Twitter: NFT Profile Picture feature

January 24, 2022

On January 21, 2022. Twitter announced a new way for users to authenticate their profile pictures, which is fuelled by non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Key Points

It is significant for NFT owners who have been uploading their digital assets as profile pictures in jpeg format.
Twitter will now enable users to link any NFT they own to their Twitter account.
It will show authentic NFT profile pictures, with a new hexagon-shaped mask, as a proof of authenticity.

What are NFTs?

NFTs are digital assets, which can be in the form of art, music, GIF, short videos, and even profile picture can be turned into an NFT. NFT is stored on a blockchain, which is a digital database and is publicly accessible.

Background

Twitter had first released its plan to announce NFT profile images in September 2021.

How is the announcement significant?

Though, this is not the first-time that crypto enthusiasts will use NFT as profile pictures on Twitter. Recently, popular rap artist Eminem changed his profile picture to a BAYC NFT, owned by him. However, there has been concerns about the durability of ownership of these digital assets. But recent decision by Twitter is significant because, Twitter is changing this forever. Users owning an NFT will get a new hexagonal border on their profile pictures. Thus, if any right-clicker tries to use someone’s NFT as their profile picture without buying the NFT first, they will still be able to use the image. But they will be stuck with classic circle frame.

How once can get an NFT profile pic?

First condition to get an NFT profile picture is a crypto wallet. Crypto wallets allow to hold and transact with tokens owned by public wallet address. It includes NFTs which are a type of token. To set up an NFT profile picture, person will need to connect his Twitter account to a crypto wallet holding the NFT. When person will connect with the supported crypto wallet to Twitter, Twitter will generate a verification request message for person’s wallet address. In message, person will be asked to complete a signing request that will include person’s Twitter handle.