The original works by Tim Berners-Lee immortalized as an NFT
Tim Berners-Lee and renowned auction house Sotheby’s have auctioned an NFT containing the original source code for the invention of the internet for more than $5,4 million. The auction actually came with a bundle of NFTs, each depicting different works written by or inspired by Berners-Lee’s historical invention.
The auctioned NFT contained a 30-minute animated visualization of the code being written, the original time-stamped files containing the source code, vector graphics representing the source code and a letter by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, reflecting on his work.
The auction took place off-chain, through Sotheby’s. Therefore we can’t track the sale through the DappRadar NFT Sales feed. However, the NFT itself can be found on the Ethereum blockchain. It’s an ERC-721 NFT with its own smart contract, created by Tim Berners-Lee. The inventor minted the NFT more than two weeks ago, and moved it to a wallet presumably owned by Sotheby’s.
It’s unknown who the buyer is. In addition Sotheby’s hasn’t moved the NFT to a new wallet yet.
Auction houses put NFTs in spotlight
Sotheby’s and Christie’s have been actively chasing internet clout with their efforts in the NFT space. These ‘old fashioned’ auction houses have taken a more open approach, and often allow bidders to pay using crypto. In the past months both auction houses have sold NFTs for millions of dollars.
Think about the $69 million artwork by Beeple, that really brought NFTs into the mainstream. Sotheby’s recently auctioned a variety of NFTs in their Digitally Native event. This event included the $11,8 million sale for the Covid Alien Punk. In addition they opened a virtual version of their London office inside the virtual world of Decentraland.
Take a closer look at these three multi-million dollar NFTs. DappRadar now offers a new feature, the single NFT page. These pages are also accessible through your own wallet in the Portfolio Tracker.
