The first SMS in history will be auctioned: here are the two words sent in 1992

The first SMS in history, transmitted by the British operator Vodafone on December 3, 1992, will be auctioned Tuesday in the form of NFT, these certified digital goods that disrupt the culture market, during a sale organized by the house Aguttes in France.

  

Received at the time by Vodafone employee Richard Jarvis during the Christmas holidays, the SMS is composed of 15 characters to say Merry Christmas. The future buyer, who will be able to make his payment in cryptocurrency, will become the exclusive owner of a digital and unique replica of the original communication protocol that transmitted the first SMS in the world. 

  

The operator Vodafone has indicated that it will donate the proceeds of the sale to the UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency. Virtually unknown until a year ago, NFTs are presented as a certificate of authenticity for an object, virtual or real, based on blockchain technology, a tamper-proof system that also authenticates cryptocurrency exchange transactions.

 

An NFT is unique and cannot be exchanged for an equivalent, hence its name: Non-Fungible Token. They represent for some the new golden goose of the contemporary art market and have become in a few months a staple of auction houses, reaching prices of several million dollars -- the record going to an entirely digital work by the American artist Beeple with 69.3 million in March at Christie’s.