to develop the technology to transmit sms messages, and on december 3, 1992, neil papworth, who was part of this engineering team, seen from his computer the sms "merry christmas" to a vodafone manager in the united kingdom. now that piece of digital history has gone under the hammer. it was sold by vodafone for $120,600 in the form of a non—fungible token, or nft. nfts are a type of digital asset that has surged in popularity this year, with nft artwork selling for millions of dollars. the buyer, whose identity was not disclosed, will receive the replica of the original communication protocol that transmitted the sms. vodafone says it plans to donate its proceeds from the sale to the united nations refugee agency. nina nanji, bbc news.