The favorite video and meme’s “Charlie Beat My Finger” will soon leave YouTube, after the original family sold it as a non-fungible token (NFT) for $760,999 (£538,000), who captured the moment on tape. After Davis-Kay’s family placed an NFT on the auction site, bids began as soon as the auction was read in the final moments, and user “3fmusic” took the crown with the final bid of $3 million. An integral part of many people’s Internet upbringing, Charlie Beat My Finger is one of the most popular videos in history with over 880 million views on YouTube. In the short story starring 1-year-old Charlie and 3-year-old Harry, Charlie repeatedly bites Harry because he called his brother.
There’s really nothing more than that, but the pair captivated the internet and became a loving meme that has remained ever since. According to a BBC report, the video continues to complement the young couple and their two younger siblings through advertising and publicity, and they appear to be happier to be a part of it. But now, the video will leave YouTube where everyone can enjoy it and instead include only one user.
Although it is still available, purchasing the video as NFT gives the owner exclusive rights to the original posted content. Producers may still choose to retain their content after selling it as NFT, but the Davis-Kay family has decided to deviate from the sales norm and remove it. NFTs are essentially selling “certificates of ownership” of digital “originals”, much like any artist’s original artwork, and the rights to popular digital pieces are being auctioned off at insane prices due to interest in NFTS skyrockets.
Each NFT brings an encrypted signature by the creator verifying ownership to the new buyer. The headline came after Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey sold his first, $2,915,835 (£2,056,000) tweets, selling other memes, such as the “disaster girl” memes of a girl standing in front of another fuel building. Continued while, which received $473,000 – also apparently on 3fmusic, who bought “Charlie Beat My Finger” person?
With a popular piece of internet history anyone can make their content available for purchase and people are gaining their fleeting reputation while wealthy internet lovers see NFT as a form of investment in a new era.
