Social media giant Meta will use the Arweave Protocol to permanently store digital collectibles from creators on Instagram.
Arweave founder Sam Williams announced the integration on Wednesday, saying that Instagram users would now be able to issue digital collectibles for their posts, and store them on the protocol.
Arweave is a decentralized storage network. The platform’s underlying technology, blockweave, uses a variation of blockchain tech that links a new block to the previous one, plus a random block recorded earlier.
The protocol aspires to become a permanent, censorship-resistant storage system. “NFT permanence is a sign of digital asset quality,” said Williams in a tweet, applauding Meta for the implementation. Market participants reacted positively to the news, with the blockchain’s native token, AR, up 56% at the time of writing.
Meta’s integration with Arweave is one of a host of new tools the social media company introduced as part of Meta’s Creator Week. Others include a way to create and sell NFTs directly on Instagram, which Meta will initially roll out on the Polygon blockchain.
The social media company has also integrated with Solana, Phantom and OpenSea. Meta plans to further expand the types of collectibles that can be displayed on the platform, including video content, to help creators monetize their content.
“Blockchain has a role in this because it can enable entirely new business models for creators that give them more control over their work and audiences, and how they monetize,” tweeted Meta’s head of commerce and financial technology, Stephane Kasriel.
“But for this tech to truly boost economic opportunity for creators, it needs to be easier to use,” he added.
