The creators of the classic “Charlie bit my finger - again !” video are now auctioning it off as an NFT, but with a twist. At the end of the auction, which will begin on May 22nd, the original video will be deleted from YouTube forever, according to a press release, where it currently has over 880 million views. The auction will kick off on the video’s 14th anniversary.
The ‘Charlie bit my finger’ video is being auctioned as an NFT — then deleted ‘forever’
That’s one way to ensure scarcity
That’s one way to ensure scarcity
What’s an NFT?
NFTs allow you to buy and sell ownership of unique digital items and keep track of who owns them using the blockchain. NFT stands for “non-fungible token,” and it can technically contain anything digital, including drawings, animated GIFs, songs, or items in video games. An NFT can either be one of a kind, like a real-life painting, or one copy of many, like trading cards, but the blockchain keeps track of who has ownership of the file.
NFTs have been making headlines lately, some selling for millions of dollars, with high-profile memes like Nyan Cat and the “deal with it” sunglasses being put up for auction. There’s also a lot of discussion about the massive electricity use and environmental impacts of NFTs. If you (understandably) still have questions, you can read through our NFT FAQ.
Since NFTs exploded onto the cultural landscape earlier this year, we’ve seen plenty of early-to-mid 2000s memes being sold on the blockchain, with many of them fetching higher prices than I would’ve ever have imagined. A non-exhaustive list includes:
- Nyan Cat: sold for around $590,000
- The Deal with It glasses: sold for around $23,000
- Disaster Girl: sold for around $500,000
- Keyboard Cat: sold for around $64,400
- David After Dentist: sold for around $11,500
Seeing these numbers, some people (including myself) have snidely said something along the lines of “why would you pay that much for something that’s not actually scarce? I can see Nyan Cat on the internet whenever I like.” Deleting one of the most well-known videos from YouTube does at least somewhat solve that argument, since whoever ends up with the NFT will actually be able to lay claim to something scarce. That is, assuming the buyer doesn’t just repost the video themselves (and ignoring the re-uploads that currently exist across the internet).
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