Last week Twitter announced that is was testing a feature that would allow NFT owners to set their mutant ape or whatever the latest hotness is, as a profile picture. Now Reddit is testing a similar feature.
While users can set Reddit’s own CryptoSnoos as a profile picture, the feature will reportedly allow users to set any NFT as a profile picture.
“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 spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt told TechCrunch.
Importantly this test is small and, currently, only being tested internally within Reddit. As it stands, Rathschmidt says there are no plans to expand the test or roll the capability out to regular users.
This is important because while some NFT owners have celebrated the ability to set their NFT as their avatar on Twitter, many more have lambasted the decision. Even Reddit’s own CryptoSnoos drew criticism when they were first announced.
Right now the world of NFTs is separated into two camps namely, those who are buying into the trend and those who see it as little more than people selling space on a database. While the rules differ from NFT to NFT, many NFTs are quite simply a visual representation of a space on a database. The value of that space is very much determined by the market and if the market decides mutant apes or pixelated fish are no longer valuable, owners stand to lose their investment before they can turn a profit.
One could argue this is similar to the way traditional financial markets operate but those markets are generally heavily regulated unlike those where NFTs are being traded.
This trend is unlikely to let up and we suspect we will see more websites experimenting with the ability to use NFTs as profile pictures or incorporating them elsewhere.
This means the temptation to invest is going to become harder to ignore. While you are free to do with your money what you please, never invest more than you are willing to lose.
