LONDON: Sotheby’s announced on Wednesday that a blockchain-based token representing the original source code for the World Wide Web produced by its inventor Tim Berners-Lee sold for US$5.4 million in an online auction. The source code was sold as a non-fungible token (NFT), which is a type of cryptocurrency. https://www.reuters.com/article/crypto-currency-nft-idCNL4N2LE3VG which keeps track of who owns what digitally.
In 2021, English physicist Tim Berners-Lee devised the NFT, which stands for https://www.reuters.com/technology/world-wide-web-code-that-changed-world-up-auction-nft-2021-06-15 Since 1989, when he founded the World Wide Web, he has owned a variety of digital products. The World Wide Web hasn’t been sold, to be sure. It was a blockchain-based ownership record of files holding the original source code for the World Wide Web that was sold. Half of the bids were new to Sotheby’s, and the ultimate price was $5434,500. The World Wide Web, or ‘the web,’ is an online navigation and information access system. Some people value the NFT because blockchain verifies that it is one-of-a-kind and that it was created, or’minted,’ by Tim Berners-Lee personally.
“”We have placed it in a public forum, we have sold it at basically no reserve (the bidding started at US$1,000), and we have let the market decide,” said Cassandra Hatton, global head of science and popular culture at Sotheby’s. There have been several bidders, all of whom agree that it is valuable.” NFTs representing about 9,555 lines of code created in 1990-1991, a 30-minute animated visualisation of the code, a digital poster of the code, and a digital letter written by Berners-Lee in June 2021 commenting on his invention are all included in the purchase. “I thought it might be fun to make an autographed copy of the original code of the first web browser,” the letter begins. “As people seemed to appreciate autographed versions of books, now that we have NFT technology, I thought it might be fun to make an autographed copy of the original code of the first web browser.”
The auction is the latest in a string of initiatives by established auction houses to embrace blockchain-based assets, which became popular in early 2021 and have since grown in popularity.
In March, an NFT of a digital collage by American artist Beeple fetched https://www.reuters.com/article/us-auction-christie-s-nft/digital-only-artwork-fetches-nearly-70-million-at-christies-idUSKBN2B3275 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-auction-christie-s-nft/digital-only- Christie’s has sold an artwork that does not exist for $69.3 million, making it the first time a major auction house has sold an artwork that does not exist. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-dorsey-nft/twitter-boss-jack-dorseys-first-tweet-sold-for-2-9-million-as-an-nft-idUSKBN2BE2KJ/twitter-boss-jack-dorseys-first-tweet-sold-for-2-9 For $2.9 million, he sold his first tweet in NFT form. (Elizabeth Howcroft contributed reporting, and Rosalba O’Brien edited the piece.)/n
