Sharjah24 – AFP: The personal computer that Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales used when programming the online reference resource 20 years ago has been put up for auction by Christie's, NFT memorializing his first edit on the platform. The auction house is also selling another physical item accompanied by an NFT, Non-Fungible Tokens are unique digital objects that confer ownership through blockchain technology, in its luxury sales: a vest worn and signed by Ye - formerly known as Kanye West.
Peter Klarnet, Vice-President Senior Specialist for Americana Books & Manuscripts at Christie's New York said, "It's not his work computer, but it's the computer he used at home, when he was in the early days before, they had much of a staff, he would have to actually sit up late at night looking out for vandals and people who would come in and try to mess up, mess up the early iterations of what Wikipedia was."
He continued, "It seems to be primarily people who are in the NFT world, but also people who are interested in the history of technology. A Strawberry iMac on its own is not particularly interesting. But the association value is what will drive the price on this."I think he (Jimmy Wales) has just been inspired by what he's seeing going on in this whole NFT space, and very much it reminds him of the early days of the open-source movement that created Wikipedia. Now we're seeing digital autonomous organizations on the rise and that very much reminds him of the collective effort that has created and has maintained Wikipedia."
Commenting on this, Caitlin Donovan, Head Of Department of Handbags, Streetwear & Sneakers at Christie's New York said, "So we have the physical vest for selling alongside the 1-of-1 NFT, which is an incredible piece because this is not only something you can buy for the physical world, but this is something you can buy for the metaverse, so something for an avatar to wear for you to collect, kind of a luxury item if you will, that will live on forever and have this moment in music history live on forever as well."
Caitlin Donovan pointed out, "With selling luxury items in all capacity -in handbags and hype, be it sneakers, be it Supreme- when this piece came across it really made sense as kind of our first NFT item to sell. But I really do think that's the way of the future. I think there will be items that are as valuable on the metaverse as items are valuable in physical space."
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