In a truly unusual recruitment campaign, the German intelligence agency Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) has released a collection of NFTs called Dogs of BND. The initiative aims to attract tech-savvy people with knowledge of blockchain and NFT technology to help fight cybercrime.
Inspired by the Pullach agency's service dogs Inka and Alex, the collection consists of 999 images of dog avatars with different characteristics. They differ in background color, outfits, glasses, hats and hairstyles.
The collection is released on the Ethereum blockchain, and parts of it can be obtained exclusively by users wishing to take part in the cryptographic treasure hunt. It requires demonstrating problem solving skills using cybersecurity knowledge.
BND's approach to the release was not only unconventional, but also interactive, as participants must discover a hidden string of characters (address, transaction hash, block or token number) set by the agency as a clue. The digital scavenger hunt ends when people find the correct data, giving them the opportunity to create an NFT collection.
So far, only 200 users have been able to obtain the token, and the hunt will continue until all 999 NFTs are unlocked.
This unusual campaign has already begun to gain traction on Web3, and the reach of young talent is expanding through social media activity.
At a time of alarming increase in cyber threats, hiring experienced professionals to combat such crimes is of utmost importance.