Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter has sold the first-ever tweet published on the platform for over $2.9 million (approx. Ksh 300 Million). Dated March 21 2006 which is 15 years ago, the tweet was sold as an NFT (Non-fungible Token), which is a digital assets like a video clip or image or other forms of online media that cannot be replaced by anything else. This however is not just a plain sale but also a significant boost in the adoption and the future of crypto and blockchain-based transactions.
Firstly, the tweet which says “just setting up my twttr,” was auctioned on a blockchain-powered social media platform called Valuables. Bridge Oracle CEO Sina Estavi won the bid for the tweet and compared it to purchasing the famous Mona Lisa painting by Da Vinci.
According to Valuable’s FAQs, buying the tweet means Mr estavi is purchasing a digital certificate signed by Dorsey and gets metadata to the tweet as well. So basically, an online autograph.
“This is not just a tweet! I think years later people will realize the true value of this tweet, like the Mona Lisa painting” Sina Estavi on his Twitter account.
Secondly, the tweet was purchased using the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, Ether. The coin’s value currently stands at about $1,600 (approx. Ksh 170,000).
As per the rules of the Valuables platform, Jack Dorsey receives 95% of the tweet’s proceeds and 5% goes back to Valuable’s parent company, Cent.
Thirdly, Jack aims to convert these proceeds to bitcoin before donating them to a charity called GiveDirectly, which is focused on poverty alleviation.
The twitter boss whose account bio just reads #bitcoin, has been a great crypto enthusiast even before his tweet auction which has served to cement his support of the crypto space. His own financial services company, Square, has more than 8,000 bitcoins which are worth around $400 million (approx. Ksh 40 billion).
Earlier in February 2021, Jack Dorsey announced a partnership with Billionaire rapper Jay Z to donate 500 bitcoin amounting to $23.6 million (approx. Ksh 2 billion) to a crypto trust firm.
“JAY-Z and I are giving 500 BTC to a new endowment named ₿trust to fund #Bitcoin development, initially focused on teams in Africa & India.” Said Jack in a tweet.
Last February, he also had Twitter launch a branded hashtag for bitcoin, meaning “#bitcoin” in tweets produced the iconic bitcoin logo.
As Non-fungible tokens and cryptocurrencies continue to explode this year, more companies and artists are likely to show a keen interest in marketplaces that tokenize digital works into crypto-collectible items.
The time for crypto is here!
