According to reliable reports, Mark Zuckerberg stated that Meta would integrate NFTs into Instagram. While he did not specify how that would appear, he stated during a South By Southwest event that “over the next several months, the ability to bring some of your NFTs in and maybe mint things within that environment” would be possible.
There had been rumblings that something like this was on the way. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri stated last year that the team was “actively studying NFTs” but had made no official statements. We learned in January that teams at Facebook and Instagram were developing NFT integrations. The study said that progress had been made on features that would allow users to use an NFT as a profile and mint NFTs on the platform, as well as discussions about developing a marketplace.
While the first two features align with what Zuckerberg said onstage, it’s still unclear what minting an NFT on Instagram entails. Perhaps you could sell a popular position as an NFT? Or mint NFTs that serve as access tokens to specific stories? Meta has not stated this yet, but it appears that minting powers will not be added until later in the game. The marketplace concept appears to be further off, given it did not receive a direct reference from Zuckerberg, though the large worth of sites like OpenSea undoubtedly makes it an attractive commercial proposition.
Of course, there is also a metaverse component to this. According to reports, Zuckerberg discussed minting your avatar’s apparel as an NFT and transporting it “between your many locations.” Zuckerberg has previously discussed NFTs and the metaverse, stating that he views them as an integral aspect of the administration of the digital world. Now, it appears as though he is seeing them as digital objects, a point previously raised by Meta.
He did caution on Tuesday that “there are a number of technical details that need to be worked out before that can truly be seamless.” For one thing, Meta would have to ensure that the objects worked well across multiple platforms, which is not trivial. Additionally, it would have to construct a metaverse in order for it to occur (which does seem like a small technical hurdle).
Instagram will not be the first large social network to integrate NFT. Earlier this year, Twitter added a function that allowed certain users to set their profile picture to an NFT they own. They then appear as hexagons, and anyone interested can click through to view the metadata associated with the NFT. Given how frequently TikTok features are cloned on Instagram, it’s unsurprising to see Meta’s photo-sharing app follow suit.
