TIME magazine auctioned three non-fungible tokens (NFTs) inspired by two memorable covers and a special edition one created just for the occasion. The auction was conducted on NFT marketplace SuperRare from March 22 to 24, and bidders could bid for the collection of the three NFTs or a single cover. Final bids totaled more than $443,000.
The first NFT is inspired by the magazine’s April 1966 edition cover “Is God Dead?”. The second cover is a nod to the April 2017 edition with the text “Is Truth Dead?”. And the final cover turned NFT is the first cover designed exclusively as an NFT by TIME and it reads “Is Fiat Dead?”, referring to conventional money as opposed to cryptocurrency.
There was a single winner @mondoir1 for the three individual covers. “Is God Dead?” sold for 70 ether ($112,400), “Is Fiat Dead?” went for 83 ether ($133,300) and “Is Truth Dead” had the highest bid at 88 Ether ($141,300). The collection went for 35 ether ($56,200).
It will be interesting to see how the NFT market develops. A piece of digital art was recently auctioned at Christie’s for $69 million, Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey sold his first tweet as an NFT for $2.9 million, and Super Bowl champion Rob Gronkowski sold an NFT collection for $1.6 million. A New York Times journalist curious about the recent hype around NFTs hopped on the wagon and put an article up for auction as an NFT on blockchain. However, the winning bidder gets neither the copyright nor syndication rights.
NFTs certainly have the potential to promote digital content and protect intellectual property, but the hope is that after the initial excitement has passed, it won’t be only celebrities and well-known figures that continue to profit from the technology.
