Ornella Hernandez

<div id="highlights-block_6286a2e75b70d" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>UnicornDAO raised $4.5 million with contributions from Yuga Labs and ConsenSys Mesh, among others</li>
 <li>Only 5% of NFT sales are generated from female-led projects, according to UnicornDAO</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



A new DAO is challenging the male-dominated NFT and Web3 landscape by funding and empowering women and LGBTQ+ artists.



UnicornDAO, started by Pussy Riot founding member Nadya Tolokonnikova, collects NFT (non-fungible token) artwork from such artists and provides them with the platform and funds to continue their creative endeavors.



Tolokonnikova and fellow co-founder John Caldwell were inspired to take action in the space after witnessing the long line of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Mutant Ape Yacht Club “bros” awaiting entry to a yacht party during NFT.NYC in November 2021.



After waiting three hours in line and realizing she was one of a handful of girls in attendance, Tolokonnikova left. Caldwell, head of asset management firm’s Wave Financial’s NFT fund, was struck by the homogeneity of BAYC members at the time and gathered his network to organize a more inclusive Web3 movement.&nbsp;



UnicornDAO can be the instrument that “brings beautiful and cute adoption of NFTs by people who are repulsed right now by bro culture,” Tolokonnikova told Blockworks.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“If you&#8217;re not going to involve women and girls, then mass adoption is never going to happen. Or it&#8217;s going to happen in a really ugly way. Not cute,” she said.</blockquote>



The art collective announced on Thursday that it has raised $4.5 million so far, and has purchased $1.4 million worth of art. Contributors include Yuga Labs, MoonPay, World of Women, Tribute Labs and Beeple, among others. The DAO was <a href="https://consensysmesh.medium.com/investment-spotlight-unicorn-dao-2480df924ff2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">built</a> using the Tribute DAO framework by Tribute Labs, a ConsenSys Mesh-incubated company.&nbsp;



DAO members include musicians Grimes and Sia, NFT artist Beeple and entrepreneur Guy Oseary. Grimes recently joined the board of curators and donated her latest music video to the DAO’s collection.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Donating my video 4 ‘New Gods’ to <a href="https://twitter.com/unicorndao_xxx?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@unicorndao_xxx</a> to help their mission to fund/ develop female and non-binary lead art and projects 🤍🗡<a href="https://t.co/yCJ5NMpAsl">https://t.co/yCJ5NMpAsl</a> <a href="https://t.co/m5mV8LR3yC">pic.twitter.com/m5mV8LR3yC</a>&mdash; 𝔊𝔯𝔦𝔪𝔢𝔰 (⌛️,⏳) ᚷᚱᛁᛗᛖᛋ (@Grimezsz) <a href="https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1525981460561137664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 15, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



UnicornDAO’s partnership with crypto payments infrastructure provider MoonPay enables creators to become members of the DAO via a sponsorship program without being hindered by financial barriers to entry.



When asked about other hurdles that may discourage women from working in crypto, Tolokonnikova admitted to being “shamed as a female queer artist” by those in the entertainment industry.



“Girls are just taught from their childhood that they&#8217;re not supposed to be technical. So they just never ended up in places where people adopted crypto early. There are not really a lot of female whales,” she said.



UnicornDAO launched during the South by Southwest conference in March 2022, marking the 10-year anniversary of the co-founder’s arrest in Moscow for her leadership in an anti-Putin protest Punk Prayer and subsequent 2-year jail sentence.



The DAO community will extend its operation to include a political arm, UnicornRiot, to politically organize and fundraise for activist causes. Its current primary focus is reproductive justice in the US.



UnicornRiot will be free to join, but prospective members of UnicornDAO need to apply. The activist branch will implement strategies and lessons learned from UkraineDAO, another of Tolokonnikova and Caldwell’s recent ventures that raised over $7 million in less than one week via an NFT sale to aid Ukrainian citizens during the Russia-Ukraine conflict.



Caldwell said UnicornDAO is not like other communities because it’s “safe, fun, accepting, and there&#8217;s a path towards activism and financial freedom.” He described the organization as a “lighthouse” for those who are crypto- and Web3-curious but may not fit into the space’s traditional communities.



“Behind all the tech, I still think the NFT community is about human connection,” Caldwell said.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/the-breakdown">The Breakdown</a>: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch">0xResearch</a>: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst. </li>
</ul>

BAYC

Pussy Riot Founder’s UnicornDAO To Make Space for Women, LGBTQ+ NFT Artists

Sebastian Sinclair

<div id="highlights-block_625dbcbbd85d4" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The wallet app is asking users to disable iCloud backups for MetaMask by going into Settings &gt; Profile &gt; iCloud &gt; Manage Storage &gt; Backups</li>
 <li>MetaMask&#8217;s response has drawn criticism from community members</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Crypto wallet MetaMask issued a warning advising users to disable their iCloud backups following an exploit of Apple&#8217;s service in an estimated $650,000 phishing scam.



The DeFi wallet provider said Sunday users who have iCloud enabled for iPhone application data were susceptible to hackers because the backups include their password-encrypted MetaMask vault.



&#8220;If your password isn’t strong enough and someone phishes your iCloud credentials, this can mean stolen funds,&#8221; MetaMask <a href="https://twitter.com/MetaMask/status/1515727239391809536" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a>.



The company did not immediately return a request for comment.



In one such phishing attack, hackers drained an estimated $650,000 from NFT investor Domenic Iacovone&#8217;s OpenSea account, including several Mutant Ape Yacht Club collectibles, on April 14.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Hey y’all, let’s see how amazing this community can be. My entire wallet was just stolen. Totally wiped out, MAYC 28478, MAYC 8952, MAYC 7536 Gutter cat 2280 , 2769, 2325 Also stole 100k in ape coin. Looking for all the help I can get. 100kreward <a href="https://twitter.com/BoredApeYC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BoredApeYC</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/GutterCatGang?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GutterCatGang</a>&mdash; Domenic Iacovone (@revive_dom) <a href="https://twitter.com/revive_dom/status/1514751885126914051?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 14, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



&#8220;Got a phone call from Apple, literally from Apple (on my caller Id) called it back because I suspected fraud and it was an Apple number,&#8221; Iacovone <a href="https://twitter.com/revive_dom/status/1514752274471473152?s=20&amp;t=Mz55J5At86ofD9lN1ccoLA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a>. &#8220;So I believed them, they asked for a code that was sent to my phone and two seconds later my entire MetaMask was wiped.&#8221;



MetaMask&#8217;s response has drawn criticism from community members who argue the backup feature used in iCloud should either be disabled or made tougher for hackers seeking a way into users&#8217; digital wallets.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">100% metamask will need to fix that shite <a href="https://t.co/M9E3DBt8p5">https://t.co/M9E3DBt8p5</a>&mdash; Br Br the podcast Snek (@bryanbrake) <a href="https://twitter.com/bryanbrake/status/1515767252292812801?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 17, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



MetaMask parent ConsenSys in February said it was looking to <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/onboarding-the-next-wave-of-metamask-users-through-nfts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">leverage NFTs</a> (non-fungible tokens) as a means to onboard more users to its digital wallet while building out a white-label NFT platform.



While efforts are being made on that front, critics argue cases like Iacovone&#8217;s demonstrate ConsenSys&#8217; need to improve security if it aims to bring on the &#8220;next wave&#8221; of wallet users.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/the-breakdown">The Breakdown</a>: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch">0xResearch</a>: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst. </li>
</ul>