That first text message was sent in 1992 to Richard David, then a manager of UK Vodafone, and is now auctioned off as a (unique) non-fungible token. This is a unique token with which the ownership of digital objects can be guaranteed thanks to blockchain technology. It is expected by French experts that this token can fetch somewhere around 200,000 euros.
Programmer Neil Papworth, then 22 years old, made history as the writer and sender of the first text message, on December 3, 1992. He wished the recipient a happy birthday. Recipient Richard David was surprised by the report during a Christmas party. He received the message on the Orbitel 901, one of the first mobile phones. Since then, Papworth has regularly appeared on TV shows around the world when another Bilstrom should be celebrated. Incidentally, the inventor of this technology, Finnish engineer Matti Makonnen passed away in 2015.
Vodafone said it would donate all auction profits to charities. The money will be transferred to UN refugee assistance.
By the way, recently special digital things have been sold quite often. The first Wikipedia page was sold last week at auction, raising 664,000 euros. The first tweet from Twitter founder Jack Dorsey was also auctioned for 2.4 million euros.
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