Interview: Ukraine’s NFT Museum of War

Every so often, you get an interview opportunity that really makes you stop and think. This was one of those cases – a Q&A with the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation, Virtual Assets Office.

The subject to be discussed was the unique Museum of War, powered by NFTs. The collection was launched in March to “preserve the statehood and history of Ukraine”. Alex Bornayakov, the Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, asserted as part of the launch that “rebuilding the country requires modern solutions”.

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In browsing the NFT gallery, then one that stood out to me was the Warline, a sombre timeline of the war, with each event accompanied by a corresponding NFT drawn by a Ukrainian artist, and including a tweet of that event. The first NFT from Day 1, for example, is the below – containing a tweet from BBC news confirming Russia had invaded.

The timeline chronicles the full events of the war, stamped on the blockchain forever. Jumping forward to Day 3, for example, the below NFT (Day 3, 00:39) took my notice. A glimmer of hope amongst the tragedy. The Museum also displays the potential power of the industry – despite the majority of NFTs being frivolous pursuits such as cartoon monkeys, pixelated avatars and what not, there can be a real impact made in the space too, such as this collection.

In addition to this project, Ukraine’s MetaHistory of WAR (a joint project with the Ministry of Digital Transformation) is releasing a “Hall of Fame” section at the museum to show their gratitude and respect for public figures that stood alongside Ukraine when it needed it the most.

The first public figure, Elon Musk, was released on April 29th. A figure revered in the crypto space, of course, Musk appears in this collection as a result of him helping Ukraine to gain internet connectivity via Starlink. It serves as a further reminder of the scale and potential in the NFT space here.

As moved as we were by this novel collection, we interviewed the Ministry of Digital Transformation to get more background on the Museum, their thoughts on the crypto community, and any plans for further releases.  

Invezz.com (IZ): What’s the main goal of the museum, and what will the display be like?

VK, Head of Museum of War Project (VK): The most important goal of our mission is Historiography. Fix the truth of what is happening on this unfairly terrible war in the annals of the blockchain by illustrating events through the feelings of each artist.

IZ: Are you funded and/or supported by any specific organizations/individuals? If yes, what kind of role do they play?

VK: The only support we have is donations.

IZ: What are you doing to stop and/or filter the spread of misinformation, which has been at the centre of the current conflict, and ensure verification of only true information?

VK: The goal and mission of our project is to fix the truth of the fakes as they are, not allowing propaganda to deform the face of truth

IZ: Do you see fundraising avenues such as these becoming more popular during future crises?

VK: For me, as the author of the idea and CEO, this project is the hope that in the event of such crises, such a model will be able to consolidate the support of the world in the event of such an event.

IZ: Do you have plans to release more collections?

VK: Absolutely. Warline and his historiographic mission will live until the moment of Victory, but at the same time, I conceived the auction side of the project specifically for the accession of other authors and collections, but at the same time for the freedom to implement other collaborations and ideas that are already being developed by me in alliance with artists from all over the world

IZ: How have you found your interactions to date, surrounding this project, with the crypto community?

VK: I would say that my communication with collectors, well-known personalities in crypto art, and owners of exchanges and platforms suggests that they highly appreciate the idea and mission laid down in the heart of the project. But, at the same time, I feel a deep lack of virality in the crypto community in order to maximize the number of people could get to know us and support us. As if this happened, we would have a bigger team to implement my plan – namely to set a world record in charity NFT and open the first NFT museum in Ukraine. I’m working on it.