As ARTnews had put it, ‘It’s about uniting to save lives’. Spare rooms, free doctors, addition of terminals by satellite broadband service providers to help keep the people of Ukraine online… support has been outpouring by people, companies, governments and other organisations like the IMF. The fascinating power of community and sheer generosity is breathtaking in crisis situations. And this time there is something else too.
Since the conflict began, the relatively young non-fungible-token (NFT) community joined forces to harness the power of the new age through blockchain & crypto to raise aid. It was definitely off to a good start and continues in a positive vein. From the international community to the Ukrainian private and government bodies, many joined hands in several initiatives to help.
In this article, we will highlight some of them:
- NFT ‘Museum of war’
Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation, has spearheaded the country’s push to raise funds in crypto assets and distributed ledger technology. Just this week, March 30, the Ukrainian government turned to the metaverse and launched an NFT ‘Meta History: Museum of war’ to help fund the fight. The country’s Ministry of Digital Transformation has minted 54 NFTs to raise awareness and support the Ukrainian military and civilians. The tokens will be taking the form of artists’ illustrations linked to major events in the war.
The mission statement was stated as “to preserve the memory of the real events of that time, to spread truthful information among the digital community in the world and to collect donations for the support of Ukraine.”
This article by fortune provides further details: https://fortune.com/2022/03/29/ukraine-selling-nfts-war-bonds-meta-history-museum/
On March 14, Ukraine launched the website above to allow people around the world to make crypto donations. By amassing the first donations at the beginning of the conflict, the organisation has raised more than $71 million.
- Vogue Ukraine & Vogue Singapore
Can fashion and art, especially digital, be anything beyond frivolous? The good news is yes. Traditional infrastructures and institutions are under attack in a war situation and cryptocurrency can become even more useful as a medium. Vogue Ukraine and Vogue Singapore set up an initiative with six Ukrainian and Ukrainian-based artists and designers. The exclusive collection was put up on Opensea and included works from Anna October, Anton Belinskiy, DressX, Gunia Project, Ienki Ienki and Gudu. Each NFT was available in 50 editions at 0.5ETH. All proceeds were donated to ‘Save The Children Ukraine’.
- TIMEPieces
TIMEPieces, the web3 community and NFT initiative from TIME put up a collection of unique artworks from the community’s artists inspired by the spirit of the Ukrainian people. Each artwork had a starting bid of 0.22ETH, with 100% of proceeds supporting humanitarian & relief efforts for Ukraine. Many generously donated their works to build a better future for the Ukrainian people.
- Swimmer Cindy Ong launched NFT collection
Malaysian swimming champion and world masters champion Cindy Ong launched a NFT project on Opensea on March 20 to raise funds for the people of Ukraine.
- Charity NFT Art Auction for Ukrainian Artists by RtistiQ
Last but not the least, the exclusive #NFTArtForAid NFT auction of works by Ukrainian artists will be available on our platform — RtistiQ from 7–10 April. 50+ artists and over 1000 NFTs. The NFT drop will feature works from Tatyana Binovska, Irina Loktionova, Nataliya Bagatskaya, Laifalight, Anastasiia Palashynska, among others.
RtistiQ will not charge any commissions to the artists part of this auction. Additionally, by enabling the smart contract on RtistiQ, the artists are granted a 10% resale royalty. Minting will happen on Polygon and we hope that the funds raised will be a significant vehicle for a life changed for the better for the artists we have been working so closely with.
The global NFT journey has only just begun. The consensus on the value of NFTs has remained controversial. Those who believed in it thought that the primary utility was an investment in the metaverse, or the proto-metaverse. However, the above use cases show there are more and the technology is likely to stick and accompany us all into the future.
References:
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/ukraine-nft-artist-projects-1234621221/
