What is NFT digital art : How to mint an NFT ?

 

You may be new to blockchain and crypto, or you may have been in crypto for years at this point - but you in both cases - you probably are just now learning about NFTs.

This will be a guide that is ever living/changing to help introduce NFTs, what gives them value and how you can get started in the NFT space.

What exactly is a Non-Fungible Token or NFT?

A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique, individual token existing on a blockchain such as Ethereum. Unlike cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, each NFT token contains unique data meaning non-fungible tokens are not interchangeable with each other. This non-fungible nature of the tokens means their use cases differ greatly from their fungible counterparts.

A normal token can be exchanged for the same type of token equally without any difference.

A good example is a dollar - if you and I both have a dollar — we can swap dollars and it doesn’t matter, neither of us lose out they are equal. Whereas, with non-fungible tokens they are both >unique, meaning if we both have an NFT, mine could be a baseball card, and yours could be your Birth Certificate — obviously we cannot exchange these two >equally. Therefore making our tokens non-fungible.

Non-fungible tokens are used to create verifiable digital scarcity. NFTs are used in several specific applications that require unique digital items. This has initially proven popular for blockchain games and collectibles like CryptoKitties on the Ethereum blockchain. NFTs can also be used to represent in-game assets, which are in control of the user instead of the game developer. One exciting benefit of this arrangement means the non-fungible tokens or digital items, may actually outlive the game they were initially created for and find incorporate into separate future games. Yet another potential use is in digital art, by helping prove authenticity and ownership.

Artwork is another example of how powerful NFTs can be. By allowing artists to create artwork on the blockchain as NFTs, it means their content now becomes sellable globally, on decentralized marketplaces. Providing a means to collect, earn, and make a living off crypto.

NFTs are one of the best ways to actually earn crypto over time, without needing to invest in it directly. (unlike scams that say the same thing, NFTs are legit. Its like opening a store on ebay or etsy, your trading your time and work for money).

What gives an NFT its value?

There are a ton of reasons to buy NFTs.

Unique - Each NFT is unique, its the only one of its kind. You cannot make another NFT that is the same token number on the same smart contract. Meaning there will only ever be one of that token. This is verified by the blockchain and can be seen by anyone.

Copyright - Your NFT might come with copyright if you are using Mintable.app. If the seller chooses to do so - it means that its on the blockchain that the owner of that token would have complete commercial copyright to use that image and asset.

Rare - Since they are unique and cannot be copied, they are rare. Most of the time, there are very few NFTs from an artist or seller - very rarely do they have 1000s of NFTs. Therefore, you can safely assume you would be one of the few people in the world that owns an collectible item, that can be resold.

Collectible - These NFTs/items are collectible. You can hold onto them, and their value will only go up in price since there are little ways to dilute the collection. Buying them to resell them can earn you thousands of dollars. There are plenty of people who do it everyday and earn a living from it.

Downloadable - If on Mintable.app, only the current owner of the NFT can download the file attached to it. Making it unlockable to the owner. If your NFT has something like, game assets, music, a PDF, or more locked inside it, you might want to buy the NFT just to download that song/PDF/etc.

Immutable - No one can change the metadata on the token, no one can remove your image, or the name of the token, etc. This means it will never change, it will never be removed, it cannot be taken down off the blockchain. This is what gives it so much value and collectibility

Forever - NFTs are forever. Because the data doesn't change, and because the blockchain is forever, you will always have that token if you buy it. You can always resell that token if you want. Its like buying a bar of gold - you own it, and you can do with it what you want.

Resellable - You can always resell your NFT. You SHOULD resell your NFT and trade it. You can make some serious cash trading NFTs. Some NFTs have gone for 20,000 USD + when the original buyer only bought it for a few thousand dollars. Making them over 15,000 USD in a short time in ONE trade!

NFTs are valuable

How do I get started with Buying/Trading NFTs?

You need ETH and an ethereum wallet to get started. The most common is Metamask.io - then you add some ETH into that wallet. This is required by all sites in order to interact with an Ethereum application.

Step 2: Find a marketplace.

The top NFT marketplaces are currently:

Mintable.app

Opensea

SuperRare

Rarible

there are more NFT marketplaces but these are the leading open marketplaces, others may not be open to all NFTs and only select items

Some of these let you create your own NFTs (if your a creator) and some of them are closed like SuperRare, where only approved artists can create items.

Below we will discuss creating NFTs.

How do I get started minting NFTs?

If you are a content creator, whether its artwork, graphic designs, 3D models, videos, PDF, research - it can all be turned into an NFT using platforms like Mintable.app. Mintable is the most flexible and has the most possibilities so we will be using it and discussing how you can use it.

Note: there are plenty of places to make NFTs, but they either are: more expensive, have file size limits below 50mb, don't let you control your contracts, or do not offer decentralization.

Minting on Mintable.app

On Mintable you can sign up for an account and then its free to start Minting NFTs. You have three options to select from when you choose to mint:

·       Your own store

·       Mint in Mintables store

·       Gasless minting

Your own store:

When you create your own store, you are making a smart contract on the blockchain - that you own, you control, your the only person who owns it. This is the preferred method for creating NFTs but there is one single downside....

Deploying a smart contract COSTS a ton if gas prices are above 50 gwei. Around $100 initial investment to deploy the smart contract - but after that, you can mint hundreds of NFTs for as little as $10 using Mintable's batch minting.

If you think of it as an 'operational cost' to get an online business going, $100 isn't that bad. But if your struggling to pay that - then you can mint under Mintable's store, where everyone shares the contract and can mint NFTs (that still are owned by you!) but don't need to worry about deploying your own store.

When you create your store you can choose where the data is stored:

Most Flexible: Let Mintable handle it

Decentralized but no batch minting: Data is on IPFS

Complete control: Your own servers or other locations you can pick

Mintable is the only place that lets you pick where the data is stored, and so this is one of the big reasons people use it

Mintable's Store

You save on transaction fees when you use Mintable's store as you don't need to pay the initial overhead of deploying your own store to the blockchain. Everyone can use Mintable's store for free, and can mint thousands of NFTs in a single transaction doing so. This is one of the reasons Mintable.app is the most flexible platform for creating NFTs, no where else can you make so many NFTs for so cheap.

Gasless Minting

You are able to mint directly on Mintable's store without needing to submit a single transaction, meaning no transaction fees from the blockchain.

This is the best way to get started. You can do it at https://mintable.app/gasless

Minting the NFT

Once you've decided what store your NFT will be minted on - the next step is actually Minting!

There are a ton of possibilities when minting on mintable, so here is a more in depth breakdown of everything that is happening Creating an item

Once you click sell - you will be taken to a page to create your listing for your NFT and the mint it on the blockchain. Its very similar to listing an item for sale on ebay, etsy, or amazon.

You can create your title, the subtitle, add a description (make it good and tell a story behind your NFT!)

Uploading your content

Mintable has huge file limits, 3gb for the private unlockable file, and 200mb for the preview images.

This is great as it means you can upload huge 4k mp4s, high res photos, zip files, or more.

Unlockable private file

This file is a private file that ONLY the current owner of the NFT can access, so if your selling a video NFT, you may upload a low res, short clip as the preview image that anyone can see - but once a buyer purchases your NFT, they can download the full, 4k resolution video.

Preview images

You then can upload the image for the NFT itself, and the preview images for the listing. The first image you upload is the NFT image that shows in wallets, and the other images are shown on the listing page. Think of it like Amazon, the first image is the image people see when browsing amazon, and the other images are the extra images shown when they click on the item page.

Set your price for the item, select a few other options like transferring copyright or making it non-resellable, and then list it for sale!

After your transactions are submitted thats it, you just created an item on the blockchain that you own, you control, and you can sell. Congrats!