The original code from the World Wide Web will be auctioned

June
21, 2021

3 min read

The original code that allowed the creation of the World Wide Web (WWW) will be auctioned at Sotheby’s between June 23 and 30, was created by the British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee and is considered one of the most important inventions to throughout history because it revolutionized the exchange of information worldwide.

This will be sold in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT) with a digital signature of the Ethereum blockchain that records the ownership of a digital asset. This unit is made up of four elements: the original 9,555-line source code, an animated display, a letter written by Berners-Lee, and a digital poster of the complete code from the original files.

“During the last centuries, humanity has seen a succession of paradigm shifts that have brought us into the modern era (…) but none have had the seismic impact on our daily lives as the creation of the World Wide Web,” said Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s global director of science and popular culture.

Lines of such code include Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs). Also the original HTML documents that instructed the first users of the web on how to use it correctly.

According to the auction house Sotheby’s, the bids will start from 1000 dollars, everything will be by online format and the name of the auction is “This Changed Everything” (‘This changed everything’, translated into Spanish). The sale will benefit the initiatives supported by Sir Tim and Lady Berners-Lee.

“Before that code, the web was not a thing. With that code, it was a thing “

Watch as Sir Tim Berners-Lee reflects on the inspiration behind his invention of the World Wide Web, ahead of our auction of the original files as an NFT: https://t.co/LTDPmDJKOR
#ThisChangedEverything pic.twitter.com/fsOvRbzMCB

– Sotheby’s (@Sothebys) June 18, 2021