The latest item to be auctioned as a nonfungible token is the original source code for the World Wide Web, written by the British computer scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
“The auction for the World Wide Web NFT — titled ‘This Changed Everything’ — will be run by Sotheby’s in London from June 23-30, with bidding starting at $1,000,” reported CNBC. “The proceeds of the auction will benefit initiatives that Berners-Lee and his wife support, Sotheby’s said.”
CNBC also noted that the auction of the internet’s initial source code “will be the first time Berners-Lee has been able to capitalize financially on what is widely viewed as one of the greatest inventions of our time.”
“Three decades ago, I created something which, with the subsequent help of a huge number of collaborators across the world, has been a powerful tool for humanity,” said Berners-Lee in a statement. “For me, the best bit about the web has been the spirit of collaboration. While I do not make predictions about the future, I sincerely hope its use, knowledge, and potential will remain open and available to us all to continue to innovate, create and initiate the next technological transformation, that we cannot yet imagine.”
“NFTs, be they artworks or a digital artefact like this, are the latest playful creations in this realm, and the most appropriate means of ownership that exists. They are the ideal way to package the origins behind the web,” Sir Berners-Lee added.
According to Sotheby’s, the work includes
- Original archive of dated and time-stamped files containing the source code, written between 3 October 1990 and 24 August 1991. These files contain code with approximately 9,555 lines, the contents of which include implementations of the three languages and protocols invented by Sir Tim; HTML (Hypertext Markup Language); HTTP (Hyper Transfer Protocol); and URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers), as well as the original HTML documents that instructed early web users on how to use the application
- Animated visualization of the code being written (Video, black & white, silent), lasting 30 minutes 25 seconds
- An Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) representation of the full code (A0 841mm wide by 1189 mm high), created by Sir Tim from the original files using Python, with a graphic representation of his physical signature at lower right
- A letter written in the README.md file (in “markdown” format) by Sir Tim in June of 2021, reflecting upon the code and his process of creating it
“Invented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, the ‘WorldWideWeb’ application was the first hypermedia browser/editor, allowing users to create and navigate links between files across a network of computers. It was written in the Objective C programming language, using the Interface Builder on a NeXT computer, a highly influential and innovative computer designed by Steve Jobs in between the time he was forced out of Apple in 1985 and when he rejoined in 1997,” explained Sotheby’s.
At the end of the letter written by Sir Berners-Lee, the computer scientist says, “It has been fun to go back and look over the code. It is amazing to see the things that those relatively few lines of code, with a help of an amazing growing gang of collaborators across the planet, stayed enough on track to become what the web is now. I have never once felt I could relax and sit back — as the web was and is constantly changing. It is not yet the best it can be: there is always work to be done!”