Twitter has kept the promise it made to its users in September 2021 when it said it would add a way for users to authenticate Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) as the feature is now live on the micro-blogging site. The feature, however, is available only for iOS users for now.
The platform now finally allowed users to link any NFT they own to their Twitter account and as proof of authenticity, will show authentic NFT profile pictures with a new hexagon-shaped mask.
For as long as crypto believers have been using NFTs as profile pictures on Twitter, there’s been scepticism about the durability of “ownership” over these digital assets.
By launching NFT profile pictures, Twitter is positioning itself as the social network for the discovery, conversation and education around NFT, blockchain and crypto technology, said Esther Crawford, the company’s product lead for the effort. NFTs, whose popularity has surged over the past year, have been sold mainly on platforms with less of a mainstream audience.
“Crypto is a key pillar of Twitter’s future. We want to support this growing interest among creators to use decentralized apps to manage virtual goods and currencies,” she said. “This is just still very early days for us, but we wanted to build something that was a utility for this community that they could start interacting with right now.”
In a tweet, the social media giant said:
Ready to show off your NFT? Follow these simple steps to connect your crypto wallet and let’s see your NFT PFPs! pic.twitter.com/epSL7VXG5o
— Twitter Blue (@TwitterBlue) January 20, 2022
This hexagon profile picture will replace the standard circular profile picture that one can see on any Twitter account’s timeline. The newly launched feature requires users to own an NFT, and not just an image of the NFT obtained unofficially.
Twitter users will need to have a Twitter Blue certification to link and authenticate their NFTs. The Twitter Blue premium subscription costs $2.99 per month in supported regions, a small addition compared to the money required to purchase an NFT.
The profile picture will also offer more information about the NFT. If you see someone with an authentic hexagonal profile picture, you will be able to click on their profile picture and choose ‘view NFT details’ to know about the owner, collection, and other information.
According to the details on Twitter’s website, the NFT profile photo rollout isn’t complete yet; it’s currently supported on the iOS Twitter app, but not on Android or the desktop or web browser versions. Here’s a bit more information on how it all works:
“Setting up an NFT profile picture means people can associate your Twitter account with your connected wallet’s public crypto wallet address. This means your Twitter account will be associated with your current and historical crypto wallet transactions and holdings, including all other NFTs in that wallet, because this information is all available on the public blockchain.”
Twitter also offers its users a reminder not to give out the private details of their crypto wallets, presumably in the hopes of avoiding another “all my apes gone” viral tweet situation. The rollout still hasn’t been totally smooth, though: a database outage on NFT marketplace OpenSea also temporarily knocked Twitter’s NFT support offline, since it relied on an OpenSea API.