howto.solsea.ioSolSea How To | The Ultimate Guide to NFTs – NFTpedia

SolSea How To | The Ultimate Guide to NFTs Menu What is an NFT? How to make an NFT? How to buy an NFT? How to sell an NFT?How can we help? Home Knowledge Base How to make an NFT? Search For Search How to make an NFT? You’ve probably heard about NFTs and now you’re curious how to make one of your own. The process may seem daunting, but if you follow the steps in this guide, creating NFTs will seem like a piece of cake! Before we get into the nitty gritties, it’s important that you understand what minting non-fungible tokens means. What is NFT minting? If you’re new to the NFT space you may have come across the term minting” but aren’t entirely sure what it means. Minting is the term used to describe the process of creating an NFT. But you may still be wondering: What does it actually mean to mint” or make an NFT? Minting an NFT means that you write data about your artwork into the blockchain. In a way, you’re transforming a simple JPEG image into information that is permanently stored on a network that everyone can read and no one can destroy. Everything about your artwork becomes public knowledge, including who bought it, who sold it, how many times it was re-sold, and so on. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves – basics first! In case you want to skip the intro, you can skip straight to the section about how to mint NFTs on SolSea . How does minting work? Let’s assume you’re an artist who creates digital art and you want to start selling your digital art as NFTs. When you mint an NFT, you essentially write information (metadata) about your artwork on the blockchain. So first you’ll choose a blockchain to mint on and then you’ll find a platform that, preferably, allows you to both create and sell NFTs. The process of minting will include uploading your digital art file to the platform so it can be stored on a permanent cloud storage service, as well as adding details about your artwork like its title, a description, and the like. When it’s minted on the blockchain, your NFT will have metadata that contains these details and the link (URL) to your artwork file stored on the cloud. Simple enough, isn’t it? Now let’s get down to the finer details of creating NFTs. One of the most important steps of this process is choosing a blockchain to mint your NFTs on. Chances are you’ve already heard of Ethereum – it’s the most popular blockchain for NFTs and the one that started it all. However, many other blockchains have adopted the trend and there are now a myriad of networks to choose from , like Solana, Polygon, Flow, Cardano, etc. Making this choice is perhaps something you should spend the most time on, because it will impact everything you do later on. That said, here’s a rundown of some of the most popular blockchain networks for minting NFTs. Which blockchain should you use? Choosing a blockchain to house your NFTs, and later sell them, is the first step. Factors to consider when making your choice are: the price of minting, the speed of the network itself, the community, and others. Every blockchain will charge a certain amount of money for minting – these are called gas fees” and they are required for every transaction that is written on the blockchain. Because minting involves writing data on the blockchain, it also includes gas fees. Likewise, how quickly a network can process and write transactions is crucial so you don’t have to wait for long periods of time between mints. Community matters too because when you start selling your NFTs, you’ll want access to an audience that will see them and buy them. The best way to find out which network to choose from is by comparing their pros and cons: Ethereum blockchain ethereum.org As mentioned above, the Ethereum blockchain is the one most often used for minting, in part because it was the blockchain that introduced NFTs. It is highly secure and has gained credibility over the years due to its popularity. Although it has experienced some hiccups in the past, a series of updates have been made to the network to enable efficiency. Ethereum certainly hosts the largest number of NFTs, but it is one of the hardest to succeed on because competition is fierce on this chain. It’s also infamous for its high gas fees. This is one of the main reasons many creators have boycotted the chain and moved to a newer, cheaper alternative. Pros: one of the most popular chains, highly secure, largest community Cons : hard to succeed on, infamously high gas fees Solana blockchain solana.com Solana, meanwhile, is a younger blockchain than Ethereum, which is what makes it less crowded”. The Solana blockchain hit the crypto scene with its early launch in 2020 and ever since, its fast growth has been a topic of discussion. While it has very quickly built a vast ecosystem of NFT marketplaces and its community is ever growing, Solana is still fairly new and it is precisely its youth that may deter some creators. It’s already known for its speed and notably low gas fees, which is what gives it an edge over Ethereum. However, Solana has faced issues regarding the occasional instability of the network and it has garnered some criticism from the community about its lack of transparency in the network. Pros: fast growth of the network, ultra low gas fees, high speed Cons: occasional instability, lack of transparency Polygon blockchain polygon.technology Another chain younger than Ethereum, Polygon has quickly become a force to be reckoned with. Polygon is built on top” of the Ethereum blockchain, but it solves some of its bigger issues. It offers cheaper transactions and it also gains an extra point for its ability to take on high-frequency transactions. This means that you can mint a lot of NFTs on the platform efficiently. Despite these advantages, Polygon is not as well-known as its counterparts. And because the NFT community is strongest where there’s credibility, Polygon has some more catching up to do. Pros: quicker and cheaper transactions Cons: less known than its counterparts What is an NFT marketplace? When you’ve chosen the blockchain you want to mint your NFTs on, you’ll have to find a platform that provides the service of minting and selling NFTs. An NFT marketplace is a platform where you can create, sell and buy non-fungible tokens. Not all marketplaces provide the service of minting, so keep that in mind when you do your research. Some common NFT marketplaces you may have heard of are OpenSea, Larva Labs, Rarible, and SuperRare (primarily) on the Ethereum blockchain, and SolSea, Magic Eden and Solanart on the Solana blockchain. Creating NFTs on Ethereum and Solana is similar, but each NFT platform that enables minting will differ slightly. For the purposes of this guide, we’ll describe how to mint an NFT on Solana, using the SolSea NFT marketplace as an example in later text. How to create an NFT on Solana? Set up a crypto wallet phantom.app The first step in creating an NFT on Solana is creating a crypto wallet. This is important because you’ll need to have Solana’s native cryptocurrency (SOL) in your wallet to pay for the required gas fees. Read how to set up Phantom , a user-friendly wallet that can help you begin your NFT journey (or watch this video tutorial made by a community member). When your wallet is up and running, you’ll need to fund it with SOL before you can start minting. Minting NFTs on the blockchain isn’t free, so keep in mind that you’ll have to pay a small fee for every mint no matter which platform you use. Connect your wallet to an NFT marketplace Every marketplace will require you to connect your wallet to the platform before you can get down to minting. Usually, you’ll find some variation of a ‘Connect wallet’ button at the top right corner of the platform. By clicking it, you’ll open a list of supported wallets and all you’ll have to do is select ‘Phantom’. Mint your first NFT Depending on the marketplace, the minting interface may differ slightly, but the process will always include...