{"id":45305,"date":"2021-06-30T22:41:29","date_gmt":"2021-06-30T19:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=45305"},"modified":"2025-08-31T21:07:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T18:07:21","slug":"internet-source-code-sold-as-nft-for-5-4-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/internet-source-code-sold-as-nft-for-5-4-million\/","title":{"rendered":"Internet source code sold as NFT for $5.4 million"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has sold at Sotheby\u02bcs the original source code that underpins the Internet, as an NFT.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/AuctionUpdate?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#AuctionUpdate<\/a> One of the most historically significant digital artefacts ever sold, an NFT of the source code for the Web has brought $5.4 million. Offered by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, proceeds will benefit initiatives that Sir Tim &#038; Lady Berners-Lee support.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ThisChangedEverything?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ThisChangedEverything<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sotheby\u2019s (@Sothebys) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Sothebys\/status\/1410298217787318272?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 30, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The lot was purchased by an unknown buyer for $5.4 million.<\/p>\n<p>The auction ran from 23 to 30 June, with an opening bid of $1,000.<\/p>\n<p>According to BBC News, for much of the final day of the auction the top bid hovered around $3.5 million, but in the last 15 minutes a flurry of new offers arrived.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the NFT, the new owner received the source-code file with timestamps, an animated video showing the code, Berners-Lee&#8217;s letter, and a digital poster featuring the code he created.<\/p>\n<p>As reported in April 2021, Tim Berners-Lee <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/world-wide-web-source-code-to-be-sold-as-an-nft\">personally contacted Sotheby\u2019s with the idea of selling the code<\/a> at auction. Proceeds from the sale will go to initiatives supported by the scientist and his wife Rosemary Leait.<\/p>\n<p>Follow ForkLog news on Telegram: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/forklogfeed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ForkLog Feed<\/a> \u2014 the full news stream, <a href=\"https:\/\/telegram.me\/forklog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ForkLog<\/a> \u2014 the most important news, infographics, and opinions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has sold the original source code underpinning the Internet as an NFT at Sotheby\u2019s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[526,1445,1213,1419],"class_list":["post-45305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-auction","tag-internet","tag-nft","tag-source-code"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"14","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45307,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45305\/revisions\/45307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}