The NFT gold rush is reminiscent of the several booms that came before it: altcoins, initial coin offerings, and decentralized finance (DeFi). Non-fungible tokens are all the rage as content creators race to mint their own NFTs and sell them for hundreds of thousands, if not millions. A digital artist known as Beeple sold a JPG file for $69 million while Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sold a tweet as an NFT for nearly $3 million. Sophia the robot created and sold an NFT artwork for nearly $700,000.
Interestingly though, buying an NTF doesn’t give you ownership of the artwork itself. You are rather buying metadata that proves that you are the owner of the NFT artwork, and an opportunity to sell it in the future for profit if you want.
NFTs can be minted on several blockchains that support the non-fungible token standard.
Blockchains for creating NFTs
It is important to note that NFTs extend beyond digital art and paintings. They can be used to represent anything such as collectibles, virtual land, music, video footage of moments worth capturing, tweets, artwork, tokenized real-world assets, and more.
These NFTs can be minted on blockchains that include:
- Ethereum
- Binance Smart Chain
- Tron
- EOS
- Tezos
- Cosmos
- Polkadot
- WAX
- Flow by Dapper Labs
The different blockchains have their own NFT token standard as well as compatible marketplaces and wallets. An NFT created on Tron can only be bought and sold on marketplaces that support Tron assets. Despite the numerous blockchain choices, Ethereum is the leading distributed ledger used to create and sell NFTs.
How to Mint NFTs on the Ethereum Blockchain
Anyone can create and sell NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. You need to follow these steps:
- Make sure that you have an Etherum wallet that supports the non-fungible token (ERC721) standard. These include Coinbase Wallet, Metamask, or Trust Wallet.
- You need to have anywhere between $50 — $100 in Ether. If you have ERC20 tokens, you need to convert them to Ether. Do the same for fiat currencies or crypto assets you may have.
- Choose a marketplace that allows you to connect your wallet and upload your file that you want to turn into an NFT.
- The marketplaces to choose from include:
- The marketplaces to choose from include:
- OpenSea — a very popular platform
- Rarible
- Mintable
- Makersplace
- Create your account in your favored NFT marketplace
- Upload your file
- Add a title and description to your artwork
- Confirm the details and get ready to mint your NFT
- Sign your NFT — you are basically linking your NFT to your Ethereum wallet address
- Approve the gas fee and wait for the NFT to be created.
- View your minted NFT on your marketplace dashboard.
You can now list your newly minted NFT for sale or auction at your favorite platform. The NFT artworks are unique and their prices won’t be the same. However, the beauty of it is that anyone can create and sell NFTs. The NFT created on an Ethereum will be sold in Ether. It is up to you to keep the proceeds as is or convert them to ERC20 tokens such as the social token LEDU.
Who Should Create NFTs?
There is no limit to who can create NFTs. You can mint artwork, video files, or even tweets as NFTs. The humanoid robot Sophia created an artwork, minted it as an NFT, and sold it for $688K. However, not everyone will make millions from selling NFTs. This is because well-known artists or celebrities have an edge over ordinary people. Famous people have so far benefited from the NFT mania, and ordinary people are starting to catch up too.
Final Thoughts
The reboot of the NFT mania has helped to get many content creators in the crypto space and at the same time, allowed them to monetize their creativity. There are arguments that NFTs are in a bubble due to the insane amounts of money paid for tweets and JPG files that are found in the public domain. What is clear is that the NFT market is just getting started, and its future could be brighter, or bleak.
Do you think NFTs are the future of digital art or this is just another passing phase? Let us know in the comments below.
