Twitter has started to experiment with non-fungible token (NFT) profile pictures.
The company announced on Jan. 20 that it was introducing NFT profile pics as a Labs feature to some Twitter Blue subscribers. That means collectors of these blockchain-backed JPEGs can replace their circular avatars with a hexagonal representations of their favorite NFTs.
“Right now subscribers can only set an NFT as their profile picture from the Twitter for iOS app,” Twitter says, “but the hexa-shaped profile picture is seen across all platforms.”
NFTs are predicated upon a particular understanding of what it means to “own” digital art. Anyone can duplicate a given NFT with a single right-click, but for collectors and cryptocurrency enthusiasts, having proof of ownership recorded on their blockchain of choice is important.
That’s why Twitter’s new profile pictures require users to connect a cryptocurrency wallet to their profiles. That connection allows Twitter Blue users to confirm that they own the NFT they want to use as their profile picture—and that they want the hexagonal frame that comes with it.
It doesn’t seem like Twitter’s plans for NFTs will stop with profile pictures. “Crypto is a key pillar of Twitter’s future,” NFT profile pic product lead Esther Crawford told The Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal. “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.”
