World Wide Web source code NFT raises $ 5.4 million at auction | Crypto News

NFT was created by English scientist Tim Berners-Lee in 2021 and has been the property of several digital elements since the World Wide Web was invented in 1989.

A token based on a blockchain representing the original source code on the World Wide Web written by its inventor Tim Berners-Lee was sold for $ 5.4 million at Sotheby’s in an online auction on Wednesday, the auction house said.

The source code was sold as a non-fungible site (NFT), a type of cryptographic asset that records ownership of digital elements.

NFT was created by English scientist Berners-Lee in 2021 and has been the property of several digital elements since the World Wide Web was invented in 1989.

Sure, the World Wide Web itself is not for sale. What was sold was a blockchain ownership record of files that had original source code around the world. The final price was $ 5,434,500 and half of the bidders were new to Sotheby’s.

The World Wide Web is a system for browsing and accessing information on the Internet.

Some consider NFT valuable because it verifies that the blockchain is of this type and that Berners-Lee has officially created or “invented” it himself.

“Being symbolism, history, being from the creator is what makes them valuable – and there are a lot of people who put things together for that reason,” said Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s general manager of science and popular culture.

“We put it in a public forum, basically sold it without reservation (the bidding started at $ 1,000) and let the market decide what that value would be. There have been several that all bidders have agreed are valuable.”

Included in the purchase are NFTs representing about 9,555 lines of code written in 1990-1991, a 30-minute animated code display, a digital poster of the code, and a digital letter written by Berners-Lee in June 2021 for reflection. his invention.

The letter begins: “Since 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 series of moves by traditional auction houses to acquire blockchain-based assets, which sparked popularity in early 2021.

In March, the NFT of a digital collage by American artist Beeple He earned $ 69.3 million at Christie’s, the first sale of a work of art that does not physically exist by an important auction house. Jack Dorsey Twitter boss he sold the first tweet as NFT $ 2.9 million.