Sir Tim Berners-Lee is selling the original web browser’s code as an NFT at Sotheby’s.

The news is all over the web, yes the web, and I must say I am a bit surprised. First of all, because I have not seen any message by Berner-Lee himself. Second because, setting apart the Zeitgeist of the NFT moment (so cool), what’s the point? Raising money? Getting rich now? Becoming a renewed poster child? (I might be missing something).

I’ve always looked at the founder of the Web as a different role model. Nothing against the entrepreneur able to create a new empire, like Bezos and the like. Quite the contrary. But Berners-Lee has offered us for years, with Linus Torvalds or Jimmy Wales, a different way to look at the internet and the way to create huge value. It would be sad to think that this alternative model, Berners-Lee’s, was after all the consequence of him being unable to found a proper business model to privately capitalize.

Does it make any sense to have now someone saying: Hey guys, I am the owner of this piece of Artwork. Meh. Good luck, Sir. I hope you raise more than Jack Dorsey’s first tweet!