Sir Tim Berners-Lee Source Code NFT Sold For Over $5 Million-- But What's the Issue?

Sir Tims Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web has sold his original source code as a non-fungible token (NFT) after someone purchased it for $5.4 million.

For those who do not know what NFTs are, they are digital assets in the form of certificates that their previous owners kept. Most importantly, what you should know about them is they could come in the form of videos, pictures, music, and art where the majority of them fall.

Acquiring a non-fungible token will mean that it is now your property but the copyright control is excluded from the package. Some people warned that it promotes adverse environmental impacts which is the same in the case of bitcoin mining.

Anonymous Buyer Pockets Berners-Lee's NFT in Auction

According to a report by BBC, the buyer whose identity remains unknown at the moment has pocketed the famous open-source NFT of the web pioneer. The person bought it for $5.4 million through an auction in Sotheby's.

Beginning last Wednesday, June 23, the auction kicked off with a starting bid of $1,000. As it neared its conclusion, the bidding amount gradually increased until the last day of the event.

It even clamped at 3.5 million during the final auction day until buyers rushed to bid in the remaining minutes. In the last 15 minutes, the auction spotted an unidentified person who placed $5.4 million for the acquisition of Berners-Lee's NFT.

Sotheby's said that the money obtained from the NFT would proceed to the charities that Tim and his wife selected.

What's Inside the Open Source Code NFT?

Oftentimes, the NFTS being sold are related to arts such as pictures, illustrations, and even memes. Back in April, 3F Music purchased the "Overly Attached Girlfriend" NFT for $411,000. If you are curious about what's inside it, let's take a quick look at the items included in the recently acquired NFT.

• Sir Tim's original code in digital

• Sir Tim's letter

• A viewable code in an animated video

• time-stamped files of the source code

In March, the first official tweet of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey was sold for $2.9 million. Sir Tim Berners-Lee's NFT overcame the record. In the same month, Christie's auction house collected Beeple's NFT for $69 million.

Web Codes and Protocols are 'Royalty Free'

In an interview with The Guardian, Sir Tim said that all web protocols and codes are "royalty-free." The creator of the worldwide web started it in 1989. The old days traced the history of the links which provided a lot of information to the people.

At that time, he did not want to patent his creation even after developing the first web browser.

"I'm not selling the web - you won't have to start paying money to follow links. I'm not even selling the source code. I'm selling a picture that 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," Sir Tim said.

What's The Issue About NFTs?

Lately, there was some mumbling about the non-fungible tokens. Some people found it worrisome since it could bring problems to the environment. For the part of Sir Tim, the money will go to select benefit causes, The Verge reported.

Sotheby noted that some NFT owners could lose their money from the huge purchase in case the links do not work. It is similar when servers are broken, as well.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Joseph Henry