The feature, available
on iOS to users of the company's Twitter Blue subscription service, connects
their Twitter accounts to cryptocurrency wallets where the users store NFT
holdings.
Twitter displays the
NFT profile pictures as hexagons, differentiating them from the standard
circles available to other users. Tapping on the pictures prompts details about
the art and its ownership to appear.
Like other tech companies, Twitter is
rushing to cash in on crypto trends like NFTs, a type of speculative asset authenticating
digital items such as images, videos, and land in virtual worlds.
The social media platform last year added
functionality for users to send and receive Bitcoin.
Sales of NFTs reached some $25 billion in
2021, according to data from market tracker DappRadar, although there were
signs of growth slowing toward the end of the year.
Proponents of Web3 technologies like NFTs
say they decentralise ownership online, creating a path for users to earn money
from popular creations, rather than having those benefits accrue primarily to a
handful of tech platforms.
Critics dismiss the decentralisation
claims, noting that many of the services powering adoption of those
technologies - like the six crypto wallets supported by Twitter's NFT product -
are backed by a small group of venture capitalists.
In a widely circulated tweet after the
launch, security researcher Jane Manchun Wong highlighted one of those links, showing
how an outage at venture-backed NFT marketplace OpenSea temporarily blocked
NFTs from loading on Twitter.
OpenSea did not immediately respond to a
request from Reuters for comment. © Reuters
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