Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s first tweet is well known on the platform. Published almost 15 years ago, the tweet read, “Just configuring my twttr”. Although there is no doubt that it is significant in popular culture, Dorsey seems to believe that it has monetary value. And he seems to be right.
Dorsey posted a link at the auction, hosted by a platform called Valuables, on Twitter on Friday without comment or explanation. Some of you may be wondering, how can he sell a tweet? Dorsey sells a “non-fungible token” of his tweet, known as NFT. Things that are not fungible are unique and cannot be replaced by something of equal value. Tokens is an asset on their blockchain or the mechanism by which cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether are bought and sold.
Now, what exactly does the person who wins the auction get for Dorsey’s tweet? Conformable Value, you receive a “digital certificate of the tweet, unique because it was signed and verified by the creator”. Despite the sale, the tweet will continue to be shared on Twitter.
“This autographed digital certificate will be issued only once in values. It is signed using cryptography and includes metadata of the original tweet, such as: when the tweet was posted, what is the content of the tweet text, the timestamp of the tweet, and the digital signature from the cryptographic wallet’s address. to the creator, ”said Valuables.
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While it may not seem like a great purchase or even one worth millions of people, buying NFTs is one thing right now. Grimes sold NFTs of the artwork, which included videos, for about $ 6 million earlier this month. In February, an NFT al Cat Nyan GIF sold for about 300 ether. The cryptocurrency was worth about $ 587,000 at the time of sale.
As Pr pointed out, although some might think that you are just buying something similar to a barcode, it can also be seen as a certificate of authenticity for a version of the artwork that is registered on a blockchain as yours.
“The basic thing you buy is code that manifests as images,” said Donna Redel of Fordham Law School. “Buy another art format.”
However, buying an NFT usually does not mean that you get the copyright or trademark in the original. Artists can sell more NFTs of their work. Example: Grimes made thousands of copies of two NFTs available for auction. On Virgin, nearly 700 copies of the NFTs, which consist of short videos, were sold for $ 5.18 million.
Since the publication of this blog, the largest bid for Dorsey’s tweet is $ 2.5 million. The person who bid this extremely large amount for Dorsey’s tweet is Hakan Estavi, CEO of Bridge Oracle, a Malaysian company that uses Oracle systems to enable smart contracts in the TRON network.
However, on Twitter on Saturday, Estavi said he would actually be willing to download one lot more for tweet. He’s willing to go to $ 10 million.
Gizmodo contacted Twitter to ask why Dorsey is selling the tweet and what he plans to do with the money generated from the sale. A Twitter spokesman said the company had no comment.
You know what they say: art takes its value from what you are willing to pay for it. I think that means tweets are art now.