An error was found in the NFT containing the source code of the Internet, which recently sold for $5.4 million. PleasrDAO, a group that buys expensive tokens, drew attention to it.
There is an error in the video with the way the ASCII characters < > & are encoded — they’ve been replaced with their htmlentity equivalents of < > & etc. FYI: We don’t feel this diminishes the piece in anyway, in fact it might be a bullish smudge. pic.twitter.com/hoN6qoM9DP
— ✨ PleasrDAOGE ? (@PleasrDAO) June 30, 2021
The half-hour video visualises the process of coding in C. However, the characters “<”, “>” and “&” have been mistakenly replaced with their equivalents in the later HTML language – <, > and &.
PleasrDAO member Scott Berk noticed the error while reviewing the NFT for his DAO and on June 29 notified Sotheby’s.
“Perhaps the person who animated and coded the video did not have much experience with the C language,” Berk said.
According to him, the error increased the NFT’s uniqueness and could potentially raise its value.
“Typos in HTML are echoes of the World Wide Web itself. Without it there would be none of them,” he added.
In the other components of the NFT—the source-code archive, the digital poster, and a letter from Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web—no errors were found.
Scott Berk suggested that Sotheby’s could augment the token with an updated video, although representatives from the auction house did not indicate such plans.
In April 2021, Tim Berners-Lee personally voiced with the idea of selling the code at auction.
On June 30, the lot was acquired by an unknown buyer for $5.4 million. Proceeds from the sale will go to initiatives supported by the scientist and his wife Rosemary Leite.
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