NFTs Are Coming to Instagram, Says Mark Zuckerberg
NFTs have been a contentious topic around the internet, but big tech companies have been embracing them. It should come as no surprise that Instagram, a Meta company, will soon be incorporating NFTs.
As reported by Engadget, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed at SXSW that NFTs would be coming to Instagram in the near future. He hinted that users would be able to bring in existing NFTs as well as mint new ones. Zuckerberg said, “I’m not ready to kind of announce exactly what that’s going to be today. But over the next several months, the ability to bring some of your NFTs in [will be added, and], hopefully over time be able to mint things within that environment.”
Zuckerberg explained that NFTs would play a part in Meta’s vision of the metaverse, saying, “I would hope that you know, the clothing that your avatar is wearing in the metaverse, you know, can be basically minted as an NFT and you can take it between your different places.” However, he also mentioned that there were technical aspects that still needed to be worked on before the process would be seamless.
While tech companies like Meta still believe that the Metaverse and NFTs will define the future, the gaming space has been notably defiant against the concept. Former Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé thinks differently about Meta’s vision of the metaverse, saying at SXSW, “Facebook itself is not an innovative company. They have either acquired interesting things like Oculus and Instagram, or they’ve been a fast follower of people’s ideas. I don’t think their current definition will be successful.”
Valve President Gabe Newell himself banned NFTs from the Steam platform, saying that the space was rife with “sketchy behavior” and “out of control fraud.”
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey
