Hello World NFTs

NFT Collection

Own the hello world code in many different programming languages.

Motivation

"Hello, World!" is probably the most iconic general piece of code in the history of programming. It is the typical starting point in learning a language and gives a glimpse into its very basic syntax.

With the hype of NFTs, I thought about what digital item I would have fun with owning and my first idea was "Hello, World!" in my favorite programming languages. So I created and minted them on OpenSea, the biggest NFT marketplace.

Development

One problem was, that OpenSea only allows images. However, I did not just want to make an image of the code, as it does not feel like "owning" the actual code. My solution to this was the SVG format, which is basically text, that is only rendered to an image. So technically, you get the code itself.

It also was fun to learn more about what SVGs actually are and that you basically only need a text editor and no complex vector image software like InkScape to create them.

Example (BASIC)

<svg version="1.1"
    font-family="Courier New"
    font-size="16"
    width="251"
    height="40"
    viewBox="0 0 251 40"
    xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
  <rect width="100%" height="100%" fill="white"/>
  <text>
    <tspan x="10" y="1.5em" fill="gray">10</tspan>
    <tspan>PRINT</tspan>
    <tspan fill="#4070a1">"Hello, World!"</tspan>
  </text>
</svg>