Web Source Code NFT Sells For $5.4 Million Dollars

Even amidst staunch criticism from economists and other analysts alike, NFT’s continue to bring in massive profits. 

NFTs represent a piece of digital art that contains unique blockchain ownership. The technology behind it is simple: although it’s just a digital file, only a certain amount of blockchain-approved copies of a particular digital moment exist, giving them exclusivity and rarity value.

Now, NFTs are proving to be highly profitable when the moment they represent is a coveted piece of history. To many, owning a digital replica of the moment represents ownership of the moment itself. 

As of recently, NFT sales topped $2B during the first quarter of 2021.

If I told you that you could own the moment that the internet was created, it would be pretty appealing! And it obviously is, as the NFT representing the Web’s creation just sold for an amount that you wouldn’t believe. 

On June 30th, an NFT copy of the original World Wide Web sold for $5.4M. 

The NFT contains the following:

• An original, time-stamped source code file
• An interpretable visualization of the source code
• A letter from the code’s creator
• A poster display of the code file

The seller, computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee, will be donating all the proceeds to benefit initiatives that his family supports. 

Berners-Lee notes: “I’m selling a picture 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.”

The auction represents the extent to which people want NFTs as novelty collectibles. The reason for their popularity likely lies in the exclusivity they present. 

Still, NFTs are receiving bad ratings and outlooks from many critics across the world. Many argue that the lack of an inherent “product” makes them too dependent on current market hype, something which could lead to a volatile moment if the craze turns out to be just a fad.