The Block: Meta to use decentralized data storage protocol Arweave to store NFTs from Instagram

Facebook parent Meta has integrated decentralized data storage protocol Arweave to permanently store digital collectibles from Instagram.

"Instagram users are now able to issue digital collectibles for their posts, stored on Arweave," Sam Williams, founder of Arweave, tweeted on Thursday. Meta's lead of commerce, fintech and web3, Stephane Kasriel, also confirmed the Arweave protocol integration in a separate tweet.

The price of Arweave's native token, AR, surged as much as 75% since news of the Meta integration, according to CoinGecko .

Earlier this week, Meta announced that creators will soon be able to make their own digital collectibles on Instagram and sell them to fans, both on and off Instagram. Meta will support different blockchains for NFT issuance, starting with Polygon and Solana. The platform launched its Digital Collectibles feature in 100 countries, allowing users to connect to their digital wallets and showcase NFTs that they either created or bought.

Meta believes NFTs can help expand the creator economy. "It’s still early for the NFT market compared to where we think it’s going," Kasriel said in a blog post. "By making NFTs easier to use natively on Instagram, we’re opening up new ways for the billions of people who use our apps to connect with and support their favorite creators — which, in turn, unlocks more economic opportunity."

Arweave was founded in 2017 to enable users to store data forever. The protocol matches people who have hard drive space to spare with those who need to store data or host content permanently.

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