka) unlocking a bonus NFT. So if you want to get in on the ground with one of the first genuinely exciting NFT campaigns, don’t drag your feet!
