The files were sold in a Sotheby’s auction by Sir Tim
Berners-Lee, who is known for inventing the World Wide Web application in 1989,
which enabled users to generate and navigate links of content and files across
a network of computers.
Sotheby's in New York organized the weeklong sale of the
program that paved the way for the internet we know today more than 30 years
after its creation.
The lot included an animated version of Berners-Lee's nearly
10,000 lines of code and a letter from the British-born computer scientist
himself.
"Ten years ago, we wouldn't have been able to do
this," said Cassandra Hatton, vice-president at Sotheby's, referring to
the recent boom in NFTs.
Hatton said this work is unique because of its importance
for the creation of the World Wide Web.
"That changed every aspect of your life," Hatton
said. "We don't even fully comprehend the impact that it has on our lives,
and the impact that we will continue to have on our lives."
In 1989, physicist-turned-computer-scientist Berners-Lee
envisioned a system of information sharing that would allow scientists to
access data from anywhere in the world.
At the time, he was an employee of the CERN Data
Center—originally the European Council for Nuclear Research, now the European
Organization for Nuclear Research—in Geneva. He named the new network the World
Wide Web (WWW).
In 1990 and 1991, he wrote the program that created the
first internet browser, laying the practical foundations for the current web.
In the process, he also invented the URL—internet address—,
HTTP—which allows users to find a site—and HTML—the standard coding language
for creating websites.
Determined to make the web an open space, Berners-Lee did
not patent his program but left it freely available to everyone, which
contributed to its spread.
A little more than three decades after its invention,
Berners-Lee put the original program files up for sale as a collector's item.
At the end of the auction, he will receive part of the sale profit, but he
intends to donate all of his proceeds to charity.
An NFT is a digital object such as a drawing, animation,
piece of music, photo or video with a certificate of authenticity created by
blockchain technology that underlies cryptocurrency. It cannot be forged or
otherwise manipulated.
NFTs currently generate several hundred million dollars in
transactions every month.
NFT exchanges take place in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin
on specialist sites, but traditional auction houses are seeking to capitalize
on the phenomenon.
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