An Indonesian college student has become a millionaire after his selfies became an internet sensation and trade of its digital rights fetched more than $1 million.
Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali, a computer science student at a university in the city of Semarang, has been taking a picture of himself sitting in front of his computer almost every day for the last five years to create a timelapse video for his graduation day.
"I was thinking it might be funny if one of the collectors collected my face," Ghozali told reporters who arrived at his university campus on Thursday.
"I never thought anybody would want to buy the selfies, which is why I only priced them at $3," he said.
But on Friday one selfie was available for 0.247 of the cryptocurrency ether ($806) after demand shot up.
Ghozali began uploading his selfies in late December but sales only took off when a celebrity chef snapped some up last week and promoted him on his social media account.
Over the course of the next few days, more than 500 people had bought NFTs of his expressionless photos.
As of Monday morning, Ghozali's collection had reached a total trade volume of 366 ether, equivalent to more than $1 million.
"To be honest I still haven't got the courage to tell my parents, they would be wondering where I got the money from," Ghozali laughed.
Ghozali on Twitter told his followers that they can do what they'd like with his photos, but asked them not to abuse his images.
It's been 3 days and left 331 NFT
— Ghozali_Ghozalu (@Ghozali_Ghozalu) January 12, 2022
sold out now because for the next few years I won't be listing
You can do anything like flipping or whatever but please don't abuse my photos or my parents will very disappointed to me
I believe in you guys so please take care of my photos. pic.twitter.com/oyGGR2Aben
Ghozali dreams of opening his own animation studio one day and said he plans to invest the money.
He said he would continue to take daily selfies until he finishes college.
&uuid=(email))