The inventor of the Web puts his original source code up for auction

Tim Berners-Lee, follows a lecture during the Mozilla Festival in London in 2018.SIMON DAWSON / Reuters

Tim Berners-Lee, father of the World Wide Web, the three WWWs that allow surfing the Internet, has decided to put the guts of his invention up for sale.

The original source code of one of the great creations in the history of mankind will be auctioned starting next week at the British house Sotheby's as a

non-fungible

token

(NFT, for its acronym in English), that is, as a file unique digital.

Offers will start from $ 1,000.

The auction of the original source code NFT of the World Wide Web will begin next Wednesday 23 and will end on June 30 and includes 9,555 lines of code containing implementations of the three languages ​​and protocols invented by Berners-Lee: HTML (language of Hypertext Markup), HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), and URI (Uniform Resource Identifiers).

Also included are original HTML documents that instructed early web users on how to use the application.

In addition, the buyer will receive the digital signature of the Ethereum blockchain - a unique digital asset that certifies ownership of the NFTs - an animated display, a letter written by the inventor and a digital poster of the complete code of the original files. .

Why an NFT?

Well, it is a natural thing.

When you're a computer scientist and you write code, it feels good to digitally sign my autograph on a completely digital device, ”Berners-Lee told

Reuters

.

But how valuable is the code from the World Wide Web?

Its value lies in its historical significance and in the fact that this digital auction is endorsed by its creator, alive, and digitally signed as authentic.

Furthermore, the auction is striking as Berners-Lee always refused to patent his invention and is now looking to auction it off.

More information

• Berners-Lee: "The Web has lost its way: there are many things that have gone wrong"

The bookmaker has started promoting the collection as "the only signed copy of the code for the first web browser out there."

It is, as explained by the BBC in London, "a similar way to the way in which newspapers written by hand by a famous figure could be sold."

Tim Berners - Lee has been regarded as the ultimate representative of British greatness for his ingenuity and generosity in donating his invention and not patenting it.

Berners-Lee, a computer scientist born in London in 1955, invented the World Wide Web in 1989, revolutionizing the way of creating and sharing information in what is considered one of the most important inventions since the appearance of the printing press in Europe in the 19th century. XV.

NFTs have exploded in popularity in recent months, especially at public auctions.

For example, a digital-only artwork by American artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, sold for nearly $ 70 million at Christie's in March.

New York Times

articles

or memes

have also been auctioned

.

Berners-Lee's latest project is Solid, a kind of new internet that is more respectful of privacy and away from the centralization of internet giants such as Google, Amazon or Facebook.

To carry it out, it created the technology company Inrupt, which in November launched the first server of the new system.

The idea is that users own their data and decide what they want to share and with whom.

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