NFTs Get Potentially Massive Instagram Acceptance Boost
Regular readers of this News site will know that we think this is the era of the token – the corporate token launch, the new rogue crypto, the “us too” digital offerings of the central banks.
Just as money is “the concretisation of trust” (our phrase), so tokens of any sort depend for their success on the acceptance of those who use them. With this in mind, the trialling of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) by Instagram promises what might be a real breakthrough in the NFT world. NFTs are, in essence, digital lithographs – you have a digital copy of a moment with a unique authenticating signature.
Instagram will start testing digital collectables this week, enabling creators and collectors to display their non-fungible tokens on their profiles.
Instagram is working with a small number of users to test the feature, which will let users share NFTs in their main feed as well as Stories and in messages by linking third-party digital wallets in-app. At launch, the wallets will be Rainbow, MetaMask, and Trust Wallet, with Coinbase, Dapper and Phantom coming soon.
There are no fees for posting the collectables, which will receive a special ‘shimmer’ visual treatment with both the creator and owner attributed. Initially, Ethereum and Poloygon-based NFTs will be supported, with Solana and Flow to follow.
Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg says that similar functionality will soon come to Facebook and that the firm is also bringing augmented reality NFTs to Instagram Stories via the firm’s Spark AR technology “so you can place digital art into physical spaces”.
Historical Performance And IFISA Process Guide
- Money&Co. lenders have achieved an average return of more than 8 per cent gross (before we deduct our one per cent fee).
That figure is the result of over £24 million of loans facilitated on the site, as we bring individuals looking for a good return on capital together with carefully vetted small companies seeking funds for growth. Bear in mind that lenders’ capital is at risk. Read warnings on site before committing capital.
- Money&Co. has been lending for over 5 years and has only had two bad debts so far, representing a bad debt rate of 0.03 per cent per annum.
All loans on site are eligible to be held in a Money&Co. Innovative Finance Individual Savings Account (IFISA), up to the annual ISA limit of £20,000. Such loans offer lenders tax-free income. Our offering is an Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) that can hold the peer-to-peer (P2P) business loans that Money&Co. facilitates. For the purposes of this article, the terms ISA and IFISA are interchangeable.
So here’s our guide to the process:
- Step 1: Register as a lender. Go to the login page, and go through the process that the law requires us to effect. This means we have to do basic checks on you to comply with money-laundering and other security requirements.
- Step 2: Put money into your account. This is best done by electronic transfer. We can also process paper cheques drawn in favour of Denmark Square Limited, the parent company of Money&Co.
- Step 3: Buy loans in the loan market. Once you’ve put cash in your account it will sit there – and it won’t earn interest until you’ve bought a piece of a loan. It’s this final step that requires lenders and IFISA investors to be pro-active. Just choose some loans – all loans on the Money&Co. site can be held in an IFISA – and your money will start earning tax-free interest.
The ISA allowance for 2020/21 is unchanged from last tax year at £20,000, allowing a married couple to put £40,000 into a tax-free environment. Over three years, an investment of this scale in two Money&Co. Innovative Finance ISAs would generate £8,400 of income completely free of tax. We’re assuming a 7 per cent return, net of charges and free of tax here.
Once you have made your initial commitment, you might then consider diversifying – buying a spread of loans. To do this, you can go into the “loans for sale” market. All loans bought in this market also qualify for IFISA tax benefits.
Risk: Security, Access, Yield
Do consider not just the return, but the security and the ease of access to your investment. We write regularly about these three key factors. Here’s one of several earlier articles on security, access and yield.