The creator of the world-wide-web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, sold the NFT of the original source code through the auction house Sotheby’s to an unidentified buyer. NFTs are certificates of ownership for digital assets which do not have a physical representation.
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The auction began on 23rd June with an opening bid of $1,000, reaching the highest bid of $3.5m before the closing 15 minutes. In the last few minutes there were numerous offers with the NFT finally being sold for $5.4m.
The profits from the sale are set to go towards causes chosen by Sir Tim and his wife. Four different items were sold as a part of the single NFT. These included time-stamped files of the source code, a letter from Sir Tim, a digital poster of the code created by Sir Tim, and an animated video of the code being written.
When he created the world wide web in 1989, he connected different pieces of information through hyperlinks on the early internet. But, despite building the first browser and web server, he refused to patent them.
When the NFT was announced, Sir Tim told the media, “The core codes and protocols on the web are royalty free, just as they always have been. I’m not selling the web – you won’t have to start paying money to follow links. I’m not even selling the source code.”
“I’m selling a picture that I made, with a Python program that I wrote myself, of what the source code would look like if it was stuck on the wall and signed by me,” he added. Sotheby’s described the lot as “the only signed copy of the code for the first web browser in existence.”
