The source code of the World Wide Web (WWW) is now up for auction as an NFT (non-fungible token) at Sotheby’s. Created by British scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee 32 years ago, the Web is widely regarded as one of the most significant innovations in human history and the building block of the modern internet. Bidding has started at $1,000 and will run for a week until June 30th. The auction proceeds will be put towards causes chosen by Sir Tim and his wife. The current bid stands at $2.2 million at the time of writing.
The NFT, titled “This Changed Everything.”, is bundling four artifacts together: the original time-stamped files of the source code containing 9,555 lines of code, an animated visualization of the code, a letter from Sir Tim, and a digital poster of the complete code. Sotheby's is advertising the collection as "the only signed copy of the code for the first web browser in existence.”
The Web 101: Sir Tim invented the world wide web in 1989. Today, it is the primary modern way we use the internet. He proposed a way of linking together different pieces of information stored on the early internet through hyperlinks and built the first web browser and web server.
