Your guide to the NFTs

So you’ve been hearing all the talk about NFT artworks selling for millions of dollars, and you’re intrigued and want to join in. After all, NFTs have constantly made headlines, from Beeple’s jaw-dropping US$69 million NFT artwork to the Shiba Inu dog meme selling for US$4 million (the priciest meme in NFT history) to public figures like Paris Hilton, Eminem and Snoop Dogg launching their own NFT projects and collectibles.

What is an NFT?

NFT is an abbreviation for non-fungible token. But first, you must understand the difference between fungible and non-fungible assets. Money, oil, bonds, gold, and bitcoin are all fungible assets, which can be traded or exchanged. They are worth the same – $1 bill for your $1 bill. 

Non-fungible assets, on the other hand, differ in that they have a special identifier and properties that are not exchangeable and cannot be replaced with another item of the same type. It is non-fungible because it cannot be easily replaced, similar to autographed memorabilia, a rare sports card, an antique car, or a rare old coin.

NFTs are digital assets that represent physical items such as art, music, and videos. It bears a blockchain-based signature, effectively transforming the item into a one-of-a-kind digital token. This signature enables anyone to validate the artwork’s authenticity as well as any transactions involving the artwork, such as ownership, the person who sold it, and the time and cost of each transaction.

How do NFTs function?

NFTs exist on the blockchain, which is a public digital record of transactions that records a digital asset’s provenance. Consider NFTs to be real collector’s items in digital form. An NFT is created by converting tangible or intangible items such as music, digital art, videos, GIFs, and virtual avatars into crypto compilations or digital assets and storing them on the blockchain.

This is known as minting. When you mint an NFT, you are trying to convert digital copies into crypto collections and publishing your token for buyers to see on the blockchain.

When people purchase NFT, they receive a digital document and exclusive rights of ownership rather than a physical piece of artwork.

What can be converted into an NFT?

An NFT can be made out of anything that could be digitized. Not even a tweet! Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, for example, sold his first-ever tweet as an NFT for over $2.9 million. You can convert collectibles, trading cards, event tickets, in-game items on gaming platforms, virtual fashion, memes, domain names, and real-world items such as rare spirits in addition to artwork, music, and media.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating (a.k.a minting) and selling an NFT:

Choose your item:

Let’s start with the fundamentals. If you haven’t already, you must decide what distinct digital asset you want to convert into an NFT. It could be a personalized painting, photograph, song, video game collector items, meme, GIF, or even a tweet. An NFT is a one-of-a-kind digital item with a single owner. The rarity provides an NFT value.

Ascertain that you own the copyrights to the item you wish to convert into an NFT. Making an NFT for a digital asset you don’t own could land you in hot water.

Select your blockchain

Once you’ve decided on your one-of-a-kind digital asset, you can start a process of minting it into an NFT. To begin, decide which blockchain technology you want to use for your NFT. Ethereum is the most common among NFT artists and creators (CRYPTO: ETH). Tezos, Polkadot, Cosmos, and Binance Smart Chain are also popular options.

Create your digital wallet

If you don’t already have a digital wallet, you should get one because you’ll need some cryptocurrency to fund your initial investment. The wallet will allow you to access your digital assets. Metamask, Math Wallet, AlphaWallet, Trust Wallet, and Coinbase Wallet are among the best NFT wallets.

After you’ve created your digital wallet, you’ll want to purchase some cryptocurrency. Most NFT platforms accept Ether, the Ethereum blockchain platform’s cryptocurrency. If you already have some cryptocurrency, connect it to your digital wallet so you can use it to create and sell NFTs.

Choose your NFT market

Once you have a digital wallet and some cryptocurrency, you can begin developing (and hopefully selling) your NFT. You’ll need to select an NFT marketplace for this. OpenSea, Axie Marketplace, Larva Labs/CryptoPunks, NBA Top Shot Marketplace, Rarible, SuperRare, Foundation, Nifty Gateway, Mintable, and ThetaDrop are some of the top NFT marketplaces.

To find a platform that’s a good fit for your NFT, you’ll need to research each NFT marketplace. Axie Marketplace, for example, is the online store for the top NFT game Axie Infinity. In the meantime, NBA Top Shot is a basketball-specific marketplace. It’s also worth noting that some marketplaces demand their own cryptocurrency. Rarible, for example, necessitates Rarible.

Submit your NFT

You can now finally mint your NFT. Your preferred NFT marketplace should provide a step-by-step tutorial for uploading your digital file to their platform. This method will allow you to convert your digital file (a PNG, GIF, MP3, or other file type) into a marketable NFT.

Most popular NFTs

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), a collection of 10,000 apes on the Ethereum blockchain, is one of the most popular NFT collections. Its current floor price is more than 113 ether, or $351,868. According to OpenSea, 496,700 ether, or $15,466,641,960 in volume, has been traded for BAYC to date.