This year, the NFT community has been on a roll, with record-breaking wins to now the ability to make your NFT your Twitter profile image. Isn’t that amazing? You could have done so previously, but now you can prove that you own it using blockchain, and Twitter will reward you with a hexagon around it. It’s also only available to Twitter Blue subscribers, on iPhones, and in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. And it’s exclusively for Ethereum-based NFTs stored on OpenSea.
This feature was “full of promise” but also “fraught with hazard” when Twitter initially teased it four months ago. Now that the feature is live, there are 5 reasons to pay attention to how it goes, whether you’re a Bored Ape collector tweeting “wagmi” and “looks uncommon” every day, or a diehard NFT hater threatening to boycott every game-maker that uses NFTs, or somewhere in between.
- The feature helps show people how NFTs work.
There are a number of people who are still confused about how NFTs work, some people still think you can easily click on an NFT and save it; which is not the case. Anyone with enough patience will usually explain that non-fungible tokens are blockchain-based ownership certificates, and that anyone can screenshot and display them, but it does not make them yours. Only the owner of an NFT can confirm that they own it by tapping into the Ethereum blockchain and receiving the verified hexagon, as Twitter’s functionality demonstrates rather than tells.
- The divide between NFT fanatics and NFT haters is getting worse.
Let us be fair, there are a number of people that hate NFTs, in this category, the loudest “haters” are the gamers and this hatred isn’t going anywhere anytime from now. With the way Twitter is now displaying the NFTs, this NFT hatred movement may get stronger. “Twitter just asked me if I wanted to make my pfp an NFT. I’m shaking. I’m throwing up. I’m weeping. I just want to go back in time before those nerds made this shit widespread,” Emma Langevin, a Twitch broadcaster with 725,000 followers, tweeted. More mockery can be found by searching “hexagon” on Twitter. Another Twitch streamer, Ross O’Donovan, suggested that people “create a tool that autoblocks everyone with a hexagon profile image.” The hexagon PFP was compared by another as a “kick me” sign.
They may or may not be incorrect. I joined Twitter Blue for the purpose of this column and chose one of my two NFTs as my profile image. It was a bit of a letdown. I enjoy the NFT (it’s a Satoshible) and the art; but, I don’t like it as my profile photo, and the hexagon surrounding it bothers me. However, I am not a crypto anon who utilizes my NFT as my sole online identity.
- The NFT crowd isn’t entirely happy with the future.
On Thursday, I watched “Did Twitter Just Use Us to Sell a Feature Without Prioritizing Our Needs?” on Twitter Spaces. NFT fans protested in a three-hour debate that Twitter was utilizing the NFT feature to sell Twitter Blue subscriptions. Twitter is a business with shareholders, and it needs to make revenue, as capitalists might remind them. However, this is something to keep an eye on: The functionality will be a failure if even NFT aficionados abandon the verified NFT PFPs.
- The feature marks Twitter even more as a pro-crypto company
Twitter isn’t exactly a Web3 firm yet—it won’t be until it runs on a blockchain—but its embrace of NFT profile pictures and crypto tipping sends up a signal. Following the departure of Bitcoin maximalist Jack Dorsey, some observers wondered if Twitter would abandon cryptocurrency. Rather, it delved deeper, going beyond Bitcoin. Even still, the majority of Twitter stockholders will be unhappy. When Facebook and Square changed their names to Meta and Block, their stock prices plummeted. The NFT launch had no effect on Twitter’s shares, which plummeted 9% this week.
- Twitter just gave OpenSea an even bigger lead
OpenSea is by far the most popular NFT marketplace, having set a monthly record barely halfway through the month. SuperRare, Foundation, Nifty Gateway, Zora, Rarible, and LooksRare are among the contenders. If you’re in one of those markets, the Twitter feature is a bummer; it’s like Facebook adding a feature for sharing your sneaker collection, but just for Nike footwear. What will those markets do now to differentiate themselves and compete?