Web Creator Tim Berners-Lee Chooses to Auction Off the Original Web Source Code as an NFT

In 1989, Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, profoundly changing communications and file sharing, which touched the lives of almost every human being. Now, over 30 years later, the architect of the web has decided to sell off the original piece of the source code, along with a digitally signed poster, a video of the code, and a letter to the highest bidder as an NFT. Can this reinvigorate non-fungible tokens, interest in which has abated since April after a period of monumental gains?

At the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games, Sir Tim Berners-Lee typed in a code on the same computer he invented the World Wide Web 23 years earlier, that lit up the stadium with the words “This is for Everyone,” signaling the prevalence of the internet in everyday lives.

So, if you ever wanted to own a priceless piece of memorabilia that made one of the biggest impacts on mankind and brought a paradigm shift in our day-to-day lives, now is your chance. Sir Tim Berners Lee, the creator of what’s possibly one of the most impactful inventions of all time, has decided to auction off the original piece of code he used to develop the World Wide Web, a week from now.

The pioneer made the announcement with New York-based Sotheby’s, one of the world’s largest auction houses, and brokers of rare artifacts and collectibles. The highlight of the auction will be the original time-stamped files containing the source code for the web written by Berners-Lee.

The files, which contain almost 10,000 lines of code that constitutes the fundamentals of the modern-day internet, were coded by Berners-Lee between October 3, 1990, and August 24, 1991, with the Interface Builder on a NeXT computer, using Objective C. The inspiration was the management of large-scale data expected from the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research or CERN where Berners-Lee worked at the time.

This particular code, which was written to parse, style, and display HTML documents, serves as the basis of the HTTP protocol and implements Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs), all of which were developed by Berners-Lee himself.

Besides the code documentation, Sotheby’s said the NFT for the auction consists of three more elements v.i.z., a 30-minute video that visually depicts the exact same code, a digital SVG poster of the code made and signed by the former CERN fellow, as well as a letter by Berners-Lee reflecting back on the time and how he created it.

This codeOpens a new window , along with the code for the first web browserOpens a new window , web serverOpens a new window , and the website he createdOpens a new window at CERN is available in the public domain since CERN open-sourced it in 1991, so the auction may appeal to collectors of rare artifacts, or techies looking to get in on an invaluable piece of tech history.

Moreover, fans of Berners-Lee, who earned the respect of millions when he decided not to patent his invention, may also want to get a signed copy of the digital, vector-based poster and the original copy of the personal letter by Berners-Lee to showboat the collectibles, and for additional bragging rights.

See Also: World Wide Web Founder Launches a Platform for a Privacy-Centric Web

As Cassandra Hatton, VP and global head of science & popular culture at Sotheby’s puts it, “Sir Tim’s invention created a new world, democratizing the sharing of information, creating new ways of thinking and interacting, and staying connected to one another; it is hard to imagine our world without it, and even harder to imagine where it will bring us next.”

Berners-Lee currently serves as the professorial fellow of computer science at the University of OxfordOpens a new window , and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyOpens a new window . He is the present director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3COpens a new window ), an organization that oversees the web development standards, and is also the founder of the World Wide Web FoundationOpens a new window that advocates free and open-source web.

This is why the tech community is bemused as to why he went with auctioning off the artifacts as NFTs.

What is an NFT?

An NFT or a non-fungible token is a way to buy and sell digital artworkOpens a new window . It is a digital asset that represents the ownership of tangible as well as intangible things like art, videos, musicOpens a new window , in-game purchases, etc. They are based on blockchain and can be bought and can be sold online, all of which have unique codes for identification, which are basically the proofs of ownership.

NFTs originally came to the scene back in May 2014 when NYU art professor Kevin McCoyOpens a new window and Glitch CEO Anil DashOpens a new window co-created the first implementation of the blockchain technology at the Seven on Seven conference at the New Museum in New York City. After an initial adjustment period, NFTs started gaining traction by 2020, when they became a $230 million industryOpens a new window .

Based on the Ethereum blockchain, NFTs continued to attract the attention of artists, businessmen, technologists, and the common public alike, which propelled them to enable $2 billion in sales in the first quarter of 2021Opens a new window alone, a steep 2100% rise from Q4 2020, not to mention one of the most hyped technologies existing today.

CryptoPunksOpens a new window , a series of digital avatars, have earned more than $353 million, the highest from combined NFT sales. Some of the other famous NFT sales include the first tweet ever by Twitter founderOpens a new window Jack Dorsey for $2.9 million, digital artist Beeple’s sale of an NFT for $69.3 millionOpens a new window (current highest record-holder), and others.

Christie’s is proud to offer “Everydays – The First 5000 Days” by @beepleOpens a new window as the first purely digital work of art ever offered by a major auction house. Bidding will be open from Feb 25-Mar 11.

Learn more here | NFT issued in partnership w/ @makersplacecoOpens a new window pic.twitter.com/zymq2DSjy7Opens a new window

— Christie’s (@ChristiesInc) February 16, 2021Opens a new window

But the bubble seems to have burst and since April, sales have dropped significantly. Parallels have also been drawn with the dot-com Bubble burstOpens a new window , although the impact isn’t nearly as big as the 2002 incident.

In April this year, Dash wrote for The AtlanticOpens a new window , “The idea behind NFTs was, and is, profound. Technology should be enabling artists to exercise control over their work, to more easily sell it, to more strongly protect against others appropriating it without permission. By devising the technology specifically for artistic use, McCoy and I hoped we might prevent it from becoming yet another method of exploiting creative professionals.”

“But nothing went the way it was supposed to. Our dream of empowering artists hasn’t yet come true, but it has yielded a lot of commercially exploitable hype,” he added.

And then there’s the additional concern over what its power-intensive requirements do to the environment. As Everest PipkinOpens a new window , an artist and a coder points out in this blogOpens a new window , that after over a decade of the flourishing cryptocurrency market — which is the basis of NFT transactions — we’re at a point where the global financial network gobbles up more energy than Argentina and has no regulatory structure or federal oversight whatsoever.

See Also: Quick Guide to Non-Fungible Tokens

So Why Auction the World Wide Web Code as NFT?

First off, despite the recent slowdown, NFTs and cryptocurrencies are going nowhere. So why not leverage them to do good, which Berners-Lee apparently plans to do. It seems Berners-Lee is staying true to his beliefs and will apparently utilize the proceeds for charity instead of taking home the earnings. Sotheby’s stated, “The sale will benefit initiatives that Sir Tim and Lady Berners-Lee support.”

Secondly, in the words of the trailblazer himself, “Why an NFT? Well, it’s a natural thing to do when you’re a computer scientist and when you write code and have been for many years. It feels right to digitally sign my autograph on a completely digital artifact.”

“NFTs, be they artworks or a digital artifact like this, are the latest playful creations in this realm, and the most appropriate means of ownership that exists.”

Finally, Berners-Lee’s NFT that’s up for auction isn’t exactly an abstract art that the world can do without. It is literally the backbone of the internet. One can argue that NFTs are a way to create scarcity when there actually isn’t (remember, the code is open source). So yes, there is a bit of sentimental value associated with owning not just the code, but a complete bundle from the man himself.

Closing Thoughts

The auction of the world wide web code and other digital artifacts is significant, not only because it represents the unfolding of a global phenomenon that actually did change the world for good, but also because the person who kicked it off is indirectly throwing his weight behind NFTs, a technology, widely considered to be a bust.

Berners-Lee believes that NFTs are “the ideal way to package the origins behind the web.”

Bids for the auction of all four NFTs will start at $1,000 and will be held between June 23 to June 30, 2021.

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