The NFT bandwagon attracts a curious mix of passengers, fromcelebrity robotstoconvicted animal abusers.
The latest luminary to grab a ticket is British inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who’s auctioning off his original source code for the web as a non-fungible token.
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For those of you lucky enough to have missed the hype train, NFTs are unique digital tokens secured by blockchain tech.
They’re used to authenticate claims of ownership to digital and physical assets that can be sold or traded, such as digital artworks. The strange part (to me, at least), is they’re often verifying ownership of works that can be screengrabbed or downloaded in seconds.
They’ve nonetheless helped sellers rake in fortunes for their digital collectables — and Berners-Leewill hope to join them.
The NFT he’s auctioning includes his original time-stamped files for the WorldWideWeb browser; an animation of the code being written, a letter byBerners-Leeabout his creation; and a digital poster of the code.
It’s a more attractive package than, say, a tweet by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, and that bagged an eye-watering$2.9 million. Unfortunately forBerners-Lee, he may be jumping on the hype train a few stops too late.
A recentreport by Protossuggests the NFT market has already imploded. According to data analyzed by the crypto news site, NFTs peaked on May 3, when $102 million worth of them were sold in just a day. But by June, the market had plunged by almost 90%.
New data analyzed byNonfungiblefurther substantiates claims that the bubble is bursting. The market trackerfoundthat overall sales collapsed from a seven-day peak of $176 million on May 9 to $8.6 million on June 15.
Still,Berners-Leehas some grounds for optimism. His digital asset is a genuine historical artefact that’s eminently suited to the format.
AsBerners-Leeputs it, NFTs are the “ideal way to package the origins behind the web.”
His “digital-native artefact” could attract some hefty bids from the tech-savvy community of NFT collectors — and he wouldn’t be the only one defying the market’s doomsayers.
Just last week, an NFT of Doge the dog sold for a cool$4 million. Surely the source code of the world wide web is worth more than a meme? We’ll find out when the bidding ends on June 30.
Story byThomas Macaulay
Thomas is a senior reporter at TNW. He covers European tech, with a focus on AI, cybersecurity, and government policy.Thomas is a senior reporter at TNW. He covers European tech, with a focus on AI, cybersecurity, and government policy.
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