Whistleblower Edward Snowden has raised millions for his journalism foundation by auctioning off a digital artwork. A portrait of the 37-year-old, silhouetted between the pages of a U.S. court document, was bought for the equivalent of $5.5 million (about 4.6 million euros) in the digital currency Ethereum.
Former intelligence officer Snowden had revealed the extent of Internet surveillance by the American wiretapping service NSA in 2013. On the run, he was stranded at an airport in Moscow with a cancelled U.S. passport and applied for asylum in Russia, where he has been living ever since.
NFTs are proofs of Digital Art, so they can be truly attributed to an owner. The Etherium Blockchain is used for this purpose. NFTs are experiencing a boom right now. A copy of a collage by the digital artist Beeple linked to it was recently auctioned off for a good 69.3 million dollars.