The personal IMAC that Jimmy Wales used, in January 2001, at the time of launching the participatory encyclopedia and a NFT on the first page of the site are on sale at Christie’s until December 15th.
Le Monde with AFP
The personal computer used by the Wikipedia Creator, Jimmy Wales, at the time of his launch twenty years ago, and a certified digital object (NFT) of the first page of the site become unavoidable, were put to the Auction by Christie’s company.
Presented at Christie’s New York Headquarters, at the Rockefeller Center, the computer is a strawberry color iMac, “its personal computer, which it used for development and research at the time of the launch of the site on January 15, 2001 “, writes the company in a statement.
The second batch is a NFT, a single certified digital object thanks to the Blockchain technology, “created by Jimmy Wales and which restores what Wikipedia was like when it installed it and where it launched its First page, with the words “hello world”, explained to the France-Press Peter Klarnet, specialist in books and manuscripts at Christie’s.
The page, presented in JPEG image format, will be interactive and can be “edited” by the buyer to “recreate the experience of building wikipedia”, then “return to his initial state using the help of A timer “, writes Christie’s.
In the press release, Jimmy Wales announces that part of the sale will finance its WT.Social project, “a decentralized, non-commercial, non-advertising social network, or data collection and without means”, explains-T. -he. On its homepage, wt.social presents itself as the “non-toxic social network”.
NFT, new coupling of collectors
Both lots are online for sale until December 15, with a start price of $ 100 each, but Christie’s hopes to sell them “for hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Peter Klarnet.
New pertussis from certain collectors or investor groups in digital, NFTs have become essential for auction houses and the art market, from the program at the origin of the Web (5.4 million In early July 2021 at Sotheby’s), at the entirely digital work of the American artist Beeple ($ 69.3 million in March at Christie’s, record for a NFT).
Friday, Christie’s also announced the online sales, until December 9, a bulletproof vest carried by rapper Kanye West during one of the presentation nights of his last album, Donda, August 5, 2021 in Atlanta.
An object accompanied by its digital replica protected by an NFT, allowing the object of “living both in the physical world and in the methavers”, assures Christie’s.