Tim Berners-Lee’s iconic source code for World Wide Web on auction as NFT

Files referenced by the NFT contain approximately 9,500 lines of code, including implementations of the three languages and protocols invented by Berners-Lee that remain fundamental to the Web today: HTML, HTTP and URLs (Image: Shutterstock)

Source code for the World Wide Web written by scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 is set to be sold as a non-fungible token (NFT), auction house Sotheby’s said on June 15.

The “lot” on sale includes “the original, time-stamped code files written by Berners-Lee; an animated visualization of the code; a digital ‘poster’ of the full code created by him; and a letter written by him reflecting on the code today,” Sotheby’s said in a tweet.

Files referenced by the NFT contain approximately 9,500 lines of code, including implementations of the three languages and protocols invented by Berners-Lee that remain fundamental to the Web today: HTML, HTTP and URLs.

The auction is set to be opened for bidding from June 23-30, and will be led by Sotheby’s Head of Science & Popular Culture Cassandra Hatton.

In 1989, British computer scientist @timberners_lee invented the World Wide Web in a moment that changed the world forever. Now, Sir Tim will offer the source code for the Web as an NFT in a historic one-off sale. Thread below (1/4)#ThisChangedEverything pic.twitter.com/nYvBFrz0Zr

— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) June 15, 2021

Here is all you need to know:

- Tim Berners-Lee is a British Computer Scientist who invented the WWW in 1989. Calling this a “landmark moment ever to be sold”, Sotheby's on its website said this gives people the opportunity to “look into the bare bones of the architecture of the web’s creation”.

- The auction house has titled the lot on action as: ‘This Changed Everything’, and said the bidding will start at $1,000. Proceeds from the sale will benefit initiatives that Sir Tim and Lady Berners-Lee support, it added.

- The NFT is composed of four elements: the original time-stamped files containing the source code written by Berners-Lee, a moving visualization of the nearly 10,000 lines of code, a letter written by Berners-Lee reflecting on the code and the process of creating it, and a digital “poster” of the full code created by Berners-Lee from the original files using Python.

- The lines of code referenced by the NFT include implementations of the three languages and protocols invented by Sir Tim that remain fundamental to the World Wide Web today; HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), and URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers), as well as original HTML documents that instructed early web users on how to use the application.

- The “WorldWideWeb” application was the first hypermedia browser, allowing users to create and navigate links between files across a network of computers.

- The code was written in the Objective C programming language, using the Interface Builder on a NeXT computer, a highly innovative computer designed by Steve Jobs during the time he was forced out of Apple in 1985 and before he rejoined in 1997.

- Three decades on from that one server and one website, there are over 1.7 billion websites being accessed by 4.6 billion people around the world, with children learning HTML in school to make their own webpages.

- The lot on offer can be found here.