The 'gram is following in Twitter's footsteps to help NFT aficionados to show off their goods.
๐ Background: NFTs - aka non-fungible-tokens - are digital assets that can be bought, sold, and traded via the blockchain. They're completely unique and can fetch quite the pretty penny... up to almost $100 mil.
๐ What happened: Earlier this year, Twitter made it possible to link NFTs to profile pics. It seems like the Zuck got a bit of NFT FOMO, because now Instagram's making a similar move.
๐ What else: IG will let users display NFTs on their feed, on their stories and in DMs. They'll be displayed similarly to tagged profiles and called 'digital collectibles'.
๐ก Social media platforms offer users validation in the form of likes, comments and follows. Now, they're extending this through the adoption of digital assets.
๐ก Social media companies essentially offer 'Status as a Service'. People look to affirm their membership to certain groups... and top some kind of social hierarchy.
๐กSo far, it's been all about how many followers or likes you have... or whether you've got a blue tick. But NFTs are another way that social media companies can offer ways to earn 'social capital'. And it looks like Twitter and IG are winning the race.
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