New Delhi: Jimmy Wales, the creator of Wikipedia's iMac which he used to programme the online reference resource 20 years ago will be put up for auction, along with an NFT memorializing his first edit on the platform, auctioneers said Friday reported AFP.
Wales used a Strawberry iMac was "used for development and research at the time of the website's launch on January 15, 2001," said auction house Christie's, which is overseeing the sale that began Friday in New York.
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Aside from this, the second lot is for an NFT - Non-Fungible Tokens created by Wales of Wikipedia's debut onscreen image when he posted the first words, "Hello world," Christie's specialist Peter Klarnet told AFP.
The NFT will be in a jpeg format and the buyer will be able to interact with it, they will be to edit the page, "which can be reset with a timer to revert to its original state," according to Christie's.
A part of the proceeds will fund Wales' new project a "nontoxic alternative" social media network that uses an advertising-free model, WT.Social project, the report said.
Klarnet said that Christie's hopes to sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars adding that the two will go up for auction from December 15 onwards.
NFTs have become staples of auction houses and the art market, Sotheby's sold an NFT for $5.4 million in July. American artist Beeple drew $69.3 million in March at Christie's making it an NFT record.