Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, disclosed via Twitter that the social platform will start testing NFTs with selected creators and collectors from the United States before spreading to other users gradually.
Instagram to Start Testing Digital Collectibles
According to Mosseri, only selected users will be able to share their unique and verified collections on the platform, noting that there will be no fees associated with posting or sharing the digital collectibles on Instagram.
“I want to acknowledge upfront that NFTs and blockchain technologies are all about distributing trust and distributing power. Instagram is fundamentally a centralized platform, so there’s a tension there. So one of the reasons why we’re starting small is we want to make sure that we can learn from the community,” Mosseri said in his announcement.
The selected users will be able to share their artwork directly on their feeds, stories, or even as a direct message. Although this is only a testing phase, the company plans to give access to other users once the phase is completed with positive feedback.
At launch, Instagram will only support NFTs minted on Ethereum and its layer 2 scaling solution, Polygon, before rolling out to other blockchain projects like Solana and Flow.
Mosseri also noted that at first, Instagram will only accept centralized wallets like MetaMask, Trust Wallet, and Rainbow wallets stating that other wallets like Phantom, Coinbase Wallet, and Dapper Wallet will join them soon.
NFTs to Come to Facebook Soon
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook’s parent company Meta, acknowledged that its photo and video sharing social platform, Instagram, will start testing non-fungible tokens this week.
The Meta CEO also hinted that similar developments will be coming to Facebook soon and that Meta has plans to work on augmented reality NFTs or three-dimensional (3D) NFTs that users can upload to Instagram stories using Spark AR.
Earlier last year, David Marcus, head of Facebook, said the company is planning to integrate NFT features into its much anticipated digital wallet, Novi.
Marcus highlighted that the team is looking at ways to help its wallet users get involved with digital artwork.
Meanwhile, since the explosion of NFT back in 2021, many companies are jumping onto the NFT marketplace.
Just recently, leading global aviation company Emirates Airlines said it plans to launch NFTs in the virtual universe for its customers and staff.
Another prominent gaming company GameStop revealed its partnership with Immutable X, a blockchain scaling solution to launch an NFT marketplace that will support gaming NFT projects.
