$47m to free Assange, song of Freedom or crypto hoax?

Since Spring Festival, AssangeDAO, founded to save Julian Assange, has been rapidly gaining popularity. Some 14,890 ETH coins, or about $47 million at current prices, have been raised in just a few days since fundraising began on February 3, According to JuiceBox. AssangeDAO is already better than Blue compared to Constituion DAO.

Mr. Assange's name is already well known, and his organization, Wikileaks, has published a trove of classified information showing widespread misconduct by U.S. federal agencies. Mr. Assange is charged with 18 counts related to classified information published by wikileaks. On December 10, 2021, the U.S. government won an appeal against a British court ruling blocking Assange's extradition to the United States. If extradited to the United States, Assange faces up to 175 years in prison.

The controversy surrounding Assange and wikileaks has continued in the years since his arrest, with some seeing him as a criminal who broke American law, while others see him as Prometheus stealing fire for the people. Whatever the world says, at least this is a celebrity with a lot of traffic, and the DAO, which was set up to rescue Assange, has also brought together a lot of idealists and speculators.

"We are a group of crypto punks committed to helping free Julian Assange and fight his extradition to the US. FreeAssangeDAO will work with Julian's family to bid for the NFT, which will help fund the costs of Julian's legal defence. Fight for his freedom."

A month before the fundraising began, when AssangeDAO was still known as FreeAssangeDAO, its official Twitter feed sent out its first message, succinctly stating their purpose. Its founders admit that the project was inspired by The FreeRoseDAO, a DAO that raised money for the release of Silk Road founder Rose.

There were multiple transfers of funds, and the flow of funds was questioned

As the amount of money raised continues to grow, so do questions about AssangeDAO.

Although the project was originally launched to raise money for Assange's release, it is interesting to note that the funds raised are not donated directly to the Assange family or a specific organization, but rather to bid for Clock, one of the pieces under Censored, a dynamic NFT series by crypto artist Pak.

Pak said all proceeds from Clock sales will be donated to the Wau Holland Foundation to cover the legal costs of assange's release.

The Wau Holland Foundation is a non-profit Foundation registered in Germany. The group was formed in 2003 with the name in honor of Wau Holland, co-founder of the Chaos Computer Club. The foundation aims to help people cope with the surveillance, risks and opportunities that arise in the new technological environment, and works on projects that promote freedom of information.

(Two ongoing projects are prominently displayed on the Wau Holland Foundation website.)

The group has previously helped wikileaks receive donations. Since accepting donations in wikileaks' name in October 2009, the foundation has raised $1.3 million for wikileaks, keeping the organization alive. In 2010, Paypal froze the group's accounts for illegal activities.

But critics say the fundraising campaign could also go directly to Assange's family without going through the complex multi-tiered process of DAO fundraising -- NFT sales -- foundation -- final Path.

It's worth noting that the Censored work is split into two parts: Clock, which is limited to one piece (1/1), and the open version (X/X). Pak previously said that proceeds from the Clock auction would go to the Wau Holland Foundation, but that was not the case with the open edition.

(currently 574 ETH has been sold in the open version)

The proceeds from the sale of the open version were not disclosed, Pak said only vaguely that the proceeds "will go to freedom of information, education, digital privacy, health and animal rights organizations."

Questions have also been raised about the team behind the project. AssangeDAO's governance team includes Assange's lawyer Jen Robinson, Assange's brother Gabriel Shipton, his fiancee Stella Morisand, and a community moderator, according to its website. It did not disclose the exact sponsor of the project on its website.

Some netizens speculated that the initiator may be Josh, a community host, who was once questioned by the community about his real identity because he can speak Chinese fluently.   Josh also said in Chinese, "British people don't cheat Chinese people". According to Chen Mo, Josh is a British native who speaks Chinese and has participated in Harvest, 88MPH and other projects.

Censored: The group performance art of Crypto Punk

The fundraiser got a lot of attention, and the core piece of the event -- THE NFT title Censored -- wasn't discussed much.

Beyond Fatu: Pak created Censored is a unique NFT, and he is so different from the NFT that has exploded before. If you're tired of all the avatar projects that clutter the NFT industry right now, Censored will give you a different look.

As stated above, Censored is made up of two parts, and Clock, which is limited to one copy, controls the whole project.

(" Clock ")

"Clock" is AssangeDAO participated in the auction to buy the work. The work is not a still image, but a moving work. The main part is a number in English, which increases every 24 hours and represents the time assange has spent in prison.

Assange has spent more than 1,300 days at Belmarsh Prison, the British equivalent of Guantanamo Bay, where the most serious criminals and terrorists are held. AssangeDAO said Assange was suffering from major health-related problems and stress as a result of a recent stroke while awaiting trial.

(The work is still up for auction and AssangeDAO has bid 4,242 ETH)

The Open edition (X/X) is a group work created by crypto punks. Users can input any information (limited to 72 characters, only English letters and Spaces are supported) and generate their own works. The screen content of the work is user input information with deletion line attached, which just fits the theme of "review" of the work.

(Pak WAS HERE by Pak)

Not only the content of the work, but also the price of the work can be filled by the user. You can even fill in 0 ETH in the price column to cast the work for free. The open casting only opens for 48 hours. There is no upper limit for the total amount, but there will be no additional issuance after the deadline.

An interesting detail is that Pak sets a rule that only one NFT is cast per wallet address, but users can easily get around this limitation by switching wallets. "Remember, you can only be censored if you want to be censored," he explains. It seems to be a reminder not to give up the fight against censorship.

So far, about 26,000 works have been cast, but there are zero transactions on OpenSea. Censored Open editions are locked in the wallet after they are minted and cannot be transferred, let alone traded.

When can MY NFT really belong to me? When Assange is released, the clock number representing the number of days in custody will go to 0, user input will be removed from the strikeout line symbolising censorship, NFT will be unlocked, and all NFT will be freely transferred and circulated.

(Under censorship, user input becomes unrecognizable)

In the NFT market, which is flooded with animal heads, monster heads, human heads, and even still life heads, this work is particularly unique.

Looking back on the history, whenever technological progress brings about the transformation of art carrier, the creation form and creation method of art will be active and vigorous innovation and change. The use of artificial pigments has brought more colors to painting, synthetic materials have brought more expressive force to sculpture, and the birth of film has brought us dynamic works of art... The birth of encryption, a new technology, has only brought a variety of different styles of profile pictures.

Pak cleverly mixes the off-chain world with the NFT work and incorporates the concept of "ownership" unique to NFT technology into the work -- you can't "really" own your Censored NFT while Assange is still in captivity. "When the freedom of one is violated, the freedom of all is violated."

(Gabriel Shipton)

Earlier today, Assange's brother Gabriel Shipton spoke to The Hill. Asked how AssangeDAO had been able to raise so much money in such a short time, he had a simple answer.

"You know, this lawsuit is really, really, really unpopular." Assange's brother used three really in a row to express his strong emotions.  

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