Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee, the English computer scientist who is well known for inventing the world wide web has sold a non-fungible token (NFT) in an online auction hosted by the auction house Sotheby\u2019s. The NFT is basically a video of the World Wide Web\u2019s source code created in Python and the collectible sold for $5.4 million.<\/p>\n
This week, Sotheby\u2019s revealed<\/a> that Tim Berners-Lee sold an NFT of the original source code for the world wide web for a whopping $5.4 million. Before the NFT auction, Berners-Lee told<\/a> the publication the Guardian: \u201cI\u2019m not selling the web \u2013 you won\u2019t have to start paying money to follow links. I\u2019m not even selling the source code. I\u2019m 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee, the English computer scientist who invented the world wide web.<\/p>\n Berners-Lee invented the web in 1989 and before the NFT sale he said \u201cThe core codes and protocols on the web are royalty-free, just as they always have been.\u201d A representative from Sotheby\u2019s said the non-fungible token collectible art auction was historical and the fact that Berners-Lee verified the NFT makes it even more valuable.<\/p>\n \u201cThe symbolism, the history, the fact that they\u2019re coming from the creator is what makes them valuable, and there are lots of people who collect things for exactly those reasons,\u201d Cassandra Hatton, the global head of science and popular culture at Sotheby\u2019s explained in a statement. \u201cWe have placed it in a public forum, we have sold it at basically no reserve and we let the market decide what the value is going to be. There have been multiple bidders who have all agreed that it\u2019s valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n Berners-Lee is well respected for his contribution to today\u2019s online advances and in 2018 he announced<\/a> a project aimed at decentralizing the web. \u201cFor all the good we\u2019ve achieved,\u201d Berners-Lee said at the time. \u201cThe web has evolved into an engine of inequity and division; swayed by powerful forces who use it for their own agendas,\u201d he added. The inventor of the web had also reported on bitcoin on various occasions during the crypto asset\u2019s earliest years.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nCoding Error Spotted \u2013 Researcher Says There Have Already Been Discussions of a Misprint Error<\/h2>\n