UC Berkeley is auctioning off a non-fungible token called "The Fourth Pillar," which includes the scientific findings that led to the invention of cancer immunotherapy, San Francisco-based radio station KQED reported.
Bidding began around noon on June 7. The university said it is the first academic institution in the world to use a NFT to auction off the science behind a Nobel Prize-winning discovery, as James Allison, PhD, and Tasuku Honjo, PhD, won a Nobel Prize for their discovery of cancer immunotherapy in 2018.
The first bid was for 12 ethereums, which is a cryptocurrency. The amount translates to about $31,000.
The NFT includes 10 pages of documents and correspondence from 1995, when Drs. Allison and Honjo were inventing cancer immunotherapy.
"We titled this NFT 'The Fourth Pillar' based on Allison's statement that this — his invention — is the fourth pillar against cancer," Mike Alvarez Cohen, director of innovation ecosystem development at UC Berkeley's Office of Technology Licensing, told the radio station. "There's surgery, there's radiation and there's chemo. And this is now the fourth area."
UC Berkeley will receive 85 percent of the auction's proceeds, as the platform will take 15 percent. The university will spend the money on research and education, as well as offsetting the negative ecological effects associated with the NFT, as NFTs consume excessive amounts of electricity through computing.