NFTs For Social Media Ft. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and now YouTube

• YouTube set to onboard NFT features on its platform.
• The social media company may likely incorporate a crypto wallet to help users seamlessly sell their NFTs.
• Already, Twitter has incorporated the initial phase of its NFT integration with Instagram and Facebook poised to follow suit.

YouTube is the latest social media company to declare its intention to incorporate NFT features on its platform. In a published letter by Susan Wojcicki, YouTube’s CEO, the company disclosed its growing interest in the giant strides emerging technologies like Web3, blockchain, and cryptography have made over the last decade. She added the trend sits well with the company as a “source of inspiration to continue innovating” and it would look to adopt some of the popular use cases on its platform, NFTs being top on the list.

Non Fungible Tokens or NFTs became a mainstream money-spinning spectacle after Mike Winkelmann, also known as Beeple, broke the internet to become one of the top three most valuable living artists of all time with a record $69 million art sale last year. Since then, a foray of individual creators and even institutions have put big money on the technology and are looking to mint and cash in on just about any digital piece — from copies of the declaration of independence to bored ape animations. 

While there are no official disclosures on the way NFTs can be integrated into its platform, it is believed that it could incorporate them into its existing merch shell feature which is used to sample purchasable items under posts, or even upgrade with integrating a crypto wallet technology, turning YouTube into a vibrant marketplace for a seamless display of NFTs on creators account like OpenSea.

Twitter had taken a slightly different approach to NFTs, letting users sample their NFT images as interactive hexagonal avatars. Instagram is also looking to incorporate NFTs, but with an addition of a subscription feature. The Meta family member is looking to edge out Chinese-owned TikTok and seal its spot as the top choice social media for NFT displays as creators clamor for introducing a creator fund to reward units of engagements as YouTube does. 

In the world of social media, both NFTs and DAOs — which stand for Decentralized Autonomous Organizations — have presented creators a powerful opportunity to maintain a closer symbiotic relationship with their fans. With DAOs integrated into social media platforms, fans can own a stake of rights to benefits and decision-making within a fan community.