Main Highlights:
- The Financial Times reports that social media giant Meta considers allowing users to create, showcase, and sell NFTs on Facebook and Instagram.
- If the company launches such tools, it will be the most significant demonstration of mainstream support for NFTs to date, solidifying the assets’ position in the digital world.
- According to the publication, Facebook and Instagram are working on a feature that will allow users to use NFTs as profile images and a prototype that will allow users to mint new NFTs.
- In December, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri stated that the company is actively investigating NFTs and making them more accessible to a broader audience. At the same time, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted in October that the metaverse must support “ownership of digital goods or NFTs.”
- Although NFTs have been widely criticized for their speculative nature (prices fluctuate dramatically) and lack of security (frequently stolen despite claims by some that guarantee ownership), these assets will gain value if established technology giants choose to support them.
According to The Financial Times, social media conglomerate Meta considers allowing users to create, showcase, and sell NFTs on Facebook and Instagram. If the company launches such tools, it will be the most significant demonstration of mainstream support for NFTs to date, helping to solidify the assets’ place in the digital world.
The plans are still in their infancy and may change. According to the publication, Facebook and Instagram are developing a feature that will allow users to display NFTs as their profile pictures and a prototype that will allow users to mint new NFTs. According to reports, others at Meta consider “launching a marketplace for users to buy and sell NFTs.”
Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri’s view
While it is impossible to say how far these plans are, this is not the first indication of Meta’s leadership interest in NFTs. Last December, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri stated that the company is actively investigating NFTs and making them more accessible to a broader audience. Meanwhile, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted in October that the metaverse will need to support “ownership of digital goods or NFTs.”
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, have gained traction with other established web platforms in recent months. Twitter is exploring ways to highlight such blockchain-enabled items, while Reddit recently launched its collection of NFT avatars.
Although NFTs have been widely criticized for their theoretical value (prices fluctuate dramatically) and lack of security (they are frequently stolen despite claims by some that guarantee ownership), these assets will become more valuable if established tech giants choose to support them.
At its core, an NFT is a mechanism for claiming ownership of a digital asset such as a JPG or a GIF via a unique blockchain address. And, despite assertions that these assets exemplify decentralized forms of ownership, their legitimacy is contingent upon recognition by established online platforms. If Twitter or Instagram allows for the copying and pasting of your JPG of a smoking chimp, which is to say, who truly owns it? However, if businesses begin enforcing ownership rights as represented by NFTs, they may evolve into legitimate digital assets (at least on those platforms).
For Meta, adopting NFTs could also help it gain a stronger foothold in what the company has dubbed the metaverse — a nebulous concept of interconnected virtual worlds, similar to the promises of virtual reality universes made in the 1990s and before. This can increase the value and significance of NFTs while also centralizing control over the assets.
