Instagram is introducing digital collectibles to support creators and collectors in showcasing their NFTs on the popular social media platform.
Instagram Digital Collectibles for NFT Creators and Collectors
The Meta-owned company has begun testing a new digital collectible feature, with a select amount of creators and collectors in the United States able to share the NFTs that they have either created or bought on their Instagram posts and reels. The feature is possible thanks to Instagram collecting and organizing public data from certain open blockchains from which they can identify which collectibles belong to which collectors and creators after they connect their third-party wallets to Instagram.
Instagram’s Blockchains and Wallets
The supported blockchains at launch are only Ethereum and Polygon, but both Flow and Solana will be supported soon. There is a number of third-party wallets that are compatible for use at launch, which include Rainbow, MetaMask and Trust Wallet. Third-party wallets that will eventually also be compatible include Coinbase Wallet, Dapper and Phantom.
Instagram say there will be no fees associated with posting or sharing a digital collectible on Instagram. They also emphasized that they want the new digital collectibles feature to empower diverse voices and provide underrepresented groups with access to emerging digital assets like NFTs.
Leveraging New Tools to Earn Income and Fans
In a statement introducing the digital collectibles on the About Instagram blog, Meta said: “Every day, creators inspire people and push culture forward around the world. With the incredible opportunity of blockchain technology, they can now leverage new tools to earn income, and fans can support their favorite creators by purchasing digital collectibles – art, images and videos, music or trading cards – as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Starting this week, select creators and collectors can share their digital collectibles on Instagram.
“Creators are using new technologies like NFTs to take more control over their work, their relationship with their fans, and how they can monetize. At Meta, we’re looking at what creators are already doing across our technologies in order to improve the experience, help them create more monetization opportunities, and bring NFTs to a broader audience.”
Meta explained that their support for NFTs aims to improve accessibility and lower barriers of entry to the NFT space, helping to make it more inclusive to all communities. They also say that they will help reduce the emissions impact associated with the display of digital collectibles on Instagram by purchasing renewable energy.
Features of Instagram Digital Collectibles
The first aspect of the new feature is the ability to connect a digital wallet, which creators and collectors can then access to choose which NFTs from their wallet they would like to share on Instagram.
Creator and collectors will then be able to post a digital collectible, which will appear with a special shimmer effect. The post will be able to display public information such as a description of the NFT.
Instagram will also enable automatic tagging of both the creator and collector, with them able to be automatically attributed in the digital collectible post, should their privacy settings allow it.
Image: Depositphotos
This article, “Instagram Digital Collectibles for NFT Creators and Collectors” was first published on Small Business Trends