A guide to NFTs on Facebook and Instagram

by James · November 10, 2022

The company formerly known as Facebook has long had its eyes on the next phase of the internet. In 2014, the tech conglomerate bought Oculus—then a Kickstarter-funded project—with the goal of throwing its endless resources and the Oculus team’s expertise into launching the first entry-level VR headsets to flood the mass market. We’re not quite there yet, but Facebook has nevertheless continued to navigate uncharted waters ever since. Now it’s known as Meta, and it’s diving into Web3.

Besides Meta’s highly publicized Horizon Worlds metaverse game, the firm is also bringing Instagram and Facebook – two of the most defining platforms of Web2 – into full Web3 functionality. But that shift won’t happen overnight, with introduction intervals pending. This is why NFTs are taking center stage in Facebook and Instagram’s Web3 transition, and we’re here to explain everything you need to know about where NFTs fit into the future of these social media titans.

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When Instagram launched in October 2010, it was marketed as a free smartphone app where users could freely share photos with their social circles. But given the relatively primitive camera hardware of most smartphones back then, most results weren’t pretty. But amidst the sea of grainy iPhone 4 selfies was actual photography. Sometimes art too.

Twelve years and a Facebook acquisition later, for millions of people, Instagram is Social Media. It has since expanded its service package from simple photo sharing to include carousels, videos and – since May 2022 – NFTs. After a January 2022 announcement regarding the site’s future NFT-ready feature set, Instagram seemed poised for a year of massive changes. So what kind of NFT functionality can Instagram’s user base enjoy today?

An overview of Instagram NFTs

Although a recent update allowed several high-profile NFT creators to sell their works as NFTs on Instagram, this won’t be an exclusive feature forever. Similar to how it launched features that allowed NFT creators and collectors to display and share their NFTs on Instagram for free in May 2022, the first crop of creators was just Meta’s test group.

How NFTs look on Instagram’s UI. Source: Meta

Instagram expanded support for its NFT sharing features to more than 100 countries in August 2022, just three months after the feature was first tested, it’s only a matter of time before regular users get the ability to sell NFTs on the platform on their upcoming Creator Marketplace. At that time, Instagram could take the top spot among existing NFT marketplaces on the internet.

How Instagram NFTs work

And the reason for that extends beyond the obvious brand recognition of Instagram. To further facilitate Instagram’s potential status as a gigantic The Web3 onboarding platform, Meta has put significant focus into ensuring that using Instagram’s brand new NFT features is as easy and accessible as possible. Creators, collectors, and anyone else hoping to use these features have them available with a few simple taps.

So what is the appeal of Instagram’s NFT implementations? To begin with, Meta has emphasized several key features, such as sharing NFTs as posts, which will be completely free. Additionally, once their NFT marketplace services are up and rolling, it is promised to be completely free of gas fees, at least for the time being. Charges in the iOS and Android app stores may also apply.

Meta also aims to ensure that the list of compatible blockchains and crypto-wallets is as inclusive as possible. According to a November blog post, among its growing list of compatible blockchains are Ethereum, Polygon, Flow and Solana. In terms of crypto wallets, compatible wallets include MetaMask, Trust Wallet, Rainbow, Dapper, Phantom and Coinbase Wallet.

So what kind of NFTs can you show on Instagram? In theory, anything. As long as there is a visual component of some kind. Also mentioned in Meta’s November blog post is a recent expansion of the types of NFTs users can share and ultimately trade on the platform. Namely video and animated NFTs.

A decade ago, Facebook was a simpler place. People poked fun at each other and “became a fan” of pages with names that amused them. Now, Meta’s flagship product is essentially a microcosm of the internet. You can do almost anything on the platform, so it only makes sense that Facebook would eventually offer its billions of users the ability to buy and sell NFTs on the platform.

But it won’t happen in one shot.

How NFTs work on Facebook

Currently, Facebook’s implementation of NFTs is limited to sharing them as posts. Provided a creator has a large enough audience on the platform, this feature can be used to easily promote new NFT drops directly on the largest social media platform in the world. Instagram already does this, and creators on the platform see it as a game-changer for marketing and promotion.

Although Facebook users received these NFT sharing features at the same time Instagram residents did, there has been no word on when exact NFT trading will become available on the social media platform. Right now, the focus seems to be largely on expanding support for this feature across multiple markets. As of a September update, all US users of the platform have access to NFT sharing functionality, with the ability to cross-post their NFTs across both Facebook and Instagram, similar to stories and regular photo posts today.

Facebook’s path to becoming an NFT marketplace

While there is no solid news on when and how Facebook intends to approach the topic of on-site trading of NFTs, recent efforts to streamline how creators on the platform are compensated for their work indicate that Meta wants to get all right before it really opens the NFT floodgates on Facebook.

Similar to how “bits” work on Twitch, Facebook has offered fans a way to donate directly to their favorite creators via the Stars feature, which is a form of digital currency that users can buy with fiat currency and use as a way to engage with the creators. financial choice. As of a June 2022 update, the feature is now available to all eligible creators in select markets and can be implemented on live broadcasts, videos, reels, and even image and text posts.

But unlike how Twitch has implemented digital currency, there’s good reason to believe that this is part of Facebook’s process to get users used to the idea of spending real money on digital goods. In Web3 terms, Stars would be crypto. But what about NFTs? That would be the virtual gifts Meta has included in Facebook’s November update to its Stars service. Fans can now use their stars to purchase digital gifts that they can virtually give to their most beloved creators. It may still be several steps away from NFTs, but it is definitely beyond the first step towards that reality.