By akademiotoelektronik, 15/06/2022

NFT: a “Merry Christmas” sent by SMS is sold at 100,000 euros at auction

An non -fungible (NFT) token of the very first SMS composed in the world was sold at auction, allowing to collect 107,000 euros for a charitable work.

An NFT is a unique digital asset stored and exchanged on the blockchain.It generally represents an image, an article or a multimedia file.The distribution of the object within the blockchain eliminates the need to use a centralized body to authenticate and verify transactions.This increases the transparency of the latter (and therefore reduces the risk of fraud.

This particular NFT offers bidders the property of a single and detailed replica of the first SMS, which was sent to the Vodafone network on December 3, 1992. The auction was organized by the Maison Aguttes in France, for the benefit of the UNHCR, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees - which provides care, food, roof and protection for people fleeing their country of birth under duress.

"The first printed book, the first telephone call, the first email - all these inventions changed our lives and communication around the planet," said Maximilien Agutes, founder of the auction house."This first SMS received in 1992 is a historical testimony to human and technological progress. We are delighted to be able to support the sale of this play for such a cause".

Glory and falling SMS

The SMS in question was sent by Neil Papworth, a 22 -year -old British engineer who used his computer to send "Merry Christmas" to a 901 mobile phone. The technology was integrated into 2G standard as a universal service,allowing anyone with a compatible phone to transmit a 160 -character message to any recipient.

This function was a huge success and, at its peak in 2011, more than 40 billion SMS have been sent in the last three months of the year in France.However, the SMS has since been supplanted by the Over-The-Top messaging applications (OTT) like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.As well as by professional applications such as Microsoft Teams and Slack.

An SMS heir, called Rich Communication Services (RCS), was developed to combine the universality of texts with the multimedia functions rich in OTT applications.Among his supporters are Google and the GSMA - but it is likely that the success of this standard will be based above all on Apple's involvement.