Web Creator Berners-Lee Sells First Source Code
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Suhwan] The original source code (programming blueprint) of the World Wide Web (WWW), which built the current internet environment, is going up for auction as a non-fungible token (NFT).
According to CNN, CNBC, and others on the 15th (local time), computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee, who created the WWW, plans to auction and sell the original WWW source code electronically signed by himself in the form of an NFT.
The NFT up for auction includes the source code consisting of over 9,500 lines of code, Berners-Lee’s original WWW browser file with a timestamp, an animation visually representing the code, a digital poster containing the code content, and a digital letter in which Berners-Lee personally explains the code.
The starting bid for this auction, held by the prominent auction house Sotheby’s, is set at $1,000 and will begin on the 23rd. This auction is expected to further accelerate the recent NFT craze.
NFTs are digital assets applying blockchain technology like Bitcoin, assigning unique identification values to various digital products such as paintings, tweets, videos, and images. Through this, individuals gain ownership of digital products. Because of the feature that ownership can be granted to digital assets, the recent NFT auction craze is spreading rapidly.
According to NFT data research firm NonFungible, NFT sales reached $2 billion (approximately 2.23 trillion KRW) in the first quarter of this year alone.
Berners-Lee previously did not file a patent for the WWW and made the source code freely available for everyone to use. Although he was the key figure behind the current internet, he earned no profit from it.
However, Berners-Lee is expected to earn revenue for the first time since developing the WWW through this auction.
Berners-Lee expressed his thoughts on the auction, saying, "My goal in creating the WWW was to build a tool that allows all humanity to express creativity and drive innovation through free collaboration," and added, "NFTs are a means to maximize creativity in the virtual realm."
The WWW refers to all web spaces where people share information through computers connected to the internet, such as websites. It is credited with inventing the modern internet used by over 4.6 billion people worldwide.
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