For Cassandra Hatton, vice-president of Sotheby’s, even more than Gutenberg and the printing press, Thomas Edison’s light bulb or James Watson’s DNA, the World Wide Web “has changed all aspects of [notre] life “. The program that created the Web and paved the way for the modern Internet was sold on Wednesday for $ 5.4 million in the form of NFT, a digital certificate of authenticity. The auction, organized online by Sotheby’s, took place over a week.
The bundle included an animated version of these nearly 10,000 lines of code and a letter from Tim Berners-Lee. In 1989, this Briton, physicist turned computer scientist, imagined an information sharing system that would allow scientists to access data wherever they are in the world. While employed at the CERN Computing Center (originally the European Council for Nuclear Research now the European Organization for Nuclear Research), near Geneva, he called this new network World Wide Web (WWW).
Tim Berners-Lee, the originator of URLs, HTPP and HTLM
In 1990 and 1991 he wrote the program that created the first Internet browser, laying the practical foundations for today’s Web. In passing, he invented the concepts of URL (Internet address), HTTP (which allows you to find a site) and HTML (the typical computer language for creating Internet pages).
Decided to make this canvas an open space, Tim Berners-Lee did not patent his program and made it freely available to all, which contributed to its dissemination. A little over three decades after its invention, it therefore released the program’s original files as a collector’s item. At the end of these auctions, he will receive part of the incalculable wealth generated, but he nevertheless intends to donate all the proceeds to charities.
NFTs reassure collectors
“Ten years ago, we could not” make this sale, according to Cassandra Hatton. The arrival of NFT technology, making it possible to create a tamper-proof digital property certificate, has changed the game in the eyes of collectors, who are now reassured about the traceability of their acquisitions.