Thanks to Jack Dorsey, you can now own a piece of Twitter history, just don’t expect to hold it in your hand anytime soon. The microblogging company CEO has minted an NFT of the first tweet ever sent and is selling it to the highest bidder. It’s a bit of very new, very speculative memorabilia in honor of the social media network Donald Trump isn’t allowed to hang out on anymore.
If you’re just catching up here, Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs, are all the rage these days. Basically, they’re a one-of-a-kind digital collectible that’s made using blockchain technology. NBA Top Shot is currently the biggest — and fastest-growing — digital collectable platform but there are others. And digital art has become a big market, though not usually because they are pictures of tweets.
— jack (@jack) March 6, 2021
As CNN explains, an NFT of the first tweet Dorsey sent out back when the company lacked vowels has gone from the blockchain to the auction block. And the cost is already in the millions on Valuable, the company that’s selling the NFT. As CNN reported, the CEO of Bridge Oracle, Sina Estavi, had a top bid of $2.5 million for the tweet as of Monday.
Here’s the tweet, if you need it.
just setting up my twttr
— jack (@jack) March 21, 2006
NOW, in theory could you also mint an image of this tweet on the blockchain and have it as an NFT forever? Well, sure, if you have the tech knowledge to do that. But it won’t be the one created by Jack Dorsey, and so… will it be worth whatever price it costs at auction?
Maybe! It’s just another chapter in the weird uncharted territory we’re entering with NFTs. The one thing we do know for sure? They’ll all be extremely bad for the environment.