A beginners guide to minting your creatives as NFTs
EXPLAINED – How to Mint an NFT and earn in 2021
NFT’s – you couldn’t have heard about it in 2021.
The internet is buzzing about the latest concept in the cryptocurrency and blockchain NFTs or Non-fungible Tokens. Known as digital forms of tokens, NFTs have attracted investors, artists, digital collectors, and content creators worldwide.
The market for NFTs is surging to new heights, breaking the record set for each quarter in 2021. In the first six months of 2021, the total NFT sales accounted for $2.5 billion, up from 13.7 million in the first half of 2020.
And then came August.
The month of August smashed all sales records with a whopping $3.25 billion worth of sales that month – which was 800% growth compared to July.
So it’s clear – NFTs are here to stay and will soon become a mainstream adaption with time. With this excitement, it is only natural that everyone wants to join in on the bandwagon and start creating their own NFTs or looking into options on how they can benefit.
Everyone’s had this question of “How to mint an NFT” and then got across to a bunch of technical terms and browsed away.
But in reality, getting your NFTs up for sale isn’t as complicated as it sounds.
In this guide, let’s run through the fundamentals of minting and NFT and discover how you can get your digital assets listed in no time.
What is an NFT – a refresher course!
Before we get started, let’s look at what an NFT is. An NFT is a unit of digital data stored in a Blockchain that certifies that the asset is unique and holds value.
NFTs can be anything from photos, videos, audio, or any other popular type of digital data. Because of Blockchain technology’s transparency, the uniqueness of the digital asset can be preserved and cannot be manipulated.
And, NFTs will continue to provide commissions to the original creator of the digital collectible whenever the asset changes ownership with a royalty clause, generating passive income.
NFTs is a step above when it comes to providing value for the creatives such as music, video, and other creative content.
NFTs have opened thousands of possibilities for individuals, creators in ways you would have never imagined.
How do you get started?
Minting your first NFT is easy, but before getting onboard in minting an NFT, first, let’s look at a few factors you need to know.
Just like cryptocurrencies, NFTs operate in the blockchain, and several blockchains now support NFT tokens.
Here are the common blockchains that list NFTs:
Think of these blockchains like a currency stream – like the US dollar, the Euro, or the Yen. Once you decide to list your NFT in one blockchain, you cannot transfer it to another. Take time to research each of these blockchains, but the preferred option and the most popular destination is Ethereum.
In second is the Binance Smart Chain, and both of them together host the most significant number of NFTs.
If you are starting up, you’ll be looking at spending the least when it comes to fees. With their large quantities of NFTs, both Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain offer the lowest fees compared to the rest.
Now that you’ve chosen your blockchain, now you will need to list your NFT in a marketplace. For Ethereum, the ideal destinations for a marketplace will be OpenSea, Rarible, and Mintable.
OpenSea is currently the world’s biggest NFT marketplace, accounting for nearly 97% of the total NFT sales worldwide. Of the massive sale of $3.25 billion in August, $3.16 of it came from OpenSea.
If you opt to go with Binance Smart Chain, the options include Juggerworld, Treasureland, and Bakery Swap.
Getting Onboard
With the blockchain technology ticked and the marketplace information in place, now is the time to get ready to mint your first digital collectible.
For this example, we will go with OpenSea, the preferred choice by thousands of content creators and digital asset holders.
1 Start creating the Asset
The process of an NFT always starts with the digital asset that you want to mint. Today, NFTs can be a lot of things and are not limited to art.
Come up with an innovating and appealing digital asset that you think can be of value to a buyer.
Don’t limit yourself to art and illustrations but go beyond and see how you can have an animated GIF, a video clip, or even a meme that has a unique value.
Get inspired by the different successful NFTs in the marketplace. And the best thing is that you can find buyers for all kinds of artwork. Take this clip from the NBA, a video of Lebron James dunking that sold for more than $200,000.
Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, recently listed an image of his first tweet as an NFT that got over $2.9 million.
Sometimes, it can be something as simple as a meme that you could build. Remember Bad Luck Brian – a meme that came into popularity in 2012?
Its original owner, Kyle Craven, ended up selling the yearbook photo as an NFT for $36,000.
2 Purchasing Ethereum
Since we are using the Ethereum blockchain, to create a digital asset, you will need to pay a sum for the transaction – gas fees. The gas fees fluctuate, but the usual amount for NFT minting is about $70.
But you will need to buy some ETH to make your payments for gas before you start minting. Anyone could buy Eth from a cryptocurrency exchange such as Coinbase or Binance.
3 Getting a Non-Custodial Ethereum Wallet
Think of the Non-custodial Wallet as your digital wallet where you buy and store your cryptocurrency along with your NFT. When you purchase cryptocurrencies from an exchange, they open a wallet for you, but this wallet belongs to the exchange. A non-custodial wallet is owned by you and is a secure way to store your digital currencies.
There are several wallets that you can choose as a non-custodial wallet. Rainbow and Coinbase wallets are good examples. Metamask, a wallet that you can use with your computer, is highly recommended if you plan to mint NFTs.
Once you set up your wallet, you will need to transfer the existing Eth in your exchange to the wallet. To do that, you need to copy your wallet address and paste it into your exchange’s transfer section. Additionally, you can scan the QR code and make the transfer.
Transfers take nothing more than a few minutes to complete.
4 Creating the NFT
Now that you’ve got your Eth and the wallet set up, it’s time to create the NFT in OpenSea.
- First, visit OpenSea.io and click create on the top right corner.
- Next, follow the instructions and connect your wallet and digitally sign in and confirm the address ownership.
- Once it is done, you can proceed to the Create Menu and click on My Collections.
- In here, you can go ahead and upload your artwork (the cover image that everyone would see and not the NFT) for the song, image, gif, or whichever digital item that you plan to list.
- Add a name and description to the file and add a banner image to the top of the page – this is the cover image shown on top when someone clicks on your NFT.
- Once you’ve done this, you can now go ahead and upload the original digital file.
- Here you will need to set the unique traits for the uploaded item – you will need to type its scarcity, uniqueness, and even locks for the NFT.
- Then proceed to click on Create to mint your NFT.
- After the confirmation dialogue, your NFT will soon appear as a collectible and as a collectible on your wallet.
- Now, you could proceed to list the NFT on the marketplace by clicking the Edit button. When you click it, it will take you to a page where you can choose the ERC-20 token you want to receive as payment and set a royalty clause.
Your NFT is now Live!
Mint, Ready, Go!
Thanks to OpenSea, you can now list your NFT in a matter of few steps.
However, since we deal with currencies and financial transactions, it is always advisable to go through the perquisites and requirements before clicking on the Next button.
The steps highlighted in this guide are the first steps for taking your digital content as NFTs and eventually earning them.
Although this guide is a listing on OpenSea, a similar set of steps goes to any other platform or wallet that you use.
With celebrities, game creators, and fashion brands all investing heavily in NFTs, the mainstream adaption of NFTs is not too long away.
If you plan to explore NFTs, there cannot be a better time than 2021 to do so!
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