Edward Snowden Pentagon Papers NFT to be auctioned via live PleasrDAO show

The first interactive performance will feature an auction of a 1:1 Ethereum NFT in partnership with Daniel Ellsberg on Thursday.

Edward Snowden and Daniel Ellsberg have partnered on a piece of Ethereum NFT-based artwork. The NFT will be auctioned off to raise funds for their respective causes through a new livestreamed interactive show called PleasrHouse from Web3 collective PleasrDAO.

“[PleasrDAO] got to know Snowden and the Freedom of the Press Foundation when we acquired Snowden’s ‘Stay Free’ NFT,” PleasrDAO Head of Marketing Chris Eberle told. “It’s an amazing piece, and the funds raised from the auction funded a year-plus of Freedom of the Press Foundation operating costs.”

Snowden and Ellsberg, both board members of the Foundation, came up with the idea to co-create a piece honoring Ellsberg and his 1971 release of the Pentagon Papers, entitled “Wouldn’t You Go to Prison to Help End This War?”

This Thursday, January 12th, the premiere episode of PleasrHouse will focus on the Ethereum NFT and feature an interview with Ellsberg and Snowden, the artwork sale, and documentary clips made by PleasrDAO.

“We had been working on a Web3 auction house, and this piece ([with] these whistleblowers) was a perfect fit for the inaugural episode,” Eberle said.

PleasrDAO was created in March 2021 to buy an NFT by the famous digital artist Emily “pplpleasr” Yang. The next month, PleasrDAO won an auction with a bid of $5.4 million worth of ETH for a piece of NFT art made by Snowden. At the time, PleasrDAO said that it bid on the NFT to support the idea of transparency, saying that Snowden changed the rules of the game for that idea.

In October 2021, PleasrDAO bought $4 million for the unique 2015 Wu-Tang Clan album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.” The album was taken by the United States government after the conviction of the infamous pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli for securities fraud.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, members of PleasrDAO got together to form Ukraine DAO. They boosted millions of dollars in cryptocurrency to send to the Ukrainian government and NGOs working in the area.

PleasrDAO says that PleasrHouse is a new experiment that was made to alter the way people usually experience live art auctions. The first show is about the work of activists and whistleblowers. Moreover, the DAO says that future shows will cover a wide range of online experiences.

“PleasrHouse is a livestreaming late-night talk show that culminates in a high-profile art auction,” Eberle said. “Imagine the educational elements of a PBS documentary, the entertaining bits of SNL, the experimental energy of Adult Swim, the intimacy of a podcast interview, and the excitement/fanfare/sophistication of a Sotheby’s live auction.”

Eberle states that PleasrHouse intends to deliver an entertaining and accessible live experience that educates viewers about art, the internet, society, and culture through interviews, Q&As, and other original content in order to add more spectacle to the auction experience.

Profits will be split between the Freedom of the Press Foundation and the Daniel Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy, according to PleasrDAO.

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