Twitter verification for NFTs is coming. A developer from the company shared a first, experimental impression of the feature today.
Developer tweet demo of the verification
Twitter Spaces software engineer Mada Aflak showed a short demo. In this, a person clicked on his avatar and selects an NFT from his crypto wallet. After downloading their NFTs from OpenSea, a popular NFT marketplace, they can place the NFT in their avatar. Then the usual blue check mark is added to indicate that they have the real own the image.
As promised, here’s the first experiment. Feedbacks and ideas are welcome https://t.co/TDyhibCXfG pic.twitter.com/2ifru9T2Pa
— Mada Aflak (@af_mada) September 29, 2021
Aflak stressed that this is just an experiment with a mockup – nothing definitive. He also asked users for suggestions and feedback.
NFTs have recently become akin to social currencies as devotees of Ethereum and other smart contract blockchains have recently started posting their digital assets as profile pictures. But the nature of NFTs, many of which are JPEGs, means that anyone can copy and paste someone else’s NFT into their own profile picture.
Twitter’s NFT feature should fix that, but not everyone thinks it will. Bitcoin maximalist grublés from blockchain technology firm Blockstream wrote:
“Twitter’s NFT authentication seems incredibly easy to get around, and will just turn into a pile of disputes that will eventually be resolved by a Twitter person in a cubicle somewhere, giving the meme ‘centralization, but with extra steps’ proves that we have come to know from ETH.”
Dorsey disapproves of Ethereum
Of course, it’s hard to draw that conclusion based on just a mockup video. Even so, it’s still unclear how committed the Jack Dorsey-led tech company is to creating tools for Ethereum users, which is where the bulk of NFTs come from. Dorsey, a Bitcoin proponent, is well-known averse to Ethereum. He said in June that he would not invest in it. In a press conference last week announcing the feature, executive Esther Crawford went out of her way not to mention Ethereum. Crawford said:
“By allowing people
connect their Bitcoin wallet, they can track and show their NFT ownership on Twitter”.
Nevertheless, Aflak’s online demo showed a look at the prominent Ethereum wallet MetaMask.
