Sir Tim Berners-Lee, The Web's Founder, to Auction Source Code as NFT

[engine]

The founder of the Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee is to auction off his source code as a NFT (Non-Fungible Token).

Some have expressed surprise at the news given that Sir Tim famously refused to patent his invention.

The sale is being handled by Sotheby's auction house, and the money made will be put towards causes chosen by Sir Tim and his wife, Sotheby's said.

[bbc.co.uk...]

[NickMNS]

Some have expressed surprise at the news given that Sir Tim famously refused to patent his invention.

Patenting an invention is preventing people from using an idea. Creating an NFT is taking the "code" and making it into a museum piece, one of a kind, original, verifiable and in this specific case it is even digitally signed by him. Even with a NFT one could continue to re-use his code, it just wouldn't be the "original" code.

From the article:

But the biggest question mark is over the environmental impact of NFTs created on the Ethereum blockchain. One analyst puts the carbon footprint of a single Ethereum transaction at more than 14 times that of putting an art print in the post.

But the article doesn't say on what blockchain the NFT will be created, the article implies Ethereum, but it could be another proof of stake blockchain (Cardano, Polkadot, Solana). With PoS there is very little environmental impact. Also, Ethereum is planning to move to PoS by year end but that is a topic for another thread.