Wikipedia will auction its first version as an NFT

After Twitter founder Jack Dorsey sold the social network’s first post for more than $2.5 million, now it’s Wikipedia’s turn.

Digital Encyclopedia co-founder Jimmy Wales announced that he will auction the first edition of the platform in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT).

The phrase “Hello world!”, written by Wales as he installed the site on a server on January 15, 2001, will become an NFT that will be auctioned on the internet.

As announced by the co-founder, NFT will not be sold on traditional platforms such as OpenSea. Instead, it’s up for auction at one of the biggest houses in the world, Christie’s.

The homepage, as well as other publications on Wikipedia, will be available on the web and anyone will be able to view and edit it. However, all changes are rolled back after 5 minutes.

NFT

In addition, Wales also announced that he is auctioning off the pink iMac he used to publish the page.

According to the developer, part of the money raised will be donated to charities. The other part will be invested in WT.Social, defined as a “non-toxic social network without ads” created by him.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia was created after a failed attempt to create Nupedia, an expert-written, peer-reviewed online encyclopedia, into a more rigorously scientific mold.

The idea of ​​a more streamlined version, with an easier change mechanism, came from colleague Larry Sanger. He served as editor-in-chief of Nupedia and became a co-founder of Wikipedia.

The dynamic of the new online encyclopedia was a success. But, on the other hand, it also generated headaches with improper alterations and vandalism.

To get around the problems, Wales created mechanisms to create a history of edits. After that, the platform became a reference around the world