RAIRtech Launches NFT Collection to Raise $1.3 Mn for Ukraine

#UkraineGlitch generative NFTs support Ukrainian developers and medical aid on-chain

NFT platform RAIRtech today announced a special edition of NFTs called “UkraineGlitch,” which seeks to raise $1.3 million to help Ukrainian people in need of medical supplies.

All funds from the generative drop will be split between the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council (UACC) and the Web3 Developer fund, benefiting Ukrainian web3 developers in Ukraine, RAIRtech stated..

The project features a glitched image of the Ukrainian flag with yellow and blue pixelated ‘bullet holes’ sprinkled in the background to represent the flag under duress..

The limited-run 1991 NFT collection represents the year that Ukrainians overwhelmingly voted for the Ukrainian independence referendum. The collection is hosted on the Ethereum mainnet with each piece priced at 0.1991 ETH (~$600 USD).

“Generating these pieces was quite cathartic- and at times had me on the floor crying. What seemed like impersonal images based on squares and randomness became a map for the energetic transposition from negative to positive. The tweaking of algorithms eventually led to the perfect balance of chaos and distressed symbolism,” said Masha Mitkov, Fullstack Project Manager at RAIRtech.

“My family emigrated from Ukraine to the US in the early 90's with refugee status. When war broke out over Crimea in 2014, my father started a direct supply chain distribution of high-quality medical supplies directly to the Ukrainian militia. Since his passing in November of 2020, and the onset of a new War in 2022, people have been reaching out to find ways to have access to these products again. Now the Ukrainian Coordinating Council and others have taken over what my father started. I realized I had a unique position in connecting people who needed help and those that wanted to help."

With every UkraineGlitch purchased, the number of pixels swapped from yellow to blue increases, eventually inverting or turning the flag upside down. Some pieces are animated to show parts of this progression, while others are still. Only UkraineGlitch NFT holders can watch the full animation of the flag transformation on the launch page.

“RAIRtech has long enjoyed working with skilled Ukrainian web3 developers. We worked with several different firms and developers to create our front and back ends,” said Ed Prado, CEO of RAIRtech. “Since the war began, we found the best way to provide help to our Ukrainian friends was to send crypto. We now want to expand and open up this support effort - this is where UkraineGlitch comes in,” he added.

The Ukrainian American Coordinating Council specializes in supplying medical supplies, particularly technologically advanced blood-clotting gauze bandages. The UACC matches supplies with hospitals and transports goods directly to them. The Web3 Developer Fund gives out small grants on a rapid as-needed basis to Ukrainian developers to help them relocate and purchase food and supplies.

An Artist Creates NFTs for Every Person in the World as an Experiment

Image - Dadara@Twitter

A Bold Plan to Mint One NFT for Every Person in the World

Dutch Artist Dadara and NFT Platform RAIRTech Mint 7.9 Billion Identical CryptoGreyman NFTs to Provide Immutable Blockchain Identity

A social experiment concocted by Dutch artist Dadara and NFT digital rights management platform RAIRtech has resulted in the creation of 7.9 billion digitally identical NFTs of CryptoGreyman. 

While physically, the NFTs all look the same, each carries its own serial number - a commentary on the way in which people are viewed in the centralized corporate world; generalized to numbers.

In a sea of NFTs that artificially create scarcity by imposing ‘rare’ traits, limited collections, and exclusive communities, the identical CryptoGreyman NFTs - available for purchase for 1 MATIC (~$2 USD) - seek to be the opposite.

"I see this as a dead serious prank, which can rattle the cage of consensual reality and elevate conversation. It’s an experiment with an unpredictable outcome," said artist Dadara. "No one specific NFT is better than another, and because the minting price is widely accessible it will be interesting to see what value each individual CryptoGreyman holder brings."

Greyman

The NFTs feature the Greyman character, originally created by Dadara in the 1990s, but have been given a pixelated, web3 makeover. The NFT’s only unique characteristic is the serial number, which is given out in sequential minted order. The project is a commentary on the way that government and corporate society have stripped people of their individuality, often reducing them to numbers and statistics, which is paralleled by the unrelenting pressure that social media has put on people to be radically unique. 

By launching CryptoGreyman, Dadara hopes to raise conversation on the potential in the decentralized Web3 space to create a more honest form of individuality, by putting the users first.

“This year this whole NFT “status symbol” idea has really developed, to the point where people will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a Bored Ape NFT or other PFP projects and will use that piece of digital uniqueness as what defines them. This project is more democratized, the barrier for entry is intentionally low,” said Garrett Minks, CTO of RAIRtech. “When a person purchases a CryptoGreyman, that attached serial number is theirs. That number, if they chose to keep it, will be theirs until the end of time, or the blockchain ceases to exist.”

This project is not only a statement piece, it also brings real-world benefits to refugees. The project has teamed up with non-profit Movement on the Ground, an organization that seeks to dignify refugee reception across the globe. RAIRtech is placing 2,222 of the most coveted numbered NFTs in a treasury. Movement on the Ground will disperse those reserves as part of an educational program that teaches refugees how to set up a wallet and sell their NFTs, enabling the start of their new lives with a wallet that can travel with them anywhere.

The cause was chosen because one of the largest issues that refugees face is the struggle to obtain proper forms of identification needed to seek refuge. Often refugees and asylum seekers are seen by countries and governments not as people who have fled unimaginable situations not of their own making, but rather as piling paperwork on a desk.

ABOUT RAIRtech

RAIRtech (https://rair.tech/) Is a blockchain-based, distributed digital rights management platform that enables streaming NFTs. Currently the NFT marketplace supports public-facing images whose ownership is proven on the blockchain. With RAIR you are able to take this same NFT and attach a video, song, document or data to it. RAIR uses a decentralized key management node system to allow anyone to create NFTs that are tied to the underlying content, while also providing NFT minting, royalties & metadata management. With RAIR, creators can turn any type of media into an encrypted, access-controlled file that is accessible on any type of browser, making any digital file scarce and therefore valuable.