A unique collectible digital item created from a New York Times technology column was sold for more than $ 500,000 at an auction, the first such sale in the newspaper’s history.
An image of the column – titled “Buy this column on the blockchain!” – was transformed into a non-fungible token, or NFT, and sold in a heated auction that generated more than 30 bids on the website of the NFT marketplace Foundation.
The NFT, a single bit of digital code stored on the Ethereum blockchain and refers to a 14 megabyte graphic of the column hosted on a decentralized file hosting service, cannot be duplicated or falsified, making it potentially valuable to collectors. Some NFTs have been sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past few weeks, with one such sale – a collection of art by digital artist Beeple – generating more than $ 69 million at auction.
Along with the token, the winner of the auction – if he chooses to identify himself – will receive additional benefits, including a voice message from Michael Barbaro, the presenter of the podcast “The Daily”. All proceeds from the auction will be donated to the Neediest Cases Fund, a charity affiliated with the Times.
The winner of the auction, an NFT collector who goes by the nickname @ 3fmusic, made a last-minute winning bid of 350 ether, a digital currency, which translates to about $ 560,000 in Wednesday’s exchange rates. A link in the user’s profile led to the website of a music studio based in Dubai.
@ 3fmusic was not found on Wednesday afternoon. The user appeared to be an avid collector of NFT art. In addition to the Times token, his collection on the Foundation also includes works such as “The 2020 result”, an image of a Kermit, the sad-looking frog, and “Mushy’s mid-afternoon nap”, an image of a mushroom businessman sitting on a log.