The CEO of Meta corroborated prior claims that Instagram was planning such a move during his remarks at South by Southwest.
According to a tweet from Engadget Senior Editor Karissa Bell, Meta (FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at a panel at Austin’s South by Southwest Festival on Tuesday, “We’re working on adding NFTs to Instagram in the near term.” “I’m not ready to kind of announce.”
- According to Casey Newton of The Verge’s Platformer newsletter, Zuckerberg also stated that Instagram users will be able to mint their own non-fungible tokens (NFT) within the app “hopefully” in the coming months.
- According to sources familiar with the subject, Meta was working on plans for members of both Facebook and Instagram to be able to show NFTs on their accounts in January.
What Exactly Are The NFTs?
NFT stands for a non-fungible token, which means there’s a unique and non-interchangeable unit of data kept on a digital ledger using blockchain technology to provide proof of ownership hidden in those odd artworks. To guarantee the uniqueness of each NFT and to verify who owns it, the same or equivalent technology used for cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether is used.
Nonetheless, many people believe NFTs are the way of the future, with enthusiasts arguing that we’re still too early in the process to expect widespread adoption. Current investors are ahead of the curve, and everyone will be buying and selling digital goods in the near future. From one vantage point, that’s how it’s being presented — and while it is probable that we’ll soon see more digital item trading, whether those virtual things are the modern Garbage Pail kids remains to be seen.
Whether you like them or not, NFTs are poised to get a boost, according to a recent article from The Financial Times, which claims Meta is about to reveal its NFT trading and display plans.
What FT Says?
As per Financial Times, Meta aims to start a test for uploading and distributing NFTs on Facebook in mid-May, according to an internal memo distributed last week. Testing of a feature that will allow members of Facebook groups based on NFT ownership and another for minting – a phrase for creating – NFTs will be “soon followed” by this. According to another internal document, NFTs may be monetized in the future through “fees and/or adverts.” Facebook did not respond to our request for comment.
As a result, Meta appears to be on the verge of building its own NFT ecosystem, following Twitter’s decision to merge NFT profile images into a new, integrated display structure presently available to paying Twitter Blue customers.
Facebook appears to be focusing on facilitating specific NFT communities and becoming a more central location for particular holders and their discussions. Most NFT communities are currently hosted on Discord, where whitelisting and other features are implemented. But, with more dedicated, integrated NFT discussion and community features, Facebook could become the new home base for such, and ideally take some of that interaction back to its apps, which, given Facebook’s scale, might be an enticing lure for NFT initiatives.
Given the aforementioned frauds and suspicious activities in the space, We’re not convinced it’s a good idea for Meta to get further involved in the NFT movement. Every day, there are reports of millions of dollars being lost due to hacking and fraud, and while this isn’t reflective of the overall NFT ecosystem, it is a worrying factor, especially given the lack of regulation and/or legal remedies for victims.
Still, it’s possible that Meta is looking to the future, where NFTs will serve as the foundation for a new digital products economy.
The Ultimate Aim
The ultimate goal of Meta is to promote eCommerce within the metaverse, a fanciful dream realm where anything is possible and nothing negative can ever happen to Zuckerberg and his crew. In that scenario, NFTs — not just profile images, but avatar apparel, digital products from businesses, game weapons, virtual credits, and so on – are expected to become tradable assets. All of these items, similar to NFTs, might be backed by digital contracts maintained on the Blockchain.
That has a lot of promise, and it’s what a lot of people are missing in the NFT picture. You would be perplexed as to why someone would pay for such nonsense, much less hand over hundreds, if not millions, of money in some circumstances. However, the core notion of buying and selling digital items has appeal, and Meta may be aiming to align with that component rather than facilitate shady art sales.
Summary
All of this contributes to Meta’s great goal of an all-encompassing metaverse where you may buy, sell, and exchange digital objects to improve your experience.
While NFTs offer the potential for visual creativity – and it’s worth mentioning that Instagram is also looking into this — Meta’s main focus is likely to be on the growth of that process.
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