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Sotheby’s will auction World Wide Web source code as NFT

Coin Telegraph
<div>Sotheby's will auction World Wide Web source code as NFT</div>
Auction

Describing NFTs as the "most appropriate means of ownership that exists," a 65-year-old computer scientist will release a tokenized version of the world wide web code next week.

British computer scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who developed the original source code for the World Wide Web, is making the data part of a nonfungible token through luxury auction house Sotheby’s.

According to a Tuesday announcement from Sotheby’s, the auction house will be putting up the World Wide Web nonfungible token, or NFT, for bids starting on June 23. Bidding for the NFT, named “This Changed Everything” and containing timestamped documentation of the code, will start at $1,000.

Preview of "This Changed Everything" NFT. Source: Sotheby's 

First created in 1989 before there were web browsers, Amazon, or even shareable memes, the roughly 10,000 lines of code — written using Python — includes implementations of HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language, HTTP, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol, and URIs, or Uniform Resource Identifiers, languages and protocols. The computer scientist has also included a letter explaining how he created the code and his signature. 

“NFTs, be they artworks or a digital artefact like this, are the latest playful creations in [the realm of technological transformation], and the most appropriate means of ownership that exists,” said Berners-Lee. “They are the ideal way to package the origins behind the web.”

Berners-Lee never patented the WWW source code, choosing instead to make it free for all. Perhaps as a result, current estimates put the computer scientist’s net worth at roughly $10 million, rather than potentially in the trillions or quadrillions. According to Sotheby's, all the proceeds for the NFT sale will benefit initiatives that Berners-Lee and his wife support.

Related: Sotheby's auction sets new world record for $11.8M CryptoPunk sale

Sotheby’s is seemingly becoming more well known for high-profile NFT auctions. In March, the auction house announced it would be offering tokenized art by a creator known as Pak. Last week, its London salesroom sold a CryptoPunk for $11.8 million, reportedly a world record for the type of artwork.

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Crypto sentiment index drops to October levels as Bitcoin dips under K

Crypto sentiment index drops to October levels as Bitcoin dips under $92K

Sotheby’s auction sets new world record for $11.8M CryptoPunk sale

Coin Telegraph
<div>Sotheby's auction sets new world record for .8M CryptoPunk sale</div>
Art

“NFTs are dead,” said the previous owner of the COVID Alien artwork once the auction closed.

Luxury auction house Sotheby’s made waves on social media on Thursday following the sale of one rare CryptoPunk.

In a tweet from Sotheby’s, the auction said CryptoPunk #7523 — also known as “COVID Alien” — sold in its London salesroom for roughly $11.8 million. According to the auction house, this sale represents a new world record for a single CryptoPunk artwork.

CryptoPunks, which predate the bulk of the nonfungible token (NFT) craze in 2021, are often small, pixelated depictions of people, apes, zombies and aliens. Sotheby’s announced the sale of the COVID Alien in late May as a “special, standalone” auction. The artwork features an alien wearing a face mask.

On-chain data shows that someone purchased the CryptoPunk for 8 Ether (ETH) in a public sale in 2017 — a fraction of the sale price today. However, last month New York-based auction house Christie’s sold nine CryptoPunks for almost $17 million, implying there is still strong interest from many buyers for these pieces.

"Punks were designed as pseudonymous portraits, masks for those crypto pioneers that value the idea of privacy in the modern age," said Sotheby's in an overview of the auction. "Avatars, portraits or masks, they stand as semiotic reference points to a specific internet crypto native identity that now spreads itself across social networks — particularly Twitter. More is said by a Punk as a profile picture than a portrait of the individual behind the account."

Related: Sotheby’s moves $10 million CryptoPunk to solo auction event

The NFT collector “Sillytuna,” who owned the COVID Alien prior to the sale, previously told Cointelegraph that he acquired the digital collectible in an over-the-counter deal. He took to Twitter immediately after the sale to announce that “NFTs are DEAD” and hinted he may have already used some of the funds to make another artwork purchase.

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Crypto sentiment index drops to October levels as Bitcoin dips under K

Crypto sentiment index drops to October levels as Bitcoin dips under $92K

Polkadot creator Gavin Wood proposes June 15 for first Kusama parachain auction

Coin Telegraph
Polkadot creator Gavin Wood proposes June 15 for first Kusama parachain auction
Auction

The first Kusama parachain auction could happen by mid-June if the council votes in favor of a recently released tentative schedule.

Polkadot and Kusama creator Gavin Wood has published a tentative schedule for the much-anticipated Kusama parachain slot auctions. 

According to a blog post posted on Tuesday, the first parachain auction slot will open on June 15 at 12:00 pm Central European Summer Time.

The tentative schedule, subject to the approval of the Kusama Council and other KSM stakeholders, will see the maiden parachain auction concluded by June 17, with the bidding period continuing until June 22.

If the Kusama Council approves the schedule, then the first-ever parachain slot auction winner could emerge by 11:00 am on June 22. The second parachain slot auction will then commence an hour later, with subsequent slot auctions slated at one-week intervals according to Wood’s post.

After the first five weekly auctions, Wood recommended a pause to evaluate the performance of the network before commencing another batch of five parachain slot auctions based on the aforementioned schedule.

Back in May, Cointelegraph reported that Kusama was finally ready to host parachains. According to Wood, Kusama developers are confident that there are no technical hurdles to holding slot auctions or deploying parachains.

These auctions will determine which parachains will be added to the Kusama relay chain — a canary network for Polkadot. Detailing the need to get Kusama parachains up and running, Wood said, “Kusama exists as the Polkadot canary network and therefore to help protect Polkadot from a serious issue by allowing functionality to exist in the wild for as long as possible,” adding:

“Since the amount of protection it gives is in some way proportional to the amount of time it is active prior to Polkadot, there is a clear reason for deploying this logic as soon as possible for the good of Polkadot.”

The one-week headups given for the start of the process is reported to allow the community ample time to unstake their Kusama (KSM) to fund auction bids.

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Crypto sentiment index drops to October levels as Bitcoin dips under K

Crypto sentiment index drops to October levels as Bitcoin dips under $92K

Nifty News: Olympic NFT pins and games, world’s first intelligent NFT and more

Coin Telegraph
<div>Nifty News: Olympic NFT pins and games, world's first intelligent NFT and more</div>
Auction

Sotheby's has revealed the world’s first “intelligent” NFT, Playboy is auctioning off a tokenized boarding pass to the “bunny jet”, and Olympic-themed NFT collectibles are dropping this month.

Playboy, the lifestyle and entertainment brand famous for its distinctive logo — among other things, has launched its first collection of five animated NFTs, on a new NFT market placed dubbed “Raretoshi” which is backed by Blockstream’s Liquid sidechain.

The NFTs were unveiled during the lead up to the 2021 Bitcoin Miami conference on June 3:

All of the NFTs are one-of-one editions, and include three Miami-themed animations, an animated magazine cover with the bunny logo covering a model, and a tokenized “bunny boarding pass.”

Playboy NFTs. Source: Raretoshi

Collectors can bid for the NFTs using Liquid Bitcoin (L-BTC)   — a type of asset on Blockstream’s Liquid sidechain, with a supply that is pegged 1:1 with Bitcoin.

The highest starting price is 5 L-BTC worth roughly $188,315 for the “bunny boarding pass” — which includes a bonus of a round-trip flight on the Big Bunny jet, anywhere in the U.S., for the collector and 10 other guests.

Bidding activity, however, appears to be non-existent so far, with no bids placed on any of the five artworks at the time of writing.

Olympic standard NFTs

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and nWay — a subsidiary of game developer Animoca Brands — have collaborated to drop a set of Olympic-themed tokenized NFT pins and a video game.

The Olympic themed video game will launch in the lead up to the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games and players will be able to earn free Olympic NFT collectibles if they’re any good.

The animated 3D pins commemorate historic events from the history of the Olympics — and vary in rarity and value. The first set of pins will be available on nWay from June 17, and can be traded on a peer-to-peer marketplace to be launched shortly after the first drop.

Intelligent NFTs

Sotherby’s art auction house claims its auctioning off the first ever intelligent NFT (iNFT), with bids closing June 11.

The one-of-one iNFT dubbed “Alice” depicts an ERC-721 tokenized female Robot, developed by Robert Alice in collaboration with robotics firm Alethea AI.

“The first iNFT ever made, this iNFT stands at the genesis of a new medium. The collector will add to their collection this historic iNFT which will refine and develop based on their questions,” says the description of Alice on the project's website "thefirstinft." 

According to the website, it may actually cost the collector to maintain and update the iNFT with the project noting that "depending on collectors' plans for the iNFT, the associated hosting costs of the API calls to Alethea AI’s GPT-X will pass in full into the care and duty of the collector."

Alethea AI does however offer a one-time free of charge set up for the intelligent NFT. The auction has six days to go and currently has a top bid of $35,000.

NFTs to raise funds for the Sydney Children’s hospital

A Melbourne-based digital artist who goes under the alias “Hipworth” on Twitter has created a one-of-one NFT which will be auctioned off at the Gold Dinner Gala on June 10 — with all the proceeds going to the Sydney Children’s hospital.

The NFT has been minted on NFT marketplace Makersplace, and depicts a silver animated queen statue backed by electronic music. Bids can be placed leading up to the event, and currently has a high bid of $1,000.

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Crypto sentiment index drops to October levels as Bitcoin dips under K

Crypto sentiment index drops to October levels as Bitcoin dips under $92K

Sotheby’s moves $10 million CryptoPunk to solo auction event

Coin Telegraph
Sotheby’s moves million CryptoPunk to solo auction event
Art

An ultra-rare (and extremely valuable) CryptoPunk is set for a solo auction at Sotheby's.

One ultra-rare CryptoPunk is set for some extra stage time at a hotly anticipated upcoming auction. 

In a Tweet today, luxury auction house Sotheby’s announced that the sale of CryptoPunk #7530, also known as “Covid Alien”, will be offered during a “special, standalone” auction. The Punk was previously announced as part of the “Natively Digital” event, which highlights the history of NFTs and cryptoart with a selection of pieces that include what many consider to be the first-ever NFT, Kevin McCoy’s “Quantum,” an animation minted in 2014 on the Namecoin blockchain.

The auction comes on the heels of a number of high-profile NFT sales from rival auction house Christie’s. In addition to a $17 million sale of 9 CryptoPunks earlier this month, Christie’s hosted the sale of a Beeple retrospective collage that brought in $69 million — the highest NFT sale price ever, and the third most expensive work ever sold by a living artist. The move to a solo even shows that Sotheby’s is eager to get in on the trend of NFTs becoming an accepted form of high art. 

How much the alien Punk will fetch is a hot topic of conversation among NFT collectors. On-chain data shows that the last public sale of the Punk was in 2017 for 8 ETH, though the current owner told Cointelegraph in an interview that he acquired the collectible in a OTC deal more recently.

The most recent on-chain alien sale was CryptoPunk #3100, which sold for 4,200 ETH — over $10 million at today’s ETH prices.

“This wont be a popular opinion, but I think [Covid Alien] will go for less than the last one,” cautioned NFT collector and NFT 42 developer Nate Hart. “I expect it to break 5M but I think 10M is probably the upper limit. There is such a limited pool of buyers at that level.”

The current owner of the Punk, NFT collector “Sillytuna“ framed the sale in historic terms.

“I had always planned to do something interesting but didn't mind when that was, even if ten years away,” he said. “As a proponent of NFTs since before they even had that name, I'm keen on gradually educating the wider world on their potential. To do that we need to lay down markers like this.”

“This was never about the money,” he added.

However, as Sotheby’s announcement of the inclusion of the Punk notes, CryptoPunks used as profile pictures are a way many NFT OGs identify themselves: “More is said by a Punk as a profile picture than a portrait of the individual behind the account.”

Thankfully, Sillytuna has a (significantly less expensive) backup ready — a visored human punk with a matching orange beanie.

Hart, however, is dubious that high-profile auction events are bringing a new crowd to the market. 

“I think it's cool to see NFTs hit these marketplaces but i don't know that they're bringing any outsider interest really. Even mega rich people don't spend 7 figs on something they don't understand.”

The auction will be livestreamed June 10th at 10:00 AM EST. 

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Crypto sentiment index drops to October levels as Bitcoin dips under K

Crypto sentiment index drops to October levels as Bitcoin dips under $92K

Hollywood Sign, Amy Winehouse Photo to Be Auctioned as NFTs

Bitcoin.com
Hollywood Sign, Amy Winehouse Photo to Be Auctioned as NFTs
addictions
Hollywood Sign, Amy Winehouse Photo to Be Auctioned as NFTsNon-fungible tokens can be sold to raise funds and two independent initiatives are now going to use proceeds from NFT auctions to finance charity projects. The tokens will represent one of the best known American landmarks, the Hollywood Sign, and a New York photograph of the late singer Amy Winehouse. Hollywood Sign to Be Sold […]
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Crypto sentiment index drops to October levels as Bitcoin dips under K

Crypto sentiment index drops to October levels as Bitcoin dips under $92K

Mecum Auctions Now Accepts Digital Currency Payments for Collector Cars

Bitcoin.com
Mecum Auctions Now Accepts Digital Currency Payments for Collector Cars
Auction
Mecum Auctions Now Accepts Digital Currency Payments for Collector CarsThe popular collector car auction company Mecum Auctions has announced the company is now accepting crypto assets for payments. The company says that the new payment acceptance allows the auction firm to “attract new customers and sales.” Collector Car Auctions Giant Plans to Start Accepting Crypto Assets at Dana Mecum’s Original Spring Classic The Wisconsin-based […]
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Crypto sentiment index drops to October levels as Bitcoin dips under K

Crypto sentiment index drops to October levels as Bitcoin dips under $92K

Kusama (KSM) price hits new highs as parachain auctions begin to take shape

Coin Telegraph
Kusama (KSM) price hits new highs as parachain auctions begin to take shape
Altcoin Watch

KSM rallied to a new all-time high as investors rushed into new positions in order to participate in the hype surrounding the upcoming parachain auctions.

Major protocol upgrades are one of the most potent sources of price movement for cryptocurrency projects as community members and investors get excited about new features and traders rush in to “buy the rumor and sell the news”. 

One protocol that has seen its price rise to new rights this week despite the overall bearish conditions affecting the market is Kusama (KSM), an experimental blockchain platform and a sister chain to the Polkadot’s platform. Kusama is designed to provide an interoperable and scalable framework for developers.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after dropping to a low of $378 on May 10, the price of Kusama rallied 55% to a new all-time high at $591.55 today thanks to a record $1.568 billion in 24-hour trading volume.

KSM/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

Three reasons for the recent price appreciation for KSM include the upcoming launch of parachain auctions, recent integrations that helped enhance the interoperability of Kusama with other networks and increased opportunities to stake or lock up KSM to earn a yield.

Parachains are on the verge of launching

The most significant development for Kusama of late came on May 12 when the project announced that the most recent upgrade proposal was approved by the council and is now a public referendum.

This development provided token holders a three-day window between May 12 and May 14 to vote for the different parachains, crowd loans and auctions that they want to see on the Kusama network.

Since KSM tokens are required to be able to participate in voting, demand for the token immediately increased following the announcement and it continues to rise on May 14 despite an overall downturn in the cryptocurrency market.

VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for KSM on May 11, prior to the recent price rise and before the announced passing of upgrade v0.9.1.

The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historic and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.

VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. KSM price. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score fluctuated in and out of the green zone over the previous week before climbing to a high of 70 on May 11 at roughly the same time that the price of KSM began to break out to a new all-time high over the next 32 hours.

Interoperability integration provides a spark

A second source for KSM's price growth over the past month was the April 23 announcement that Chainlink awarded a grant to ChainSafe Systems to help expand support for Kusama on the Chainlink Oracle Pallet.

As seen in the tweet, the expanded support enables developers to build hybrid smart contracts on DOT and KSM parachains along with other substrate chains, significantly enhancing their interoperability capability.

With one of the originally stated goals of the Polkadot network being increased interoperability across all blockchain networks, this development helped reassure community members that meaningful steps were being taken in regards to this goal by enlisting the most trusted and widespread oracle platform in the crypto ecosystem.

New staking and yield opportunities

A third motivating force behind demand for KSM is the attractive yield opportunities offered to token holders willing to stake their KSM tokens on the network or with new parachains.

Data from staking rewards shows that the average rate of return for staking and delegating KSM on the network is 13.72% while running a validator node earns 14.72%.

As part of the parachain auction process, projects like Karura have elected to conduct a crowd loan which involves community supporters bonding their KSM with that protocol for the duration of the parachain lease in return for the native token of the parachain.

The crowd loan allows the project to meet the requirements to obtain a parachain lease for a specified period of time and all KSM tokens are returned to the contributors after the lease is up.

In return for locking their tokens for an extended period of time, community members are rewarded with the native token of the parachain in question but lose the ability to earn KSM staking rewards.

The crowd loan model is an innovative new fundraising design for crypto projects that has excited community members who are eager to obtain their favorite KSM-based tokens while also being able to retain ownership of their KSM.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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Crypto sentiment index drops to October levels as Bitcoin dips under K

Crypto sentiment index drops to October levels as Bitcoin dips under $92K

Sotheby’s crypto-powered auction sells Banksy art for $13M

Coin Telegraph
Sotheby’s crypto-powered auction sells Banksy art for M
Adoption

Sotheby’s originally estimated Banksy’s “Love is in the Air” to sell for up to $5 million.

Major auction house Sotheby’s has completed its cryptocurrency-enabled auction offering Banksy’s iconic protest artwork “Love is in the Air.”

According to the auction results, Sotheby’s sold the physical artwork on Wednesday for $12.9 million, significantly up from from originally estimated of $3 million to $5 million. The physical artwork was offered at a Contemporary Art Evening Auction that also featured “Versus Medici” by Jean-Michel Basquiat selling for nearly $51 million.

Sotheby’s announced on Twitter that the auction involved a 14-minute bidding battle between four entities. The auction house emphasized that the sale marks the first time cryptocurrency was accepted as a payment option for a piece of physical artwork.

According to the auction lot page, the bidders were able to pay using two major cryptocurrencies — Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) — through Sotheby’s partnership with Coinbase Commerce.

“The funds must be sent from an approved wallet or exchange, including: Coinbase, Coinbase Custody Trust, Fidelity Digital Assets Services, Gemini, or Paxos,” the auction house noted.

Source: Sotheby’s

Sotheby’s did not specify whether the winning bid or any participating bids in the auction have actually involved cryptocurrency. The company did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

As previously reported, Sotheby’s officially announced its plans to accept cryptocurrency as part of Banksy’s artwork auction last week in a move to further explore cryptocurrency payments after debuting nonfungible tokens, or NFTs earlier this year. On May 6, Sotheby’s announced another NFT auction called “Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale.” Scheduled to take place between June 3 and June 10, the sale will feature a digital object from iconic NFT collection CryptoPunks.

This comes shortly after New York-based auction house Christie’s sold nine CryptoPunks tokens for nearly $17 million combined. The company previously auctioned Mike Winkelmann’s digital artwork “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” in March, netting almost $70 million for the piece.

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Crypto sentiment index drops to October levels as Bitcoin dips under K

Crypto sentiment index drops to October levels as Bitcoin dips under $92K

Auction giant Sotheby’s to accept BTC and ETH as payment via Coinbase

Coin Telegraph
Auction giant Sotheby’s to accept BTC and ETH as payment via Coinbase
Art

Bitcoin and Ether will bring the next step of Sotheby’s crypto adoption after the firm debuted NFTs earlier this year, its CEO said.

Sotheby’s, one of the world’s oldest and biggest auction houses, has announced that it will be accepting major cryptocurrencies as a new payment method at an upcoming auction.

Sotheby’s CEO Charles Stewart said that the company will debut Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) payments as part of its upcoming auction of Banksy’s "Love is in the Air." The new payment method will be facilitated in partnership with United States’ largest cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, noted Stewart in a Tuesday interview with CNBC's Squawk Box.

“It’s something we have been thinking about for quite some time,” the CEO said, elaborating that Sotheby’s latest move brings the next step to exploring crypto payments for physical art after the firm debuted nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, earlier this year.

"Love is in the Air" is an iconic protest-themed artwork by pseudonymous England-based street artist Banksy. The work will be offered in Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction on May 12 in New York, Esquire reported. Bidding for the work, which is estimated to be worth between $3 million and $5 million, will be conducted in the U.S. dollar, featuring an opportunity to pay the amount with crypto.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, global auction houses have been moving into the crypto industry more aggressively in recent months. In February, British auction house Christie’s announced an NFT auction of Mike Winkelmann’s digital artwork “Everydays: The First 5000 Days.” The auction eventually resulted in a record-setting NFT sale, netting nearly $70 million. In October 2020, Christie’s also sold a Bitcoin-themed art piece and NFT for over $130,000.

Sotheby’s announcement comes amid a major altcoin rally, with Ether setting a new all-time high above $3,500 on Tuesday.

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Crypto sentiment index drops to October levels as Bitcoin dips under K

Crypto sentiment index drops to October levels as Bitcoin dips under $92K

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