German Intelligence Agency Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) has released a non-fungible token (NFT) collection to recruit talent through a gamified blockchain treasure hunt. The agency’s “Dogs of BND” collection consists of 999 generative dog-themed profile pictures (PFPs) donning cyber security-themed wearables. Players must locate a hidden string of characters in order to mint into the collection. The NFT costs less than 1 cent to mint (excluding gas fees), but the collection’s floor price on secondary marketplace OpenSea is currently 0.045 ETH, or about $82.
The goal of the treasure hunt is to seek out young talent who are fluent in blockchain technology to help mitigate cybercrime. BND has tapped its Instagram following to do so, aiming to court users who are social media savvy and interested in NFTs. “We are also looking for talents in the field of cyber security in the future,” the agency told BTC Echo. “So an NFT collection was an obvious new offering for our Instagram community.”
The treasure hunt will end when all 999 tokens have been minted. While the BND is integrating NFTs into its recruitment strategy, not all government agencies are suited to incorporate tokenized assets into their strategies. The U.K. government made plans to create an NFT through the Royal Mint, but canceled its plans out of concern for speculation and financial risk.