Wikipedia creator’s computer and NFT of first edit up for auction

The per­son­al com­put­er that Wikipedia founder Jim­my Wales used when pro­gram­ming the online ref­er­ence resource 20 years ago is going under the ham­mer, along with an NFT memo­ri­al­iz­ing his first edit on the plat­form, auc­tion­eers said Friday.

The Straw­ber­ry iMac was the machine Wales “used for devel­op­ment and research at the time of the web­site’s launch on Jan­u­ary 15, 2001,” said auc­tion house Christie’s, which is over­see­ing the sale that began Fri­day in New York.

The sec­ond lot is for an NFT — Non-Fun­gi­ble Tokens are unique dig­i­tal objects that con­fer own­er­ship through blockchain tech­nol­o­gy — cre­at­ed by Wales of Wikipedi­a’s debut onscreen image when he post­ed the first words, “Hel­lo world,” Christie’s spe­cial­ist Peter Klar­net told AFP.

The NFT, pre­sent­ed in JPEG for­mat, will be inter­ac­tive, with the buy­er able to edit the page, “which can be reset with a timer to revert to its orig­i­nal state,” accord­ing to Christie’s.

Part of the pro­ceeds from the sales will help fund Wales’s WT.Social project, a “non­tox­ic alter­na­tive” social media net­work that uses an adver­tis­ing-free model.

The two lots are for sale online through Decem­ber 15, with Christie’s hop­ing they will sell for hun­dreds of thou­sands of dol­lars, Klar­net said.

The new dar­ling art form for some col­lec­tors and investors, NFTs have become sta­ples of auc­tion hous­es and the art market.

An NFT of the World Wide Web’s source code sold in July for $5.4 mil­lion at Sothe­by’s, while the all-dig­i­tal work of Amer­i­can artist Beeple drew $69.3 mil­lion in March at Christie’s, an NFT record.

Also on Fri­day Christie’s announced the auc­tion of a bul­let­proof vest worn by rap megas­tar Kanye West dur­ing a par­ty mark­ing the release of his 2021 album Don­da.

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