Creators and collectors of non-fungible tokens (or NFTs) will soon be able to display their tokens on Instagram. In a blog post today, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that the platform is testing NFTs, with "similar functionality" coming soon to Facebook.
In a video posted today, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said that a small group of US users will be able to see NFTs in their feeds, stories, and messages. NFT details are referred to as "digital collectibles" and are displayed similarly to tagged profiles and products. When you click on the tag, you'll see information like the creator's and owner's names.
NFTs on Instagram 🎉
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) May 9, 2022
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 IG.
See you next week! ✌🏼 pic.twitter.com/VuJbMVSBDr
According to Mosseri, the test will be small at first so Instagram can learn from the community. He brings up a tension between large companies like Instagram and the decentralized ethos of Web3, perhaps in an attempt to address distrust of a major social networking platform jumping into NFTs.
“I want to acknowledge upfront that NFTs and blockchain technologies and Web3 more broadly are all about distributing trust, distributing power,” Mosseri says. “But Instagram is fundamentally a centralized platform, so there’s a tension there.”