In the middle of December, the telecom company Vodafone announced that it would hold the auction for the non-fungible token (NFT) of the ‘World’s First Text Message’. According to the online news sources, the company has now announced that the NFT has been sold for around 107,000 Euros. The auction for the ‘World’s First Text Message’ NFT was held at the Aguttes Auction House in Paris on December 21, 2021. The bidders also had the option to participate in the auction online.
The ‘World’s First Text Message’ NFT is essentially a replica of the first communication protocol featuring a short message. This first message was reportedly sent almost 30 years back, on the day of December 3, 1992. It was sent through the Vodafone network, which makes this NFT an exclusive Vodafone digital asset. The company has reportedly said that it will not be minting another such NFT in the future. The message in the ‘World’s First Text Message’ NFT consists of only a 15 characters-long text which says ‘Merry Christmas’. The text was sent by Neil Papworth to Richard Jarvis. At the time, Papworth worked in Newbury, Berkshire as a test engineer for SMS or short messaging service.
It has been found that the buyer of the ‘World’s First Text Message’ NFT will also get an authenticity certificate, which will be signed by the CEO of Vodafone Group, Nick Read. The NFT will also come with the documents about the sending and receiving of the message. Besides this, the replica of the original communication will also be given in the form of PDF and TXT files.
