Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Internet has sold the web's DNA earning a record amount.
Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Internet, has auctioned off the web's source code as Ntf. The DNA of the Web has been paid by an anonymous buyer the beauty of 5.4 million dollars. This is the source code of the very first Internet, auctioned by Sotheby's.
In recent weeks Tim Berners-Lee, considered the founder of the modern Internet, had decided to put up for sale through the famous auction house a Nft of the source code of the web dating back to 1989. A real heirloom for tech enthusiasts who have contended this "piece of history" of the World Wide Web reaching a record amount. The buyer who won the auction obtained four different items as a single token. Inside, the original files, provided with date and time, of the source code, an animated visualization of Berners-Lee while writing the code, a letter in which he describes the creative process and a digital poster, signed by Tim, with the code composed by 10 thousand lines.
While the digital certificate is in the hands of a lucky (and probably wealthy) buyer, Berners-Lee asked and obtained that after the sale Sotheby's publish on its site both the code strings and the animation. A way to satisfy the most curious, but above all to reiterate the need for a free web, a concept that Tim has always protected and carried forward since 1993 when he made public his creation, revolutionizing the world.
The proceeds of the auction will go to charity and the computer scientist appeared very satisfied. "Why an NFT? Well, it's a natural thing to do when you're a computer scientist, when you write code and you've been doing it for many years," he explained on Sotheby's website. "It seems right to digitally sign my autograph on a completely digital artifact. Until today, the highest value is the one paid for 5 thousand digital images of Beeple, graphic designer and digital artist, equal to 70 million dollars. Disaster Girl memes have also been auctioned for $495,000 and the first tweet by Jack Dorsey, creator of Twitter, for $2.9 million.