Reddit, the popular online discussion platform valued at $10 billion, is testing a feature that would allow its users to connect any non-fungible token (NFT) they own to their profile picture.
While Reddit already has its own Ethereum-based NFT collection called CryptoSnoos, the new feature will reportedly enable users to add any NFT they own to their profiles.
App researcher Nima Owji first spotted the ongoing test last week, adding a picture of the announcement to his Twitter post.
"Your NFT, now your avatar!" states the banner, adding that "You can now use digital collectibles as your Reddit avatar."
#Reddit is working on #NFT profile pics as well! pic.twitter.com/l2cqfSuIbK
— Nima Owji (@nima_owji) January 21, 2022
While details regarding Reddit's latest foray into the world of NFTs remain scarce, the San Francisco-based company confirmed the news saying that the test is in "very early stages and hasn't been made available to public users on the site."
"We're always exploring ways to provide value for users and communities on Reddit. At the moment, we're testing the ability to use NFTs as profile pictures (avatars) and verify ownership," Reddit spokesman Tim Rathschmidt told TechCrunch.
Rathschmidt added that "it's a small, internal test and no decisions have been made about expanding or rolling out the capability."
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Per the report, Reddit also has a not-for-sale collection of "wonder" NFTs on OpenSea running in a test mode.
Last October, the company posted a job listing seeking a senior engineer to "design, build and ship backend services for millions of users to create, buy, sell and use NFT-backed digital goods."
Social media giants embrace NFTs
In recent weeks, Reddit isn't the only high-profile company to jump the NFT bandwagon.
Twitter launched a similar feature last week, allowing users of its Twitter Blue service on iOS to verify ownership of the NFTs they set as their profile pictures. Verified NFT avatars appear in a hexagonal frame on Twitter instead of the usual circular one.
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Twitter announced on Thursday that certain users will be able to import NFTs from their crypto wallets and post them as their profile pictures on the popular social media service. For now, the service is only available to those who sign up for the "Labs" feature via the company's Twitter Blue subscription service. Twitter is also limiting the release to iOS users but says Android and web users will be able to see when a user changes their profile pics to an NFT. An NFT is a type of token that es...
YouTube could soon follow suit, with CEO Susan Wojcicki hinting earlier this week at the possibility of "expanding the YouTube ecosystem" and indicating that this expansion could include "things like NFTs."
Last month, Instagram revealed that the platform is "actively exploring NFTs and how we can make them more accessible to a wider audience."
