The original source code for the World Wide Web that was written by its inventor Tim Berners-Lee is up for sale at Sotheby’s as part of a non-fungible token, with bids starting at just $1,000. According to a press release, the winning bidder will also receive a letter from Berners-Lee “reflecting on the code and the process of developing it,” as well as a 30-minute video developed by a graphic artist showing the code being generated.
According to Sotheby’s, the NFT, titled “This Changed Everything,” will be the auction house’s first digital-born object to be sold, and will be offered directly by Berners-Lee himself. “People will be able to ponder with Sir Tim on the bare bones of the architecture of the web’s creation,” according to the deal.
The token will be made up of four parts: the original time-stamped files containing Berners-source Lee’s code; an animated visualization of the code; a letter written by the inventor reflecting on the code and the process of creating it; and a digital poster of the full code made from the original files using Python, complete with a graphic of his physical signature.
The code consists of almost 9,555 lines, with implementations of three linguistic protocols — HTTP, URI, and HTML — that are still used on the World Wide Web today.
The auction will take place from June 23 through June 30, with bidding starting at $1000, according to Sotheby’s. Cassandra Hatton, worldwide head of Sotheby’s science and pop culture department, adds, “At the foundation of everything is the source code for the World Wide Web.”
“We determined that the original, time-stamped, and dated files would be the basis of the package, with some supplemental things included assisting consumers to see and absorb what was being offered more easily.”
“Three decades ago, I invented something that has since become a powerful tool for humankind, thanks to the contributions of a large number of partners all across the world. The attitude of collaboration has been the nicest part of the web for me.
While I cannot anticipate the future, I genuinely hope that its use, knowledge, and potential will remain open and available to us all so that we can continue to develop, develop, and launch the next technological transformation that we cannot yet imagine,” Bernes-Lee said in a statement.
NFTs’ attachment to particular items has proven unpersuasive to some because they are practically an authentication mechanism. Replicas of actual paintings attached to NFTs did not sell well, but an infinite edition of artworks by modern artist Daniel Arsham received a recent blowout sale. Given that code is an abstraction to the average collector, Hatton believes it is logical to tie it to an NFT.
