Ukrainian Museum of War Shows Exemplary Performance

Pain and suffering have always brought out the best in people while forcing them to be innovative at the same time. What is that they say about necessity being the mother of invention? When the war between Russia and Ukraine broke out, the latter was caught mostly off-guard. They had to think fast of ways to cope and retaliate.

It was during this hour of need that Ukraine launched the NFT museum to mark the history of the Russian invasion. They intended to use the digital assets to fund their war efforts and media activities. The Ukrainian deputy minister of digital transformation reported that the NFT collection would be like a museum of the Russian-Ukrainian war only in a special NFT format. 

Figure: The Ukrainian Metahistory Museum of war (source Reuters)

During the preparation of the NFT collection, the government appealed for cryptocurrency donations worth $60,000,000. These included a CryptoPunk NFT worth over $200,000. The government assured the world that this money would not be used to buy weapons. He promised that the money would instead be used to fund the media and buy military equipment. Such equipment would include bullet-proof vests, helmets, and night vision goggles.

What is an NFT?

Someone is probably reading this and getting confused by the minute because they are not familiar with the idea of NFTs. NFT is the short form for Non-Fungible Tokens.

• The best way to define NFTs is that they are unique digital assets that cannot be copied or tampered with.
• They can take any art form, it could be an image, a sticker, a song, or any other creative piece of art.
• They confer ownership of a unique digital item with pieces of virtual art. This is to say that an NFT is best identified by ownership. Its details are publically and permanently recorded on the Blockchain. This way, it doesn’t matter who gets access to the assets, the owner will always have the bragging rights. For instance, if it is an image, it would not matter how many people have it downloaded to their digital devices. The owner would always be distinguishable because of the Blockchain records.

Each NFT in the Ukrainian museum of war represents a story from a trusted news source. The governments and all parties involved wanted a cool and good-looking representation of their story. This museum did more than just tell a story, it marked a very monumental point in history; the birth of digital art.

Figure: Ukrainian flag (source Business standard)

Ukraine launches NFTs Museum of war in a push for crypto crowdfunding

The Ukrainian Meta History museum of war was launched by the NFT community with the support of the Ministry of Digital Transformation. The largest IT companies in the country, together with the Kyiv School of Economics and the Ministry of Digital Transformation created the Truth Fund. This fund was created to fight Russian propaganda and tell the world the truth about the war in Ukraine.

Figure: Ukraine launches NFTs museum of war (source cryptoflies)

The new collection was dubbed the ‘museum of war collection’ and it includes a cartoon-style image of an explosion and screengrabs of news reports. Ukraine reports that it has brought military supplies such as medicine, helmets, food, and bulletproof vests with crypto donations.

How much did Ukraine raise from the NFTs museum of war?

By the beginning of April 2022, it was reported that Ukraine had raised about $600,000 from the museum NFT sales. The funds were directed toward rebuilding museums in the war-torn country. The government was able to sell over 1,000 NFTs on the first day only.

Being that this is the world’s first NFTs museum, it has done well for itself. I am confident that more people will venture into NFTs museums now that they know their potential. Who would have thought that an NFTs museum could help raise $600,000 in just one day?

Figure: NFTs making history in 2022 (source Bitcoinist)

The raised funds were to be transferred to a cryptocurrency fund set up by the Ukrainian cryptocurrency exchange to support the Ukrainian army and digital and cyber resistance. Ukraine is the pioneer in combining Blockchain technology and contemporary art. They used this exciting combo to document the truth about the Russian Federation’s war against Ukraine.

One can visit the NFT museum or buy a digital work of art on metahistory.gallery.  

Could NFTs be the future of military funding?

When people say the future is now, I think they make a strong argument. We are experiencing a lot of things that our forefathers could only dream of. Ukrainian military turned to NFTs funding in their hour of need. While we’re the first ones to try this invention, they certainly won’t be the last.

• Nothing would prevent other countries and actors from holding similar NFT auctions to raise funds for a similar cause or anything else. NFTs have an added advantage that would make them particularly appealing for military funding. That added advantage is their additional security.
• War in the digital error is not limited to rifles and landmines, it also takes place in cyberspace. Remember back in 2015 after the annexation when Russian state-sponsored hackers were able to cut off power in 23,000 households in Western Ukraine? Hackers can also target banks and other government agencies.

If say they choose to wipe out data from the said institutions, they could potentially erase millions of dollars worth of wartime funds stored on the third-party networks. Most of these networks remain centralized hence highly vulnerable to extensive damage.

• Thankfully, NFTs have a decentralized nature hence state-sponsored hackers would have a much more difficult time interfering with them. NFTs and cryptocurrencies also utilize hardware wallets for storing digital tokens which gives an additional layer of protection. Ukraine and its international supporters can now proceed with absolute confidence.

Ukraine opted for Digital diplomacy which seemingly had immediate results with social media platforms either blocking Russian state media content or completely changing their information policy. Most of their digital weapons have also been disabled.

Conclusion

As already discussed, Ukraine has paved way for many others who are sure to follow this trend. People are beginning to appreciate digital currency and all the inventions that come with it. Who would have thought that one day a government would be at the forefront of an NFT revolution?