Jack Dorsey just sold his fist tweet. Sort of.
If you’re confused by that combination of words, then congrats, you’re literate. On Monday, the Twitter CEO confirmed that, after listing the platform’s very first tweet on the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Valuables in December, an NFT associated with the 2006 tweet sold for over $2.9 million worth of cryptocurrency.
“just setting up my twttr,” reads the tweet.
The NFT, which is essentially an agreed upon and (at at least theoretically) verifiable ownership claim of, in this case, a tweet that the Valuables FAQ makes clear “stays on twitter,” was purchased by Bridge Oracle CEO Sina Estavi.
Got that? Estavi didn’t buy the tweet itself (if such a thing were even possible), he basically bought an ownership claim on a tweet.
“What you are purchasing is a ‘digital certificate’ of that tweet,” the Valuables FAQ continues. “Like an autograph on a baseball card, the NFT is the creator’s autograph on a digital file, making it unique and valuable.”
On Monday, Dorsey wrote that he had converted the proceeds from the sale to bitcoin and then donated the bitcoin to GiveDirectly, a nonprofit organization which (as the name suggests) “[gives] cash directly to people living in poverty.”
Which, hey, that’s great. GiveDirectly works with U.S. families affected by COVID and, via mobile money wallets, has had a legitimate positive impact on the lives of unbanked Kenyans. Kudos to Dorsey for squeezing some real good out of the definitely not-an-NFT bubble before it pops.
SEE ALSO: So you spent millions on an NFT. Here’s what you actually bought.
In the meantime, many people have NFT bridges to sell you.