Vodafone is auctioning the world’s first SMS “Merry Christmas” as an NFT to the organization

A 15-digit historical SMS will be auctioned to help displaced refugees around the world.

Messages

British telecommunications giant Vodafone is reportedly planning to auction the world’s first Short Message Service (SMS) as an illegible token (NFT) on December 21. Text message reading “Merry Christmas” was sent over the Vodafone network 29 years ago on December 3rd, 1992, and was received by Richard Jarvis, an employee at the time.

According to the Romanian news agency Ziarul Financiar, the 15-digit historical SMS will be auctioned as NFT in a one-time sale by Attes Attes in France.

By auctioning the world’s first SMS as an NFT, Vodafone intends to transfer the proceeds to the United Nations Refugee Agency to help people who need to be relocated.

The sale of Vodafone SMS NFT will take place this Tuesday, December 21st, via an online auction at which participants can bid on Ethereum (ETH). The highest bidder has exclusive rights to the communication protocol used to transmit the world’s first SMS.

In addition to SMS fame, it took 9 years for other networks to send and receive SMS from Vodafone. The world’s first SMS minting is another example of NFT’s ability to encrypt and preserve digital history.

Related: Adidas Originals launches its first NFT collection

The NFT ecosystem has driven general adoption of cryptocurrencies as companies find their use cases in their existing business models. Just last week the sporting goods manufacturer Adidas announced the launch of the NFT collection “Into the Metaverse”.

As reported by Cointelegraph, the Adidas Originals NFT sale will take place on December 17th on the company’s official website for 0.2 ETH, or $ 810 as of the time of writing.

Just a few days before Adidas joined, Nike also acquired a pair of RTFKT branded virtual sneakers and collectibles, which signals a keen interest in the Metaverse.