Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in November 2020. Photo / Getty
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in November 2020. Photo / Getty
The first tweet by Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey in 2006 - the otherwise unremarkable "just setting up my twittr" - has been sold at auction for US$2.6 million ($3.8m).
It's all part of the "nonfungible token" (NFT) craze, that sees a unit of data stored on a blockchain, representing a unique digital item like art. A blockchain is the online ledger used to underpin cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. An NFT can be thought of as a certificate of digital ownership - in as much as it's possible to own a public, easily replicable, virtual item.
Whether people will respect NFTs in a few years' time - or just chuckle at them as an "expression of extreme lockdown boredom" - has yet to be seen.
For now, the craze is gaining momentum. Various memes are selling for hundreds or thousands of dollars. Earlier this month, Christies sold a digital collage by "Beeple" (aka artist Mike Winklemann) for US$69m ($96.1m).
While that amount of money for an intangible piece of art might seem unreal, Winklemann received very real money, after commission.
"Boom, fifty-three million dollars in my account, the next day. Like, what the f***," he Winklemann said.
The buyer of Winklemann's collage has not been named but the winning bidder for Dorsey's maiden tweet was Sina Estavi, the CEO of a Malaysia-based blockchain company called Bridge Oracle.
The $US69m collage by Beeple is titled 'Everydays: The First 5000 Days', a composite of digital images created each day for more than 13 years. It measures 21,069 x 21,069 pixels. Photo / AP
And although NFTs are new to the art world, online gamers have been paying real dollars for virtual items for years via "in-game" purchase that give them a leg up on rivals. Why grift for hours to buy some elf armour when you can pay US$10 to get it straight away - even if it only ever exists onscreen.
The hit international multiplayer game Path of Exile, created by New Zealand's Grinding Gear Games, has no monthly subscription. It makes all its money from the sale of virtual items. You can, for example, pay for a virtual pet who will follow your character around, or some virtual objects to decorate your hideout.
All the microtransactions add up, and are highly profitable.
Last year, Grinding Gear Games (whose only title is Path of Exile) made an after-tax profit of $51.9m on revenue of $113.4m.
