Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Instagram will start testing irreplaceable tokens (NFT) on the social network this week.
NFT is a unique computer file encrypted with the artist’s signature, which acts as a digital certificate of ownership and authenticity.
Unlike similar technologies such as bitcoin, each NFT is unique in something. This means that they can be used not only for currency.
In the last few years, NFT has been adopted by people seeking to turn art, music, video and games into digital assets – and were seen as a digital response to collecting.
“This week, we’re starting to test digital collectibles on Instagram so creators and collectors can show off their NFT on their profile,” Zuckerberg said in an update to his Facebook profile.
“Similar functionality will soon appear on Facebook along with augmented reality NFT in Instagram Stories through Spark AR so you can place digital art in physical spaces.”
Information about NFT is displayed on Instagram similarly to labeled profiles and products and is called “digital collectibles”. When you click on a tag, details such as the name of the creator and owner will appear
Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Instagram will start testing irreplaceable tokens (NFT), with similar functionality will soon appear and Facebook
Instagram chief Adam Moseri confirmed today in a video that “several American creators and collectors” will be able to feature NFT in their feed, stories and posts.
“Now there are many different ways to make money for creators, but many of them are unpredictable and changing quickly,” he said.
“We believe that one really interesting opportunity for a group of creators is NFT – the idea of owning a unique digital element.”
Information about NFT is displayed on Instagram similarly to labeled profiles and products and is called “digital collectibles”.
When you click on the label, information such as the name of the creator and owner will appear.
Masseri said there would be no fees associated with publishing or sharing digital collectibles on Instagram.
However, he acknowledged the inherent tensions between major companies such as Instagram, and the decentralized spirit of “Web3,” which encapsulates NFT, blockchain, cryptocurrency, metaseum and other new technologies.
“Oil and blockchain technology – and Web3 in the broadest sense – are all about trust sharing, power sharing. But Instagram is essentially a centralized platform, so there’s tension here, ”Moseri said.
“So one of the reasons why we start small is that we want to make sure we can learn in the community.
“We want to make sure we work out how to adopt these principles of distributed trust and distributed power, even though we are, yes, a centralized platform.”
NFT uses a blockchain – a decentralized leger, first used by bitcoin to track cryptocurrency ownership – to record who owns it and allow them to trade or modify.
Initially, Instagram will support NFT-based blockchains Ethereum and Polygon, and integrations for Solana and Flow will be added later, a Meta spokesman confirmed to MailOnline.
Third-party compatible wallets for startup use will include Rainbow, MetaMask, TrustWallet, and Coinbase, Dapper and Phantom coming soon.
Instagram chief Adam Moseri confirmed today in a video that “several American creators and collectors” will be able to feature NFT in their feed, stories and posts.
Masseri stressed that supporting NFTs on Instagram can help introduce the technology to a wider range of people.
“We believe that one of the unique opportunities we have is to make Web3 technology available to a much wider range of people,” he said.
“And we believe that it is NFT that will be of interest not only to the creators who create NFT art, but also to the people who want to collect it.”
Instagram is not the first social networking platform to introduce NFT.
Back in January, Twitter introduced for some users the ability to set NFT as a profile photo that looks like a hexagon rather than a regular circle.
Although companies and celebrities rushed to switch to NFT, a recent Channelysis report on blockchain data says that the “explosive growth” of the NFT market has “leveled off” with a sharp drop in transactions since February.
Last week, the Wall Street Journal also reported that the digital art market had “collapsed” and sales were down 92 percent from a September peak.
The newspaper cites data from the NonFungible website, which reported that sales fell to an average of about 19,000 from about 225,000 in September.
The number of active wallets in the NFT market also fell 88 percent to about 14,000 from a high of 119,000 in November.
