Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has made the first-ever tweet, which he posted, available to buy in the form of a digitally authenticated certification of ownership. The tweet, which was posted on March 21, 2006, simply reads: "just setting up my twttr," as was the original spelling of the platform's name. The ability for someone to 'buy' that tweet — or any other tweet or digital asset for that matter — and the extent to which they subsequently 'own' it are a little complicated, but it is made possible by so-called non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

An NFT is a certificate (token) that demonstrates something is unique and not interchangeable (non-fungible). They have become popularized by artists wishing to sell the ownership of digital artworks in the same way that a physical painting might be sold. The difference is of course, that an original painting can only be in one place at one time, whereas any number of exact copies can be made of digital artworks. In a sense, the notion of ownership is what is being sold and, if you consider that a physical painting could be sold with limitations of what the new owner can do with it, then you can see how digital ownership in this way can be similar.

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Dorsey announced — if that's a fair way of characterizing it — the sale of the NFT by simply posting a link to the online auction hosted on Valuables, which was launched in December 2020 and allows people to "buy and sell tweets autographed by their creators." Information about a file sold on Valuables and who has ownership of it is stored on the blockchain (a distributed digital ledger) for the Ethereum cryptocurrency. At the time of writing, Hakan Estavi (@sinaEstavi), CEO of blockchain data firm Bridge Oracle, has made the highest bid for Dorsey's tweet at a cool $600,000. There is no time limit on Valuables auctions, with the seller able to choose when to accept an offer or whether to do so at all. It's also possible for anyone to make an offer for any tweet posted to a public Twitter account.

What Will The Owner Of Jack Dorsey's Tweet Get?

Screenshot of Jack Dorsey first tweet Valuables auction

Although whoever buys the 'first-ever tweet' will have spent a minimum of $600,000, given the current bid, they won't be able to do much with it. NFTs don't typically give the owner any additional rights to an asset beyond the certification of ownership. So, for example, were Dorsey to accept Estavi's bid, Estavi would not be able to instruct him to delete the tweet. Indeed, while multiple NFTs can't be sold on Valuables for the same item, there is nothing stopping Dorsey from creating and selling another on a different platform, although it would likely undermine trust in Dorsey as a seller in the future.

As Valuables itself outlines in its FAQs, "Owning any digital content can be a financial investment, hold sentimental value, and create a relationship between collector and creator." In short, they can simply be something cool to own or, as is often the case with purchases of physical artworks, they can be an investment that might be sold for a profit (or loss) in the future. That begs the questions for investors of whether investing in digital artworks will endure and whether NFTs will be how it endures.

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Source: Jack Dorsey/Twitter, Valuables