ZoneBitcoin EditorialWell, after the crazy story of the doge which started with the Shiba Inu dog meme, a new chapter has just been written with a new meme. An equally crazy story, you'll see.
A video which also serves as an NFT (non-fungible token) was sold for $600 on February 000, 18.
Newspapers like New York Times actually make the headlines because it is so surprising. Whether you are in the crypto field or not for that matter.
The amount is indeed incredible and we take advantage of this short article to quickly explain the why and how of this.
You should know that the author's name is Chris Torres, an illustrator by profession, and he is the one who invented and created the Nyan Cat meme in 2011.
This is one of the most famous memes on the web. It has been viewed millions of times and perhaps you, who are reading this article, have also seen it somewhere on the web.
The meme in question was above all a very short video which we present to you below. The video shows a little digital cat moving at full speed, leaving behind a rainbow-colored jet.
This is what we call the Nyan cat (also known as Pop TartCat). It was this 8-bit video animation that was the subject of the half-million-euro transaction.
So, yes, in absolute terms and especially if you don't know geek culture, it may seem absurd to want to buy (at this price) the video of a flying kitten.
That said, you should know that photos and videos of cats flying in space have been a sensation for a long time. We've been seeing memes and gifs depicting real or virtual cats for quite a few years now. And Nyan Cat has been circulating on the web for more than 10 years.
This kind of humor is very popular with a part of the geek community and we find several forms of these "artistic" manifestations on social networks.
The origin of NyanCat
The Nyan Cat video was first published on the comic site LOL-COMICS which is run by Chris Torres, on April 2, 2011.
Before publishing his animation, Chris Torres already had an interesting audience. Moreover, the Nyan Cat was reblogged on Tumblr and collected more than 3000 notes after two weeks. Which is huge.
Then, on April 5, 2011, it was the turn of the YouTuber Saraj00 to post the video called "Nyan Cat". He added the very famous audio of the song Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya created by Japanese artist Daniwell-P. The video on YouTube reached one million views within two weeks of its publication.
NyanCat on the blockchain?
Like all memes, Nyan Cat has been seen, posted, reposted on different networks, thousands and thousands of times. It's an illustration and a video, so by definition, it can be duplicated endlessly and copied, shared, sent by email and posted on all social networks.
What we must understand is that it is no longer the author who was in control. Since the meme is on the web, it belongs to no one and everyone in some way.
However, as you can read in the title, someone purchased it.
It was in fact Chris Torres who made an auction on the site dedicated to the auction of digital works: The site Foundation.
It was there that the Nyan Cat was purchased for the modest sum of 300 ETH.
Depending on the price at the time of purchase, the 300 ETH was worth exactly 420 euros.
Special feature of this purchase?
In fact, you can say to yourself that the person who bought it therefore has the copyright or even exclusive ownership of the animation, right?
Actually, not really. The meme, for example, has been shared millions of times. That said, the person who bought it is therefore the only one to have the original and authentic version of this meme. Then, theoretically, to the extent that he owns the meme, he could add exclusive copyrights etc. to it.
If you are surprised by such a sum (we understand you), as a reminder, this is not the first time that an NFT has reached such a height.
We remember the little clip showing LeBron James who blocks a shot in a basketball match between Layers. This NFT was purchased for $100,000. This was followed by the sale of other illustrations and photos of stars.
Final words on the sale of Nyan Cat
The author said he felt like he had “opened the floodgates.” This appears to be very accurate indeed. This may just be the beginning of the NFT sales boom.
Moreover, NFTs are always more sought after and affect increasingly larger items as we could see with footballer cards sold for thousands of euros on sorareEg.
In any case, it is extremely interesting because we see that the use of blockchain goes well beyond the scope of simple payments. Now you can buy art and become a collector of virtual objects.
We also feel that the art world is ever more open and affected by blockchain. We are preparing an article (and a video) on the subject.
We will see if tomorrow cat video NFTs will be sold for more than a Picasso painting?
