Getting Started with NFT Collectibles & Communities (for free)
Introduction
When we started Scrappy Squirrels, we envisioned building a community around education, collaboration, and opportunity. A critical aspect of this mission was to onboard newbies into the web3 space.
One of the biggest obstacles preventing people from entering the space is the high barrier to entry when it comes to cost. Doing almost anything useful in web3 costs money. Trying to get an in with any popular web3 project (DAOs, NFT collectibles, etc.) will easily set you back by at least hundreds of dollars.
To this end, we wanted to create something that could simulate all the fun of being part of an NFT collectible project with none of the investment. The result was Rinkeby Squirrels, the world’s first NFT sandbox project.
This tutorial serves as a walkthrough of how to be a part of this project. We will be doing the following:
- Setting up Metamask and acquiring Rinkeby ETH
- Minting a Rinkeby Squirrel NFT
- Viewing our NFT on Opensea
- (Optional) Setting the NFT as our DP on Twitter and Discord
- Getting access to a private Discord channel on the Scrappy Squirrels server
The best part? Doing all of this is free. You will not be required to spend a single dollar.
Are you ready? Let’s get started!
Setting up Metamask and acquiring Rinkeby ETH
We have already covered how to set up a Metamask wallet and acquire free Rinkeby ETH in a previous article. We strongly recommend giving that article a read.
To summarize what is covered in the article:
Step 1
Download the Metamask extension from the Chrome web store. Metamask will then prompt you to set up. You will be given a seed recovery phrase which you must store carefully and make sure it is never lost or compromised.
Metamask will also create an account for you with a private key and a public key (or wallet address). You can share your wallet address with anyone but you must never share your private key. If all goes well, open the Metamask extension (the fox icon in the Chrome extensions bar), will lead to a pop up like this:
Step 2
Once your wallet is set up, you will now need to acquire some fake Rinkeby ETH. At the top of the popup window, change the network from Ethereum Mainnet to Rinkeby Test Network.
Next, acquire some Rinkeby ETH from https://faucet.rinkeby.io/ by following the steps on the website. Typically, this will require you to tweet your wallet address and paste a link to the tweet to get ETH. For this activity, you will require 0.015 ETH.
Please note that the faucet is known to not work sometimes. If you’re facing issues acquiring ETH, post your wallet address in the #rinkeby-faucet channel of our Discord server. We will send the required amount of ETH to as many people as possible.
Once you have acquired some ETH, your Metamask popup should look something like this:
Congratulations! We have everything we need to mint our very own Rinkeby Squirrel!
Minting a Rinkeby Squirrel NFT
Rinkeby Squirrels (RSQ) is a collection of 5555 NFTs on Ethereum’s Rinkeby Test Network. Since the NFTs reside on Rinkeby, no real money to required to buy, sell or trade them.
Rinkeby Squirrels utilizes the same artwork as the main Scrappy Squirrels project, albeit with a smaller subset of traits.
We have created a website that allows you to mint your very own Rinkeby Squirrel. Head over to the website here: https://rsq-frontend.vercel.app/
As the yellow banner above suggests, make sure your Metamask wallet is connected to the Rinkeby Network. Now, click on Connect Wallet.
The Metamask popup will prompt you to connect with the website. Once you do that, the yellow banner will disappear and the Connect Wallet button will be replaced by Mint a Rinkeby Squirrel NFT.
Click on the aforementioned button. Metamask will popup again and ask you to approve a transaction.
The window here tells you that it costs 0.01 ETH to mint a Rinkeby Squirrel. It also requires 0.00024 ETH to perform the transaction (this is called gas fees). In total, you are required to pay 0.01024 ETH to perform the transaction.
If you have this amount available with you (which you should if you followed the steps above), you will be able to confirm the transaction.
The transaction takes around 10–20 seconds to mine. Once it is done, you should see something like this:
Amazing work! You have just minted your very own NFT!
(In case you’re facing issues with minting, please post your queries on the #rsq-access-and-qna channel of our Discord Server)
Since this is an NFT on the test network, there are obviously certain restrictions associated with it. To summarize, here is what you can and cannot do as an owner of a Rinkeby Squirrel.
What you can do
- Call yourself a proud owner of a Rinkeby Squirrel.
- Use the image as you please, in a personal and commercial capacity.
- Get access to a private Discord channel meant only for Rinkeby Squirrel Holders.
- Trade Rinkeby Squirrels for fake ETH on Opensea.
What you cannot do
- Buy, sell or trade Rinkeby Squirrels for real ETH or real money on Opensea or any other marketplace. Rinkeby Squirrels have and will always have zero monetary value.
- Participate in hackathons, art exhibitions, lotteries, conferences, and games conducted for Scrappy Squirrels
- Gain access to meetups, guilds, and private channels meant for Scrappy Squirrel members
- Be a part of any future merchandise, game, or NFT airdrops.
- Gain access to any other roadmap perks mentioned on the Scrappy Squirrels website now or in the future.
In order to do the things above, you will have to purchase a Scrappy Squirrel NFT. The process will be very similar except you’ll be doing it on the main Ethereum network and spending real 0.03 ETH + gas. Join our Discord to learn more and stay in touch!
Viewing our NFT on Opensea
Go to your wallet’s Opensea page by clicking on the link under the success message.
Before doing anything, make sure you Connect Wallet on Opensea too. It’s very similar to what you did on the minting website.
Opensea usually takes 2–5 minutes to display your NFT after mint. So don’t panic if you don’t see your NFT on your profile page. Keep refreshing the page at regular intervals. You should be able to see your squirrel on your page.
Clicking on the image will take you the NFT’s dedicated page. Here you can view the properties (traits) of your squirrel and also be in a position to put it on sale if you wish.
Please note that Opensea takes a little time to update the rarities with every new mint. If it says New Trait, it means the latest rarities haven’t been computed yet. We will cover rarities in more detail in a future article.
Setting the NFT as our DP on Twitter and Discord
One of the most fun aspects of NFT collectibles is the ability to set our avatar as our DP on social handles like Twitter and Discord.
This is a great way to signal that you are proud to be a part of a particular community, and it also makes it easier to connect and network with people who belong to that particular community.
The most successful NFT projects owe most of their success to incredible people such as yourself making it a part of their digital identities.
Here is my Discord profile where I’ve set my avatar to the first Rinkeby Squirrel that was ever minted (#0). (By the way, do stop by the Scrappy Squirrels Discord to say hi!).
If you change your Twitter DP to your Rinkeby Squirrel, do tweet to us @ScrappyNFTs.
Getting access to a private Discord channel
Possibly the biggest perk of minting an NFT collectible is the opportunity to hang out, connect, and network with other holders in a private, exclusive space.
If you have minted a Rinkeby Squirrel, you are entitled to access to a private Discord channel meant only for Rinkeby Squirrel holders.
Join the Scrappy Squirrels Discord here: https://discord.gg/8UqJXTX7Kd
Upon joining, you will automatically have access to all public channels such as #developers, #artists, #newbies, #collaborations, and so on.
The private channel for RSQ holders, #rsq-holders, will not be visible to you until and unless you are granted access.
Visit the #rsq-access-and-qna channel and send the following message
!joinThis will prompt the Collab.Land bot to DM you (ignore the MEE6 bot’s message).
In your DMs, Collab.Land will ask you to connect your wallet to their website. This is straightforward and you’ve already done it a couple of times (with the minting website and Opensea).
Once your wallet has connected, the Collab.Land bot will assign you an ‘RSQ Member’ role and you will get access to the #rsq-holders channel. Here, you will be able to interact with members who have minted an RSQ NFT just like you! We hope you have fun and make some great friends and connections along the way!
Conclusion
Congratulations! You have minted your very own NFT collectible and joined an exclusive community. You are now truly a part of the web3 community and we are extremely glad to have you here. :)
You are now in a great position to participate in real NFT projects. In the next article, we will cover various aspects of evaluating an NFT project, including rarities, floor prices, community, team, smart contracts, roadmaps, and much more! This will put you in a great position to make better decisions whilst participating in the NFT space. Stay tuned!
About Scrappy Squirrels
Scrappy Squirrels is a collection of 10,000+ randomly generated NFTs. Scrappy Squirrels are meant for buyers, creators, and developers who are completely new to the NFT ecosystem.
The community is built around learning about the NFT revolution, exploring its current use cases, discovering new applications, and finding members to collaborate on exciting projects with.
Join our community here: https://discord.gg/8UqJXTX7Kd
