The photo-sharing social media app announced it will start testing NFTs with hand-picked creators in the US.
Instagram Commences Testing NFTs With Chosen Creators. On Monday, Adam Mosseri, Instagram Head released a statement stating that the photo-sharing social media app will start testing NFTs with hand-picked creators in the US from this week. Mosseri mentioned that they will be charged with no fees while posting or sharing any digital collectible on the platform. For starters, the cryptocurrencies used will be Polygon and Ethereum with support for Solana and Flow which will be coming soon on Instagram. The wallets that will be used will be Rainbow, MetaMask, and Trust wallets. These third-party wallets will facilitate the entire initiative.
People and creators can now share the NFTs they have created or bought on the main feed, in stories, or even in the messages. The Instagram Head informed that for the start, only a handful of selected people will have access to this test launch, but the company is planning to roll out more functionality related to the NFTs in the coming future once positive results and feedback are achieved from the initial testing.
Mosseri stated, “I want to accept that blockchain technologies and NFTs are all about distributing trust and distributing power,” He further mentioned “But since Instagram is a centralized platform, there’s a pressure there. That is one of the reasons we are making a humble start to ensure that we can learn and grow as a community. The platform is making sure that we work out how to accept those tenets of disbursed trust and power, even though our platform is centralized. We do think that one of the kind opportunities are there and we have to make web3 technology easily accessible to a much wider range of people. These NFTs will be interesting not only to the creators who will be creating this art but also to people who are interested in collecting them.”
Instagram and Creator Economy
Mosseri acknowledged that the creator economy is amazingly vital to Instagram. But one of the challenges is how the creators will make money using various ways when many factors are uncontrollable and unpredictable. This new initiative will present many interesting opportunities for a subgroup of creators.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta announced in a statement that a similar initiative will be introduced to Facebook and other Meta apps in the future. He further added that Meta plans to work on AR and NFTs or even better, 3D NFTs that can bring to the Instagram stories with the use of Spark AR, the company’s augmented platform.
EMEA tech comms at Meta, Alexandru Voica, stated in a series of tweets, that was later deleted, that in the metaverse, people will use, buy and share digital valuables and experiences making NFTs a key piece of the whole puzzle for bringing this to reality. Meta is commencing with NFTs because they are important to the economic potential of Meta. Meta believes that using these technologies will help in reducing the costs, accelerate innovation and expand access for people and creators alike around the world.
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Earlier this year, Twitter enabled its premium users to use NFT profile pictures. Twitter and Instagram are not the only tech giants that are welcoming NFTs, Susan Wojcicki, YouTube CEO recommended that the platform may begin to embrace web3 technologies, which includes NFTs as well for helping the YouTube creators in making more money.
