NFT profile photo feature discontinued by company X
Technology mogul Elon Musk once expressed his frustration with the addition of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to social media platform X, calling it a waste of engineering resources. As part of Musk’s vision for the company in 2024, X has now removed all features and information related to NFTs. This means that premium subscribers can no longer use NFTs as their profile photos.
The company’s support page has also been completely cleared of any content regarding NFT profile photos. X initially introduced NFTs for account avatars back in January 2022, when the platform was still known as Twitter and was managed by a board of directors. At that time, Twitter Blue subscribers had the ability to use NFTs as their profile photos, which were displayed in a hexagonal shape. Users could upload digital collectibles that were created using the ERC-721 or ERC-1155 token standards, which are the most commonly used options for NFTs on Ethereum’s blockchain.
This feature also provided additional information when clicked on, such as the NFT’s contract address and the collection it belonged to. However, Elon Musk, who later acquired the company for a whopping $44 billion in October, criticized this move. Musk believed that the company should focus on addressing its issues with bots rather than adding NFT photos. It is worth noting that bots continue to be a problem on X even under Musk’s leadership.
Following the decision to remove NFTs from X, users who had hexagonal profile photos still displayed their blockchain collectibles. It remains uncertain whether the platform will completely disable these profile photos. However, this announcement has likely dampened the hopes of NFT trading on X, which was previously hinted at by developers after Musk’s takeover.
X is not the only social media company that has been gradually moving away from NFTs. Facebook and Instagram, under their parent company Meta, also announced similar integrations in the same year. However, they discontinued support for NFTs in March 2023.
Read more: Elon Musk’s opinion on NFTs garners support for Bitcoin Ordinals. Follow us on Google News.
