Sir Tim Berners-Lee shows off an early webpage created at the European Particle Physics Laboratory, or CERN. Sotheby's
Sir Tim Berners-Lee shows off an early webpage created at the European Particle Physics Laboratory, or CERN. Sotheby's
Sir Tim Berners-Lee shows off an early webpage created at the European Particle Physics Laboratory, or CERN. Sotheby's
Sir Tim Berners-Lee shows off an early webpage created at the European Particle Physics Laboratory, or CERN. Sotheby's

Source code for the World Wide Web sells as NFT for $5.4m


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In a stand-alone auction on Wednesday, an NFT of the source code for the World Wide Web brought in $5.4 million.

Bidding opened at Sotheby's on May 23 at $1,000 and over the course of the sale, the NFT attracted a total of 51 bids.

An NFT, or non-fungible token, is a data unit stored on a blockchain that certifies a digital asset is unique and therefore able to be owned. NFTs can include photos, videos, audio files or other kinds of digital files.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the computer scientist who invented the World Wide Web, offered the item and proceeds from the sale will benefit initiatives that he and his wife, Lady Rosemary Berners-Lee, support.

“The process of bringing this NFT to auction has offered me the opportunity to look back in time to the moment I first sat down to write this code thirty years ago and reflect on how far the web has come since then and where it could go in the decades to come,” Sir Tim said.

“While the source code to the web itself is a digital artefact that has existed since 1990, it is not until the emergence of NFTs that something like this could ever have been harnessed for sale,” Oliver Barker, chairman of Sotheby's Europe, said.

“It has been such an exciting journey for Sotheby’s to play a role in this landmark moment from start to finish and to have opened a window into the astonishing world of Sir Tim Berners-Lee.”

The World Wide Web digital asset is composed of four elements: the original time-stamped files containing the source code written by Sir Tim; an animated visualisation of the code; a letter written by Sir Tim reflecting on the code and the process of creating it; and a digital “poster” of the full code created by Sir Tim from the original files using Python including a graphic of his physical signature — all digitally signed.

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The specs

Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel

Power: 579hp

Torque: 859Nm

Transmission: Single-speed automatic

Price: From Dh825,900

On sale: Now

VEZEETA PROFILE

Date started: 2012

Founder: Amir Barsoum

Based: Dubai, UAE

Sector: HealthTech / MedTech

Size: 300 employees

Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)

Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC

MATCH INFO

Bangla Tigers 108-5 (10 ovs)

Ingram 37, Rossouw 26, Pretorius 2-10

Deccan Gladiators 109-4 (9.5 ovs)

Watson 41, Devcich 27, Wiese 2-15

Gladiators win by six wickets

Updated: July 01, 2021, 7:25 AM`