Steph Deschamps / December 4, 2021
The personal computer used by the creator of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, at the time of its launch 20 years ago, and a certified digital object (NFT) of the first page of the site became essential, were auctioned by the company Christie’s.
Presented at Christie's New York headquarters in Rockefeller Center, the computer is a strawberry-colored iMAC, his personal computer, which he used for development and research at the time of the site's launch on January 15, 2001, the company wrote in a statement. The second lot is an NFT, a digital object certified unique thanks to blockchain technology, created by Jimmy Wales and which restores what Wikipedia looked like at the time he installed it and launched his first page, with the words +Hello world+, explained to AFP 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 its initial state with the help of a timer, Christie's wrote.
In the press release, Jimmy Wales announces that part of the sale will finance his project WT.Social, a decentralized social network, non-commercial, without advertising, tracking and data collection and without misinformation, he explains. On its homepage, WT.Social presents itself as the non-toxic social network. The two lots are for sale online through Dec. 15, with a starting price of $100 each, but Christie's hopes to sell them for hundreds of thousands of dollars, Peter Klarnet said. On Friday, Christie's also announced that a bulletproof vest worn by rapper Kanye West at one of the release parties for his latest album, Donda, on Aug. 5, 2021, in Atlanta, will be available for sale online until Dec. 9.