Twitter Rolls Out NFT Profile Footage—Fueling A New Rat Race With Facebook

An NFT titled “CryptoPunk 7523” by Larva Labs can be seen during a press preview of the upcoming one … [+]Natively Digital: Sotheby’s Curated NFT Sales in New York City on June 4, 2021

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Is this real crypto punk – or is someone punking people?

Twitter hopes to answer this question as the platform continues to draw a lot of attention to NFTs like crypto punks, digital collectibles, and cryptocurrencies. The social media company today unveiled a feature that verifies a Twitter user’s ownership of a specific NFT. This feature allows someone to link their Ether wallet to their Twitter account. Once this is done, that person can display their NFTs as their Twitter profile pictures in a hexagonal frame, with this hexagon serving the same authentication signpost function as Twitter’s blue ticks. (Without some sort of verification tool, a dozen people could use the same NFT in their profile pictures without anyone knowing who really owns them – that’s the downside of digital art.) Right now, these verified NFTs are only available to paying iPhone users You for Twitter’s premium subscription service, Twitter Blue.

It’s a small but significant step for Twitter, which has sought to capitalize on founder Jack Dorsey’s interest in cryptocurrency and turn its site into a hotbed for discussion surrounding crypto, which is increasingly becoming one of the internet’s most popular topics will. These NFT profile pictures are the first publicly presented project since Twitter created a dedicated entity within the company – Twitter Crypto – to think about integrating blockchain technology into the business. Twitter announced that bitcoin would be allowed in its tips feature. Users can use the tip to send money to creators.

The launch of Twitter comes at an ominous time. The Financial Times reported today on Meta’s own plans for NFTs, ambitions quite similar to those of Twitter. Meta, formerly Facebook, is reportedly attempting to create its own market and mechanism for creating NFTs. This would put it in tandem with a number of other NFT startup companies, including OpenSea.

With this, Meta wants you to believe that its sheer size – around 3 billion users on Facebook and Instagram – will give it an edge in this competition. If you believe this mindset unconditionally, there’s a virtual swampland I’d also like to sell you: Facebook has a long track record of trying to innovate through direct copying, a tactic that has failed almost every time it’s tried is.