Tor Project Auctions NFT Based on First Darkweb Site for $1.7 Million

Tor is a project to offer anonymity for your internet activity by encrypting traffic and routing it through a number of computers on its network that decrypt it one layer at a time.

“Tor’s onion services have offered the most private way to host and visit a website for more than 15 years,” said Isabela Bagueros, executive director of the Tor Project, in a statement. "We’re incredibly excited to offer our community a chance to own a piece of Tor history. We look forward to using proceeds of this auction to improve Tor’s censorship circumvention and privacy tools so that millions more can access the internet privately and safely.”

The NFT is piece of generative art derived using the private key of the very first onion service, duskgytldkxiuqc6.onion. The auction was held on foundation.app, a platform which recently sold an NFT from Edward Snowden for 2,224 Ethereum that was a signed copy of the court ruling that ruled the NSA's warrantless mass surveillance system illegal.