The origin of the web is up for auction!
The world of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) will be having another major event this week and, remarkably, it has nothing to do with art. The prestigious Sotheby’s auction house will be accepting bids for the 9555 lines of the source code that form the basis for the World Wide Web. In layman’s terms: they will be auctioning off the original code that invented the web as we know it today.
The auction will take place from tomorrow June 23rd to June 30th and it is yet another telling indication of how NFTs have broken through to the mainstream.
The code was written by the British computer scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee back in 1990 and 1991 and it will be linked to an NFT. This will be established through a blockchain smart contract that proves the code’s authenticity and unique right of ownership. Not sure how that works? Here’s a refresher. And because code is an abstraction to the average collector, attaching the World Wide Web’s original code to an NFT makes sound sense. We have now come full circle on one of the main reasons for being of NFTs.
The winning bidder will not only receive the original code, but also a letter from Berners-Lee himself in which he reflects on the significance of the code and the process of creating it, among other additional gifts. The starting bid will be $1000.
Other examples of NFTs entering the mainstream
NFTs have many use cases which are still being worked out at the moment as it’s a very new technology. Up until now, the most known use cases are digital art and collectibles. However, as was indicated before, NFTs are seeping into the mainstream. Besides this groundbreaking auction, in recent months the world has also been introduced to NFT marketplaces, the invention of NFT fragrances, and even the market entry of NFT art that was created by a toilet paper brand (yes, you read that correctly).
In addition, former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan has become an artist and has begun selling his art in the form of NFTs. His debut NFT collection is showcased by LGND, Inc. — a platform and community focusing on artist empowerment, sustainability, and technical innovation.
Furthermore, there is currently a company in the Netherlands, Vidt Data Link, that is involved with document validation through NFTs. They have their own crypto token called VIDT-token ($VIDT).
They also use this technology to prove the authenticity of physical objects — they were responsible for the recent digital authentication of a Rolex watch and were responsible for the first Rembrandt art secured on the blockchain.
Takeaways
From our perspective as a digital agency with headquarters in the Caribbean, we try to be at the forefront of any new technologies. Our involvement with NFTs might not be the most fortuitous from a financial perspective — the details of what partnerships and services would look like in this realm is still unclear.
However, this technology continues to develop and manifest in exciting new ways as time progresses. So it will be interesting to see how digital agencies and other companies operating in this industry in the region will help bring this to the mainstream here and how the public will interact with its arrival.
