The CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, has announced the company’s plans to integrate non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Zuckerberg said that NFTs would be supported on Instagram first before being supported on Facebook.
The cryptocurrency space has become quite attractive to tech giants. Besides NFTs, tech companies such as Google and Microsoft are also moving towards Web3 and planning to adopt blockchain technology.
Meta’s Instagram to support NFTs
Zuckerberg said that Instagram was planning to launch a testing phase for NFTs on Instagram to allow creators and collectors to display their NFTs on their profile images. He added that a similar feature would be rolled out on Facebook. The executive also said that augmented reality NFTs could be displayed on Instagram stories using Spark AR.
“This week we’re beginning to test digital collectibles with a handful of US creators and collectors who will be able to share NFTs on Instagram. There will be no fees associated with posting or sharing a digital collectible on IG,” said IG head Adam Mosseri.
Mosseri also posted a video on Twitter explaining why NFT creations were important to Instagram. He also said that Instagram wanted to solve the issues some creators face following their inability to make enough money using NFTs.
The Instagram NFT feature will be launched in a beta testing phase. During this phase, it will be possible for artists to share the NFTs they have bought or created through their Instagram stories and messaging. The beta phase will be open for several months, and it will only be available to specific Instagram accounts for users based in the US.
Meta’s support for crypto initiatives
Zuckerberg renamed Facebook into Meta in October 2021. Since then, there have been rumours about the social media giant’s plans for NFTs. One of the blockchain projects already partnered with Meta is Polygon Studios. The company tweeted that its partnership with Meta would foster the adoption of Web3.
The soon-to-be-launched Instagram NFTs will be rolled on the Ethereum, Solana, Polygon and Flow blockchains. This announcement by Meta shows that the social media giant understands the concept of NFTs and the challenges faced by creators.
NFTs offer utility by allowing creators to tokenize their work and verify ownership. This helps solve a wide range of issues related to copyright and piracy. Instagram is one of the largest social media networks globally, and it boasts more than $1.4 billion monthly users around the world.
The platform is used by artists, musicians, and other businesses and commerce platforms. The network is now planning to launch the largest NFT marketplace globally. In January, a report by the Financial Times said that Meta was in the early stages of talks to develop such a marketplace.
As NFTs continue to become popular more tech firms and traditional companies could announce their digital asset offerings, which could help drive the prices of these digital assets and boost NFT adoption globally.
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