Edward Snowden
This one hurts. Last April, noted whistleblower Edward Snowden created and sold off an NFT artwork featuring his face superimposed over the full court ruling describing how the National Security Agency’s widespread surveillance broke the law. It was a landmark ruling based on Snowden’s whistleblowing, and inarguably a massive deal, even all these years after he first exposed what was really happening within the agency.
And that’s why seeing Snowden get into NFT’s stings so much; even though the auction was on behalf of the Freedom of Press Foundation, it was still an auction that essentially turned one of the most monumental moments in privacy news into… a bit of a cash grab. And that’s not to mention the privacy and security issues that can come baked into NFT’s, that Snowden himself is fully aware of, even warning buyers about them just months after his own NFT was first announced! C’mon, Ed. You’re better than this.
