Rich with selfies: 22-year-old student becomes a millionaire with pictures of himself

Created: 2022-01-20Updated: 2022-01-20 12:01 PM

By: Patricia Huber

His selfies made Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozal a millionaire.

© Daffa Ramya Kanzuddin/AFP

Anyone who regularly takes selfies and publishes them on the web as digital works of art can become rich.

Hard to believe?

A student from Indonesia has even become a millionaire.

Indonesia - Become a millionaire with selfies.

What influencers dream of became a reality for a young man from Indonesia.

But the 22-year-old didn't earn the money through advertising revenue on his Instagram account.

No, he sold pictures of himself as digital artworks called Non-Fungible Tokens* (NFT).

These are a one-time virtual asset that is not interchangeable.

NFT: Student takes a selfie of himself every day

Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali of Semarang University has taken a photo of himself in front of his computer almost every day for the past five years.

The computer science student wanted to use the selfies for a time travel video at his graduation.

The project ran under the motto "Ghozahli every day".

But then he got the idea to sell his selfies as NFTs.

Ghozali just thought it would be "funny" if one of the NFT collectors included his face in their collection, the 22-year-old said.

He put his selfie offer online at the end of December.

A week ago, a real sales hype started: more than 400 people bought the property rights* to the photos.

As of Friday, the collection was valued at more than $1 million.

NFT millionaire: Parents wonder where the money is coming from

He hasn't found the courage to tell his parents the story, Ghozali said.

"You would be surprised where the money comes from." He will invest the money and continue to take a selfie of himself every day.

Like cryptocurrencies, the NFT system is based on blockchain technology.

In contrast to cryptocurrencies, however, a non-fungible token is unique and, to a certain extent, a virtual collector's item that can be sold or exchanged using a certificate.

A real hype had broken out about NFT in the past few months, with collectors paying millions for digital paintings, music and videos.