The latest buzz in all the NFT craze is the former intelligence contractor and more popular whistleblower Edward Snowden, who recently auctioned off an original NFT art piece for around $5.4 million worth of cryptocurrency in Ether. The NFT is titled "Stay Free" and is a digital self-portrait made out of pages coming from a US Court of Appeals decision that previously ruled the NSA's widespread surveillance of private phone records a violation of the law.

Edward Snowden NFT

This was something that made Edward Snowden popular since he was the one who leaked the classified NSA secrets to journalists back in 2013. Snowden's popular portrait was officially snapped by the photographer known as Platon who gave permission for his work to be used in this particular NFT. This was according to the piece's description on Foundation, an online art marketplace.

Stay Free's official listing states that this is the only known NFT to be officially produced by Snowden. The NFT reportedly sold for a whopping 2,224 Ether which is estimated to be worth a little over $5.4 million during the time the news was published by Gizmodo.

Freedom of the Press Foundation

All the proceeds from this particular sale will reportedly go to the official Freedom of the Press Foundation which is a non-profit that works by developing open-source tools for particular whistleblowers as well as works to shield certain journalists from certain state-sponsored hackers as well as government surveillance. Snowden has reportedly led this organization as its president ever since 2017.

Snowden recently tweeted out that he wants to extend a very special thanks to those people that followed the NFT over the last 24 hours and that the deepest gratitude from everyone working at the FreedomofPress to those who had bid on the charity event. Snowden said that the people involved helped them make a better world.

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Where is Edward Snowden Now 2021?

Snowden is currently facing a number of felony charges over in the US under the official Espionage Act of 1917 for leaking certain classified information about the official NSA global and domestic surveillance programs. This would include NSA's famous "bulk collection" of over billions of domestic phone calls and even text messages in the US. This was a practice that was later ruled as unconstitutional in response to an official lawsuit that was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

In order to avoid prosecution, Snowden decided to flee to Russia back in 2013 where he still remains until today. Russian authorities initially granted him safe temporary asylum and some time last year, he was then offered permanent residency. Despite currently residing in Russia, Edward Snowden's sale of the NFT for Freedom of the Press Foundation shows how he is still very much involved in the world of security.

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Written by Urian Buenconsejo