After Mark Zuckerberg's social media giant Facebook rebranded to Meta in late 2021, the company headed the rankings of the most web3-oriented businesses so far. As part of this course, Meta was one of the first platforms to integrate NFTs into its Facebook and Instagram, allowing users to display their NFTs as PFPs.
In March of 2022, Meta's CEO sounded out his intentions to turn Instagram into an NFT marketplace, without specifying details. In June, Meta unveiled its NFT program for the near future, including the opportunities for users to create/mint, display, buy, and sell NFTs right through Facebook and Instagram. And in August, the company introduced its NFT solutions to users in 100 countries around the globe.
Currently, Meta is launching public testing of the new update, enabling select NFT creators to process and sell digital artwork to their followers right on Instagram and out of the platform. Thus, the new feature provides NFT artists with an all-in-one set of tools for creating, displaying, and selling NFTs without leaving the platform available both on Android and iOS devices.
To test an update, a small group of renowned NFT creators, including Amber Vittoria, Refik Anadol, Jason Seife, Dave Krugman, and some others was chosen.
In addition to a creator's NFT toolkit, Instagram will allow showcasing of video-based NFTs. Moreover, the social media will add Solana and the SOL crypto wallet Phantom to the list of already supported Ethereum, Polygon, and FlLOW blockchains, operated by Rainbow, MetaMask, Trust Wallet, Coinbase Wallet, and Dapper Wallet.
Meta has promised not to charge any additional gas fees for its NFT services. Of course, that doesn’t mean that there will be no fees at all as the App Store may ask for an additional charge. Moreover, according to Meta, “Instagram has made a commitment to not charge any additional fees for selling digital collectibles until at least 2024.”
Besides, NFT creators will also be able to choose their royalties ranging from 5% to 25%, which will be paid to a PayPal account linked to Instagram.
The most bountiful pros of Meta’s NFT-driven initiatives are about to change the world of social media once and for all, popularizing NFTs and other blockchain technologies. Additionally, all NFT creator's instruments gathered in one place will make the process of creating and trading seamless and accessible to wider audiences.
Let's wait and see if the new Instagram NFT creator's toolkit becomes as easy to use as Meta officials state.
