Credit: IDG
On June 30, Twitter announced it was giving away 140 free Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) in seven different designs to users of its official Twitter account.
With the help of the NFT Store Rarible, the social media platform created 20 unique NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain, giving 20 of each away. The NFTs comprised artworks with Twitter themes and carrying nods to Twitter culture with names like “Vitamin T”, “Reply Guy” and “Furry Twitter.”
140 free NFTs for 140 of you, besties pic.twitter.com/0Pm0tNhIRg
— Twitter (@Twitter) June 30, 2021
One of the NFT’s, an animated GIF titled “First Born,” displayed a Tamagotchi-like toy that included the First Tweet from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Another, “Building Characters” featured Twitter mascot Larry doing bicep-curls.
First Born
Check in on your Tweets. pic.twitter.com/qrKHOeVxtU
— Twitter (@Twitter) June 30, 2021
For the chance to receive one of the tokens, Twitter users had to reply to any of seven posts tweeted by the company on the day of the giveaway. Lucky winners selected to be gifted an NFT were then direct messaged by Twitter for further instructions on how to claim theirs.
But the giveaway came with one catch… Twitter’s NFT Terms of Service, which giveaway recipients had to agree to, said although the recipients do own the NFT, they don’t actually own the rights to any artwork.
But that’s pretty standard for NFTs, and is the same as buying the print of an expensive piece of artwork and hanging it on the wall; while you might own the artwork itself, any reproduction rights belong to the original artist.
Considering this, are the Twitter NFTs worth anything? It seems they are: Owners can sell their NFTs on Rarible and there has been one report of an owner receiving a whopping US$110,000 for her copy of the Twitter NFT “Reply Guy.”
The report posted on website Insider, says Margaret Corvid, a British politician and poet from Plymouth England, was offered the bid after she posted a poem in reply to one of Twitter’s official Tweets. Corvid, who writes poems for NFT poetry project “etherpoems,” said to Insider about her win:
“It’s such a blessing. I was in the right place at the right time. I did write the poem, but it wasn’t a contest or something – Twitter just decided to give me that. And I was really lucky to get the offer.”
Here within, a note to @twitter
from this humble etherpoet,
lifted racing heart a-flitter
celebrating drops. I know it
seems a strange one, @jack knows best
the art form, to enshrine and haunt it,
I hope that I pass the test
because, dear friends, I really want it! #nftpoem https://t.co/vjo3BNoBse— Margaret Corvid is currently taking commissions (@MargaretLabour) June 30, 2021
Twitter’s giveaway comes after earlier this year the company’s CEO sold an NFT of his first Tweet for US$2.9 million.
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