Earning on NFTs is way easier and more profitable than it seems
The Non-Fungible Tokens have won the digital asset market over the last months. By March 2021, their market has already passed $180 000 000 attracting the attention of both crypto enthusiasts, artists and such world corporations as Louis Vuitton, Vodafone, Nike, Samsung and many others. And while ones are releasing quotes about NFTs: “Crypto natives are starting to understand the value NFTs bring to verifying the authenticity of the original artwork.” (Richard Chen, CryptoArt.io), others like Mark Cuban are selling their own quotes as NFTs or put celebrities’ tweets, like the ones written by Elon Musk, on the NFT market. So how could an ordinary digital currency user profit from this latest Blockchain trend?
NFT (Non-Fungible Token) substitutes anything digital in its origin including pictures, paintings, pieces of music, characters. Until now NFTs have been mostly used for selling and purchasing digital art giving fine arts collecting a new development stage as far as adding more value to virtual creative technologies. NFT as a concept and as an economical instrument changes the whole attitude towards the digital objects’ ownership and such originals. Despite this already commonly spread NFT use, they could also be utilities on their own and stand for various tickets, coupons and vouchers, video game items, ownership documents including real estate, videos, images and all types of texts. Thus, NFTs should not be reduces to pieces of collection and art while having a potential to play an important utility role in financial, legal and other spheres of our everyday lives.
The process of the NFT token creation is called minting. If you are ready to tokenize a piece of yours, the first decision you need to make after choosing the object to tokenize is, of course, the token standard from the 2 main ones: ERC 721 and ERC1155. ERC721 is the Ethereum Blockchain token standard. ERC1155 is the token standard for the Enjin Blockchain being more complex while having a class property enabling the seller and/or the buyer to specify how many items you want to send or receive. After the standards and the object chosen you should be hosting the file to tokenize on a public URL. Thus, the preparation phase is completed, and we are ready for the minting itself.
For that, install a browser with an Ethereum wallet. Chrome or Firefox with Metamask extension or Brave browser could work. When you’re done, register with the Mintable app to create an ERC721 smart contract and connect your Ethereum wallet to Mintable. As the next step, you need to create a smart contract and name it accordingly to the tokenized object. In case you go for batch mining, you will be able to create several NFTs at a time. Enter your tokenized object public URL and fill in up to 3 lines of metadata standing for your token properties while choosing if you want to use the Mintable API. This will allow you to use more custom metadata properties and to quickly put your NFTs for sale on a market called OpenSea. There are not many steps left with paying 2 commissions: the one to create a smart contract and the other one to process the transaction.
Once the creation is confirmed, your smart contract will be released, and you are ready to sell your first outstanding NFT. There is a number of marketplaces where you can place your tokenized object. Remember to check whether the platform supports the token standard you chose. The only thing you need to remember is the environmental impact the NFT creation has. NFTs spend a tremendous amount of energy on creation. According to CryptoArt.wtf, a site created to calculate the NFT’s carbon footprint (which is currently disabled), one item called the Coronavirus consumed an incredible 192 kWh in its creation, which is equivalent to the total energy consumption of one European Union resident in two weeks. Yet, there are already solutions for creating carbon neutral artwork.
Today’s popular topic on the NFT token usage in various fields and directions did not pass the attention of Quppy partner — New Lion Studio Ltd., and this was since they create the very digital content that, thanks to the NFT token, becomes a unique asset. Having extensive experience in the creation and distribution of digital content, the analysts of New Lion Studio, almost certainly assumed the user behavior or what else they are called crypto-collectors. As a result, they concluded that some are pursuing the goal of the “hot potato” game, this is when a token is bought on the primary market, then the new owner puts it up for sale on the secondary market, but at a higher price. With each subsequent sale, the value of the token grows and, as a result, the buyer who has the NFT token remains at an exorbitant price loses. Another type of user is a collector who buys NFT tokens with works from famous and popular artists. Suffice it to cite an example of how a Banksy painting was bought at one of the auctions, burned and wrapped in NFT for further sale or artifacts from influencers (Jack Dorsey wrapped his first tweet in NFT and sold it for almost $ 3 million). And finally, the next type unites a whole empire of collectors who collect collectible cards. These collectors collect various types of cards, ranging from NBA NFT cards to any collectible cards or images that tie something together and combine into a general collection. It must be admitted that colleagues have not discovered anything new, as we all collected something since childhood. The New Lion Studio team managed to look a little further. They decided to release collectible NFT cards with characters invented a long time ago for one experimental iMessage project. To raise interest and increase the value of NFT cards with Monsticks, they have developed a whole loyalty program. In addition to the fact that users can collect the Monsticks cards, there will be two additional cards issued for each collection, the owners of which will receive royalties on all future Monstick products including games, comics, books and many more.
The New Lion Studio Team has shared their experience on launching an NFT on another popular marketplace — Rarible — https://rarible.com/monsticks. The choice was made towards Rarible, as by adding a token there through the RARI collection, it automatically goes to the directory on Opensea, i.e. sales can be carried out simultaneously on the two sites with the same NFT. These are the steps to follow when choosing this platform. Click on Create and then choose what kind of token minting will be in one copy or in the only one in several.
You now need to add a media file to the corresponding field: PNG, GIF, WEBP, MP4 or MP3 up to 30 mb.
Next, set the price (you can choose from more than 30 cryptocurrencies), you can specify any value or leave the opportunity for users to offer you a price for your lot (auction). It is also possible to add a unique content that is only unlocked by whoever buys the NFT. This can be a unique link, message, or a unique code that can be entered somewhere. New Lion Studio chose the RARI collection as minting a token costs less and the second advantage is indicated below.
You now need to assign a name to the NFT and a description, here you can show in detail what you have for the NFT and possibly what additional advantages its purchase gives, if desired. Below in the fields you indicate the percentage of royalties from each subsequent sale of this NFT and the number of copies minted by the NFT. Optionally, you can enter the information about the file used in the NFT, its size and extension.
The following procedure for minting a token or binding and registering an account, you must pay GAS for registering an account and minting, the cost will directly depend on the cost of GAS, i.e., both operations are free, but the price of fuel must be paid anyway.
At the time of the registration of the token, the account registration for New Lion Studio was about $ 12, and the minting of the NFT token was $ 56, again everything directly depends on the cost of GAS at the time of registration and minting of the token. The New Lion Studio Team does not advise to underestimate the transaction fee, as the minting process can take hours, and during this time the session time on Rarible will expire, in turn, the picture may not be uploaded, or you can mint an empty NFT. Better to set the average or maximum. As soon as all transactions are paid, you are waiting for the minting of a token and it will immediately appear in your account. Yet, the whole procedure for working with the Rarible portal does not end there, as you need to go through verification, which will give you the coveted yellow checkmark next to your name. To get a checkmark and remove this message, you need to go to your account settings and send the questionnaire for verification, but before that you need to prepare, namely, have the following:
Website, active pages in social network like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, an active wallet, completed account on Rarible (icon, carpet and descriptions), and an active e-mail address. Having minted tokens in the RARI collection, you can automatically, with the same wallet that you used when registering for RARI, get access to all NFT tokens on Opensea. For that, you only need to click the Sell button and thus you will automatically post the same NFTs immediately to two sites.
The main reason the Blockchain market has been developing that fast since its early stages is its high potential to auto evaluation and synergies with all the spheres of our social and personal lives. Even if the Blockchain and related initiatives might seem weird or limited in the beginning, they easily get adopted and integrated into our everyday habits. The Blockchain market history has already taught us to remain open and less skeptical to newest initiatives and get involved as soon as possible. So why not trying all the creator, the seller and the buyer roles at the NFT market while there is still a place to enter?..
