How to create an NFT?

Introduction

Often, the first use case when we talk about Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) refers to Cryptokitties on the Ethereum blockchain. Collecting and mating crypto-cats was something very innovative in late 2017 but fortunately, uses are evolving. After a great interest in virtual plots (The Sandbox, Decentraland, CryptoVoxels…) followed the possibility of real ownership of objects in video games.

Today, the trend has evolved again and is heading towards the creation of one’s own image collection or an online store.

However, coding your smart contract does not seem to be within the reach of everyone and could discourage you from taking the plunge.
Yet,

For the continuation of this article, imagine that you are an artist and that you wish to organize a poster exhibition on the theme of crypto with a paying entry.

There are two prerequisites if you want to create an asset: have an Ethereum wallet (like Metamask) or on another blockchain and some Ether (or other crypto) in it.

Steps to create an NFT

1. Have a wallet with cryptocurrencies on a blockchain that allows the creation of NFTs: Ethereum, Solana, Polygon or Avalanche for example
2. Choose the platform on which you will create your NFTs: Opensea, Rarible, Mintable…
3. Connect your portfolio to the chosen platform
4. Choose what your NFT will be associated with: image, video, sound…
5. Choose the price at which you want to sell it
6. Set your Royalties (percentage you take on each sale on the secondary market)

Create or Mint an NFT with Rarible

There are several platforms if you want to create, or Mint, your own NFT. We will mention three of them: RaribleOpensea and Mintable. As a reminder, we have already explained how to create a free NFT with Opensea.

We will take Rarible as an example for Mint an NFT.

Step 1 Go to https://rarible.com/ then connect your wallet on the top right “Connect wallet” and choose how you want to connect.

For our example we will choose MetaMask and we will have to sign a message to validate the terms of use of the platform.

Step 2 : in the menu, click on “Create” and choose the blockchain you want to use.

You can choose between Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Tezos or Flow. For the example I choose Ethereum.

You will then have to choose if you want to create a single NFT or multiple NFTs. For the example we will choose a single NFT.

Step 3 You must now fill in all the information related to your NFT.

Upload file = upload what you want to link to your NFT (image, video, sound…).

Put on marketplace = you can choose if you want to sell your NFT at a fixed price, at auction or receive offers to buy. Depending on your choice the following may differ.

Price = price at which you want to sell your NFT, expressed in ETH, wETH or Rari.
If in the previous step you have chosen to receive offers to buy you have the possibility to unlock the media (image, video…) associated with your NFT after the purchase.
If you choose the auction system you will have to choose a minimum price as well as a start and end date of the auction.

Choose collection = you have the possibility to create a collection in which you can associate several NFT. If you want to do a test you can choose the collection of the Rarible platform.

Free minting = for an NFT to be associated to a crypto address it must be minted. This costs money, you have the possibility to sell your NFT without the buyer having to mine it immediately. This way he saves transaction costs which are called gas.

Name, Description = name and describe your digital work

Royalties = what you will earn as a percentage if your NFT is resold to others

Advanced settings = you have the possibility to give very specific characteristics to your NFT

Be aware that the platforms where you sell your NFTs take commissions on the sales. Here is a comparison between the different platforms.

• OpenSea : 2,5% fee
• LooksRare : 2% fee
• Rarible : 2% fee
• Magic Eden : 2% fee

How to create or mint a large collection of NFT

If you want to create 10,000 NFTs at the same time, you will not be able to repeat the steps we saw above ten thousand times.

If you want to create 10,000 identical NFTs you can do so via Rarible by choosing to create the same NFT multiple times. Be careful, the more NFTs you create, the higher your costs will be since you will have to pay fees on the network of the blockchain used. On Ethereum this can be extremely expensive.

To create large collections of NFTs many platforms and tools exist but they are more for people with development knowledge. For example, on Solana, there is what is called the Candy Machine which allows to randomly choose the different images generated according to many criteria. On Ethereum we have Mintable.

There are still tools that allow you to generate collections of thousands of NFTs without having any knowledge of code and development but we don’t know the quality of these. Here are some of them:

These different tools will allow you to choose different combination options and features. Most of these tools are compatible with the main platforms. This will allow you to sell your collections directly on the main NFT marketplaces.

Where to store your images or videos?

As you know, an NFT is associated with an image, video or other metadata. There is a risk that your metadata will be deleted or disappear depending on your storage method. Here are the main storage methods:

• Directly on the blockchain (expensive but secure)
• On a decentralized server
• On a centralized server (not very secure but not very expensive)

Definition and explanation of what is an NFT

The certification of works

If you are an artist, you may be concerned about the risks of counterfeiting.
You may have thought of using a generalist certifier, but this poses a problem of trust. As for calling in an expert, it quickly becomes too expensive.

One of the major players in the sector to have its works certified is the Codex Protocol. This project was originally created to certify works for auction, but the team has made its use open to a much wider audience.

When you arrive on the page of the Codex Viewer To register, you will have two choices to create your account:

• directly from your Web3 portfolio (like Metamask for example)
• with mail and password

By choosing the first option, you will have full control of your works. The creation and shipping costs will be at your charge in exchange for a little Ether.

If you wish to transfer your property to someone else, the address of their wallet will be required.

The advantage of this method is that your work will be directly saleable on Opensea.

If you choose the second option, you will receive ERC-20 tokens as a welcome gift. They will allow you to generate what you see in “My Collection”.
They will also allow you to generate shipments to another user who has registered in the same way.
Be careful though, you don’t own the private keys of this wallet.

In both cases, to create your NFT certificate, all you need to do is click on “Create Record”. Put in a few pictures (why not one or two showing the creation steps), the high resolution file, a title, a description and press “Continue”.

You now have a certification in the form of a Non-Fungible Token!

Conclusion

The projects mentioned in this article are the easiest to use so that you are not blocked by the technical barrier.

Each of them have their own specificities but the possibilities of use will be limited only by your imagination. For example, the game Crypto Assault exclusively used Opensea for the sale of its assets.

Depending on your level of requirement in terms of decentralization, the choice of one platform or another will have advantages and disadvantages (especially on image hosting).

This is still a very young market in the ecosystem, but according to the 2019 report from nonfungible.com the number of Smart Contracts using NFTs has seen a steady increase since 2018.

I only talked about projects hosted on Ethereum although there are other blockchains offering the possibility to create its NFT.

The goal is not to get into the technical debate of which one is better than the other but to encourage the use of this new technology to the general public.

Now that you are able to “transform” an asset into NFT, don’t hesitate to share with us the use you intend to make of it!

Source:

Thanks to Konohime for his contribution to the article.

Co-founder of bitcoinlinux, I like to analyze the changes that Bitcoin and cryptos can bring to our lives and societies, from a social and economic point of view.

Robin Berné

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