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In a message to artists on Wednesday, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook, the company behind Instagram and Facebook, will start testing the use of its augmented reality technology Spark AR to show non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on Instagram Stories. In addition to expanding the test population for the NFT display option, Meta is also intending to introduce NFT display to Facebook, "beginning with a small set of US creators," after launching an early test of the option on Instagram back in May.

In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg discussed the addition of NFTs to Meta's apps and stated, "We're expanding our test so more creators across the world may exhibit their NFTs on Instagram." The business added in a statement that "once we start rolling out the capability on Facebook with select US artists at a later date," "creators and collectors will be able to share their digital treasures across Facebook and Instagram."

In a video posted in May, Zuckerberg said that the Meta team has started working on integrating digital collectibles for its metaverse and Reality Labs initiative, as well as across the company's family of apps. Zuckerberg had initially suggested the integration of NFTs on Instagram back in March.

Zuckerberg had previously announced in May that users who are a part of the test group will be able to post NFTs for free by connecting their external digital wallets in-app. The NFTs will have a unique "shimmer" around the image that includes credit for both the photographer and the owner.

A company representative stated to The Block that the feature supports the blockchain networks Ethereum and Polygon, with Flo wand Solana releasing shortly. Rainbow, MetaMask, and Trust Wallet, together with Coinbase, Dapper, and Phantom, are among the third-party wallets that will work with the platform.

This week, Meta also disclosed that it would collaborate with other tech firms to establish a metaverse standards organisation. The group's goals include creating Web 3 and the metaverse, as well as creating the following iteration of the web. Adobe, Epic Games, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Qualcomm are a few of the businesses that have joined the campaign; Apple was conspicuously absent.