Mark Zuckerberg announced at SXSW that Instagram plans to integrate non-fungible tokens in the “near term”. Although the Meta CEO and founder didn’t elaborate, he described the integration of non-fungible tokens into the company’s photo and video sharing app as something that will arrive once Instagram sorts out some technical issues.
“We’re working on bringing NFTs to Instagram in the near term,” he said. He didn’t detail exactly how that would take shape, but suggested people would be able to show off their existing NFTs and potentially mint new ones. “I’m not ready to kind of announce exactly what that’s going to be today. But over the next several months, the ability to bring some of your NFTs in, hopefully over time be able to mint things within that environment.”
The company’s top executive Adam Mosseri previously said NFTs were a technology that Instagram was “actively exploring.” Zuckerberg and others have previously indicated an interest in NFTs. According to reports, Facebook and Instagram were working on NFT integrations in January, and it seems that both companies are on board with it. According to the report, there has been progress on features that allow you to use an NFT as a profile and mint NFTs on the platform, as well as discussions on creating a marketplace.
I would hope that you know, the clothing that your avatar is wearing in the metaverse, you know, can be basically minted as an NFT and you can take it between your different places, There’s like a bunch of technical things that need to get worked out before that’ll really be seamless to happen.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO – Meta Platforms, Inc.
Instagram won’t be the first social network to integrate NFT with its services. Twitter introduced a feature earlier this year which enabled users to use the NFTs they own as their profile pictures. Each hexagon displays the NFT’s metadata, which can be accessed by clicking through to its page. Considering how often TikTok features are mimicked on Instagram, it is not surprising that Meta’s photo-sharing (er, “entertainment”) app would do the same.
There’s also the matter that Meta’s track record with products in the cryptoverse so far is spotty at best. After facing tough times from regulators and central banks, the company scaled back the grand plans for its own cryptocurrency into something that bore little resemblance to its original description of a disruptive innovation
