Twitter boss Jack Dorsey put his very first tweet up for sale on Friday, March 5, and the highest bid was $ 2 million on Saturday, a sign of appetite for these new collectibles, virtual items authenticated on the blockchain.
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“
I'm creating my Twttr account
,” the platform founder tweeted on March 21, 2006. On Friday, he tweeted a link to the “
Valuables
” site, where amateurs can make an offer.
The highest bid on Saturday - $ 2 million - came from Justin Sun, the founder of TRON, a blockchain platform, the core cryptocurrency technology, and owner of the BitTorrent streaming platform.
“
The creator of a tweet decides if he would like to send it on the blockchain to create a unique authenticated version
,” explains the
tweet
auction site.
Like an autograph
Buying a tweet means acquiring "
a digital certificate of the tweet, unique because it was signed and verified by the creator,
" the company says on its question-and-answer page - like an autograph.
The tweet itself remains visible to everyone, as long as Jack Dorsey or Twitter leaves it online.
Just as the video sequences of basketball matches remain visible for free on the internet, even after having been sold in the form of an “
NFT
” (“
non-fungible token
”), or non-fungible token: a virtual object with an identity, the authenticity and traceability in theory indisputable and inviolable, thanks to the blockchain.
A ten-second clip showing some spectacular action from North American Basketball League NBA star LeBron James sold for $ 208,000 on Top Shot in late February.
Launched at the beginning of October by the company Dapper Labs, in partnership with the NBA, Top Shot allows you to buy and sell these video clips, called "
moments
", at prices that vary according to their rarity.
Since the start of the year, Top Shot has generated more than $ 200 million in transactions, according to a spokesperson for Dapper Labs.
In 2019, Justin Sun put $ 4.6 million on the table for lunch with the iconic billionaire Warren Buffett, one of the bitcoin slayers.
The "
NFT
" are all the rage among collectors for several months, so that Christie's has auctioned the end of February for the first time, a fully digital work sold through this technology.