The sale will take place online from June 23 to 30, 2021.

It was in 1989 that Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. This system made of hypertext links allowed people to “surf” from one page to another and served as a basis for internet navigation as we know it since that time.

After selling NFT works by artists Pak and Kevin McCoy earlier this year, it’s another foray into NFTs, those unique tokens used to establish a certification of ownership on a digital file, for the auction house.

Sotheby’s is auctioning off a signed copy of the original code (more than 9500 lines), in the form of an NFT composed of four elements: the original files containing the source code written by Tim Berners-Lee, a moving visualisation of the code, a letter written by the famous computer scientist about his creation process; and a digital “poster” of the complete code, all digitally signed.

Bidding will start from 1000 dollars and the initiative is supported by the computer scientist, who has since been knighted.

According to Sir Tim Berners-Lee, “NFTs, be they artworks or a digital artefact like this, are the latest playful creations in this realm, and the most appropriate means of ownership that exists.

They are the ideal way to package the origins behind the web.”