Certainly, NFTs have to be one of the breakthroughs of the crypto industry in 2021. According to NonFungible, the industry saw over $2B spent on NFTs so far in 2021 and that is a 2100% increase compared to the last quarter of 2020. This shows that the industry is rapidly gaining popularity even though it has been in existence for a while now. Given that NFTs can be minted for nearly anything from intangible to real assets such as video game items, artworks, digital collectibles, songs, tweets, pictures, etc.
Understanding NFTs
NFTs are accessible to virtually anybody and particularly useful for new artists still finding their feet. Since each NFT is a blockchain record of a unique asset, new artists can easily turn their art into NFTs. With NFTs artists, especially new ones, stand a better chance of exposure for their works without third-party interference.
An NFT can be traded anywhere in the world and its sales are logged into the blockchain. With NFTs, it is much easier to prove the authenticity of artwork and view its history of ownership. This gives more legitimacy to the artworks of artists. As such, the appeal to own an NFT is very strong.
Like every other new or bubbling technology, there will always be skeptics, and among those, some will say it is a bubble. However, the potential that the technology has is indubitable and it looks encouraging. The world is becoming more digitized and as such, being able to provide evidence of ownership of assets such as works of art will ensure the creators get proper credit and compensation for their works. NFT makes this possible within the permissionless and borderless space of the blockchain network. So, for example, a creator in Beijing can sell his artwork to an art collector in Sweden for a huge amount without third parties getting involved. The NFT technology also offers the opportunity for new means of collaboration between different artists.
When you look at the traditional ways of selling works of art such as auctioning, these artworks often come with authenticity receipts to prove that they are original. We can easily say that an NFT is a digital equivalent. So, it is a digital means of certifying that your artwork is one of a kind. When you create an NFT, the process it goes through is called minting. So, you are creating a token that will forever be associated with that asset on the blockchain. The interesting part is that, whenever an artist mints an NFT for his work, there is an attached commission between 10–30% that the artist receives whenever his work is resold.
What qualifies as an NFT?
Right now, the NFT landscape has few restrictions as to what qualifies as an NFT. So, basically, nearly anything qualifies from digital music, arts, tweets, pictures, recipes, videos, etc. Given that the technology is new, a lot of people will be eager to experiment with it. As a new artist, it is a perfect platform to launch your artworks because the demand is still very high and it continues to surge. However, the golden rule with all artworks is to avoid minting copyrighted works of art into NFTs.
What are the essentials for creating your NFT?
Minting an NFT doesn’t require that you be a crypto guru. However, there are few things you will need to get started. We will be discussing them so you can be familiar with them and know how to use them. To make things even easier, all the processes can be done on your smartphone.
1. Digital wallet
The first thing you will need to mint an NFT is a mobile or digital wallet where you can keep your coins that are needed for the minting process. The digital wallets also give you accounts with which you can connect to NFT marketplaces to buy, sell, or create NFTs. You will find many wallet providers that will give you free digital wallets for storing your tokens. However not all will work with an NFT marketplace, it is important to check which wallet works for the NFT marketplace you are intending to use.
Metamask is one of the wallets that are generally compatible with most crypto apps and NFT marketplaces. It has a mobile app and a browser extension. On Metamask, it is easy to buy the coins you need for minting the NFT from within the app.
2. Some crypto
To mint an NFT, most platforms will demand a small token amount to mint. Given that most NFT platforms are based on Ethereum, you are likely to need ETH to complete your minting process. Tracking the price of ethereum is hard, so, you can just buy a fixed dollar amount of Ethereum that will be enough to cover the cost. The Metamask wallet enables you to purchase Ethereum directly from the wallet. Other wallets may likely take you to a third-party app to buy the crypto you need.
Also, the Ethereum blockchain is not the only network to support NFT, we also have Tezos, WAX, Binance Smart Chain, and FLOW. So, if you will be creating on these other blockchains then you will most likely be needing to buy their native token too for the minting process.
Additionally, the NFT token standards on these blockchains are different as well as the marketplaces and the compatible wallets. For example, the NFTs minted on the FLOW blockchain are unlikely to work on Ethereum-based marketplace like OpenSea. So, you won’t be able to sell them on other blockchains unless it is a FLOW-based marketplace like VIV3.
3. Choosing an NFT platform
After setting up your wallet and buying the needed amount of crypto to cover your minting process, it is time to proceed to choose the suitable platform for minting your NFT. An NFT marketplace provides you with the platform to mint NFTs, and sell or buy them. There are quite a number of them; however, we will discuss two of them to give you options when choosing. You can make additional research on others if you wish to expand your scope.
We will be talking about Rarible and OpenSea, which are both Ethereum-based NFT marketplaces.
Minting NFTs on OpenSea
Once you load the OpenSea website, you will see the create button where you can start the minting process for your NFT.
Click the create button, you will be asked to connect your wallet (Metamask) to the marketplace. Once you are connected, the site takes you to the collections section where you will see a blue Create button.
Note: You will need to digitally sign a message to prove you own the wallet at no cost at all.
There is a “create button” (in color blue), you click on it to take you to where you can create space to store your NFT. You can add a description, logo, and name for the collection.
Now you can proceed to mint your first NFT, just click on the blue “Add new item”.
Once you do that, it will show you where to upload your artwork. Additionally, you can input all the necessary information and special characteristics to make your NFT unique.
Minting NFTs on Rarible
To mint on the Rarible NFT marketplace, you need to go to the website and look for the create button. You can click on the create button after which you will be asked if you are creating a single one of a kind NFT or multiple if you intend to sell your NFT many times. We will go with the single here.
Once you click on the single creation tab, it takes you to the page where you begin creating your NFT. You get to upload your artwork in all the supported formats. However, here on Rarible, the format range is limited compared to OpenSea. Similarly, the size too is limited to 30MB.
You also set the price you want to sell your NFT; however, you pay 2.5% of the sales proceeds to the site. Failure to set the price will automatically place the NFT under Auction. You can also make the content unlockable until it has been bought. At the same time, you can set the token standard you want your NFT to be. You can choose either RARI or ERC-721 standard; the platform chooses the RARI standard by default. You can also add the percentage of royalty you want to earn on your work should it be resold.
The minting process looks like this:
At this stage, all you need to do is to approve the fee to create the token then proceed to mint the NFT. Once it has been minted, you can proceed to sign the sell order.
Some platforms like OpenSea charge nothing to mint NFTs while some like Rarible charge a token for the creation process. This is called a gas fee, which is the amount of ETH needed to complete a function on the ethereum chain. The gas fee will vary depending on how busy the network is. The higher the network usage then the higher the gas price. You can mint during the weekend when there are considerably fewer people using the blockchain.
The NFT industry is not without its teething problems and one of them is the gas fee. Given that most NFT marketplaces are Ethereum-based, then you are likely to face the problem of the high gas price that has been plaguing the Ethereum network for a while now.
How to get your NFT to investors
As a new NFT artist, you are now familiar with the minting process of NFT. The next thing is how to get your newly minted NFT in front of the right audience. Remember, you need to list your NFT in the “sell section” by clicking on the sell button. The options available are either to auction it or sell it at a fixed price. The most acceptable crypto for transacting NFT is ETH and other ethereum-based tokens since most NFT marketplaces are Ethereum-based. However, some marketplaces will only accept their native token such as the FLOW-based NFT marketplace.
Once you click the sell button, the platform lists your NFT in the marketplace consisting of thousands of potential investors. To put that into proper context, OpenSea had about 3,100 active wallets per day in March 2021 while Rarible has 4,467. OpenSea made transactions worth $82.5 million in March while Rarible also made $24.4M worth of transactions. This shows that these marketplaces can help get your artwork to the larger public.
Also, keep in mind that the platforms give you access to its strong online community on apps like Discord, Twitter, YouTube, etc. to market your NFT further. At the same time, the OpenSea platform has already integrated the Polygon blockchain while working on adding FLOW too. That means more exposure for your NFTs to potential investors.
Conclusion
The good thing about NFTs for artists is that it is easy to create and you don’t need high technical knowledge to even mint one. The NFT marketplace removes the barrier around NFTs and provides easy entry into the NFT industry for artists to showcase their work. With the way the industry is growing so fast, there is a lot of room for artists to thrive without third-party influence.
We have seen the ICO craze, DeFi craze, and this time it is the NFT craze as popular brands and figures continue to join the NFT train. Experts like Mason Nystrom expect the NFT industry to breeze past $1.3B by the year ending, given the rate at which artists, brands and celebs are flocking to mint their NFT tokens.
