Hello, World: Wikipedia’s famous first page to be auctioned

On January15, 2001, Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia launched the site with his team. The first ever text entered in what is the most famous online knowledge base today was ‘Hello World’. And this is being auctioned by Christie since December 3 this year as a non-fungible token or NFT. But what on earth is an NFT, how can a virtual page be auctioned, and why is Jimmy Wales doing all this?   

Exactly what is happening in the Wikipedia page auction?  
In a statement released by Christie on December 7, 2021 to the press, we all came to read reports of the Hello World auction. Artwork and symbolic objects that have historical value are being auctioned as NFT. People are bidding online to obtain their copy of Hello World. Wales is also auctioning a physical object, the iMac G3 computer, which is a very old and cute strawberry coloured machine. This is the computer where Wikipedia was born.  

What is a non-fungible token?  
Non-fungible tokens or NFT are unique virtual assets that can be sold and brought (i.e. traded) using blockchain or cypto-currency. NFTs are unique cryptographic tokens that can’t be replicated, so they are like rare and expensive currency on the blockchain network. Though virtual, NFTs can be used to represent real artwork and even real estate. Owners can directly sell their assets as NFT without involving intermediary, if they so wish.  

Are there examples of other NFT sales?  
NFT auctions by Tech giants have been making waves in the cryptocurrency market and lots of headlines this year. In June 2021, Tim Berners-Lee – the creator of the World Wide Web (www) – auctioned off the web’s source code at 5.4 million dollars through the Sotheby auction house. Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder and former CEO auctioned off his very first tweet as an NFT in March 2021 for 2.9 million dollars.  

Why is Jimmy Wales auctioning his beloved first Wiki edit?  
Jimmy Wales is running this auction to raise funds for a special social network he has been designing. He has long felt that existing social media is getting enslaved by politicians, governments, corporates and other powerful people. The social media platform he has envisaged would be free of these influences and therefore more democratic. Naturally, corporates are not willing to fund a space where there would be no ads for them. Wales’s sale has been doing well so far. The page has attracted a cool 2400 dollars, and is on the rise, while the bid for the old computer has already crossed 2200 dollars.