In a recent conference, the CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg spoke about Instagram adding NFT or non-fungible tokens in the future.
Headed by Zuckerberg, Meta, previously known as Facebook happens to be the parent company of the photo-messaging app called Instagram, which is used by billions of people around the world, as per reports by Statista.
The idea of adding NFT features on Instagram indicates that it is following Twitter’s footsteps as they have already started adding NFT-based features on their platform. It allows holders of these digital collectables to showcase their digital possessions.
NFTs are virtual assets that are supported on the blockchain network. It is inspired by an array of things like food items, people, cartoons, pictures, and game characters.
Zuckerberg spoke about his NFT plans at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas. Instead of getting into details, Zuckerberg said Instagram users will hopefully be able to create their own NFTs in the coming months, as reported by CoinTelegraph.
NFTs have been receiving a lot of hype, especially from the digital artist community as it allows them to put their work online and reach a global audience. With Instagram adding new NFT features, the digital artist community is expected to rise.
However, the launch date is still unclear. Zuckerberg is yet to reveal the exact date of arrival of NFT features on Instagram.
On 1st November 2020, Facebook disclosed their plans of rebranding the company under the name Meta. The company was getting ready for metaverse, which is powered by AR (augmented reality). The tech giant is aiming to achieve a fully functional virtual universe.
According to Mark Zuckerberg, the metaverse universe will allow a person to teleport himself instantly as a hologram to be at any place they want to. He is expecting metaverse to open up more new opportunities for people regardless of their location.
According to a report by Bloomberg Intelligence, the metaverse market opportunity is expected to reach $800 billion by 2024.
The inclusion of NFTs in the metaverse will allow people to interact and engage with them as virtual avatars. After NFT-related features are added to Instagram, it is only a matter of time for it to be available on Facebook and WhatsApp as well.
Other major social networking apps like OnlyFans, Reddit, and YouTube are also planning to incorporate NFT-based features for their respective apps.