NFT Testing on Instagram to begin this week, Zuckerberg confirms
Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the testing for support for NFTs on Instagram will begin this week with a Facebook rollout to follow in future.
Instagram to test NFT Support
NFTs started as simple means to provide proof of ownership and they took the world by storm. NFTs gave the opportunity to creators, artists, musicians, painters to create something that can be a direct bridge between their collectors. With proof of ownership, NFTs can also help you earn secondary loyalties.
It has become a very competitive field where big, medium and even small companies are entering into the field of NFTs and Metaverse. Facebook has taken a giant leap into this world by rebranding itself as Meta.
As per the latest announcement by Zuckerberg, NFTs are heading to Instagram. In a video posted online on Facebook and Instagram, Meta CEO is conversing with Tom Bilyeu, a prominent NFT influencer, where he announced Instagram will begin testing support for digital collectibles. He also said that similar functionalities are coming soon on Facebook too.
Zuckerberg said, “Similar functionality is coming to Facebook soon, along with augmented reality NFTs on Instagram Stories via Spark AR so you can place digital art into physical spaces,”
The option would however be open to a selected group of US users for now. They would be able to display NFTs on their feed, stories and messages. The functionality will include a tag for digital collectibles. Users can click on that tab and get the name of the creator and the NFT owner.
Instagram head Adam Mosseri shared a video too where he explained some of the details of this testing phase. Mosseri said “This week we’re beginning to test digital collectibles with a handful of US creators and collectors who will be able to share NFTs on Instagram. There will be no fees associated with posting or sharing a digital collectible on Instagram,”
The whole idea is that support for NFTs may popularise the technology while the Global NFT market has seen a downturn recently. He also acknowledged the being a centralised platform, moving into a decentralised technology product, there have been some tensions and they are working on that.
Creators should note that Meta will be supporting NFTs on Ethereum and Polygon for now before moving to accommodate Solana and Flow blockchain projects. In a Twitter thread, the company announced that the compatible third-party wallets for this testing are MetaMask, Rainbow and Trust Wallet.
NFTs in 2022
The push came at a time when the sales have fallen down and the global interest is also waning. In the year 2021, global interest for NFTs rose by 426 percent, as per the data by Google Trends. In January the sales in NFT was $ 4.6 billion according to CryptoSlam NFT tracker. However, it plunged by 53% to $2.44 billion by the end of March.
The move by Meta to integrate NFTs into social media would definitely jump-start this slow sales phase. Creators would get a platform to showcase their talent which is already popular, easily accessible and has billions of users.
Many other companies such as Reddit, Twitter and YouTube have hinted on supporting crypto-driven space.
