Dogs of BND: Federal Intelligence Service starts NFT competition

The Federal Intelligence Service (BND) is looking for young talent who can put a stop to cyber criminals. For this, the German secret service has published its own NFT collection and a “Blockchain Challenge” launched on social networks. Smart participants can use a hint to secure their own non-fungible token. The name of the collection: “Dogs of BND”. The two service dogs Inka and Alex, who work at the Pullach site and at the intelligence service’s branch offices, served as inspiration.

The NFT collection consists of 999 unique, computer-generated dog images with differently distributed characteristics – from different background colors to various glasses, headgear and hairstyles. Involved in the development: the social media editorial team and a blockchain team from the research and development area. With the campaign, the BND wants to present itself as an exciting employer who works on innovative technology topics. The secret service explained the motivation behind the NFT collection to BTC-ECHO:

We are also looking for talents in the field of cyber security in the future. Our service dogs, the “Dogs of BND”, have already received tens of thousands of likes as photos and are hanging as calendars in many offices and households in Germany. So an NFT collection was an obvious new offering for our Instagram community.

This is how you can unlock your own BND-NFT

This offer for the community has existed since June 5th in the form of the blockchain challenge. It’s worth taking part – at least if you want to call one of the NFT dogs your own. A fortune does not jump out of it, according to OpenSea the floor price is just 0.000001 ETH. The challenge is still a welcome change for crypto enthusiasts. Here it goes to the Conditions of Participation.

71 participants have already secured one of the 987 available dog pictures, as the BND reports on request. Among them are expected to be many NFTs with rare traits, such as glowing cyber glasses or a Hawaiian shirt. The 12 non-acquirable dog NFTs with a comic gold background are not part of the blockchain challenge. However, the social media department of the secret service is planning further, more difficult competitions and wants to use the 12 NFTs as a prize. Initial considerations lead in the direction of a smart contract hacking challenge, as the federal intelligence service BTC-ECHO announced on request.

Federal intelligence service penetrates the crypto sector

Meanwhile, Bitcoin and Co. are no strangers to the German secret service. “The topic of blockchain technology and the associated cryptocurrency as well as non-fungible tokens occupy the BND in various areas,” it said on request. According to the Federal Intelligence Service, these areas would range from cyber reconnaissance to research and development to other topics such as the metaverse.

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It is unclear whether the secret service – like the federal government – holds cryptocurrencies or uses them for investigative purposes. In a request for information from the AfD, the Federal Intelligence Service refused to testify. In doing so, the BND itself is undermining “the German Bundestag’s constitutionally guaranteed right to ask questions and receive information from the federal government”. According to a statement, the law finds its limits in the “interests of the state that also deserve protection, which also enjoy constitutional status”. According to the reasoning, disclosing the requested information harbors the risk that details of the BND’s specific methodology and specific capabilities that are highly worthy of protection will become known.

You can check how good your skills are on the blockchain in the challenge. In a self-test, BTC-ECHO took up the challenge and found the Dogs of BND on the Ethereum Blockchain.