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Twitter launches hexagon-shaped NFT profile pictures

NFT profile images are shown as hexagons on Twitter, distinguishing them from the conventional circles available to other users. Tapping the images brings up information about the art and who owns it.
 

Twitter launches hexagon shaped NFT profile pictures gcw
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New Delhi, First Published Jan 21, 2022, 1:48 PM IST

Twitter announced the debut of a service on Thursday that allows users to display non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as profile images, capitalising on a digital collectables craze that has blossomed in the last year. The functionality, which is now accessible on iOS for customers of its Twitter Blue subscription service, connects users' Twitter accounts to crypto wallets where they deposit their NFT holdings.

NFT profile images are shown as hexagons on Twitter, distinguishing them from the conventional circles available to other users. Tapping the images brings up information about the art and who owns it. Like other internet businesses, Twitter is racing to capitalise on crypto developments like NFTs, a sort of speculative asset that authenticates digital objects such as photographs, videos, and land in virtual worlds.

Last year, the social networking site offered the ability for members to send and receive Bitcoin. According to industry tracker DappRadar, sales of NFTs reached over $25 billion in 2021; there were signs of growth slowing near the end of the year. Proponents of "Web3" technologies such as NFTs argue that they decentralise ownership online, allowing individuals to profit from famous inventions rather than benefiting only a few tech companies.

According to critics, many of the services pushing the adoption of those technologies, such as the six crypto wallets enabled by Twitter's NFT platform, are financed by a tiny number of venture investors. Following the debut, security researcher Jane Manchun Wong highlighted one of those linkages, demonstrating how an outage at venture-backed NFT marketplace OpenSea briefly prevented NFTs from loading on Twitter.

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