NFTs, Generative NFT Sets, Development
How Generative NFT Reveals Work — Options and Strategies for a Smooth, Secure, and Profitable Reveal Process
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A bit of an “NFT 101” article, but important nonetheless!
When hopeful NFT teams come to me asking for generative NFT programming and web3 development services, they typically have not thought ahead to the reveal process. And that’s okay, of course. But, once the projects get going, having a solid reveal plan is really important, and can directly affect an NFT drop’s success and even its profitability. So, I wanted to put a piece up about that — what a reveal is, what your options are, and various considerations. (I’ll be keeping this article listed in my main resource compendium for NFT teams: “Generative NFT Programming Articles — How to Prep for Doing Your Own NFT Drops.”)
What Is “The Reveal”?
Typically, in generative NFT sets, the way the sales work is as follows:
- NFT buyers go to a minting page and mint NFTs from a set. Let’s say they’re buying “I’m a Kitty Cat” NFTs, for example (because, hey, who wouldn’t want to buy into a set of 3D meme cats?!).
- At the beginning of the sale, the NFT teams usually do NOT show buyers their actual NFTs. Instead, they display a placeholder NFT. For the Kitty Cats, that means that, for every single buyer, all they saw in their wallet (if they went to OpenSea, for example) would be the “pre-reveal” image, like so:
- This would show for every single cat they bought. If they bought one, it would show this. If they bought 20, it would show this for all 20. And the same would be true for all buyers.
- And then, at some point post-sale — could be 24 hours, could be a week or more — the NFT team reveals the NFTs. We do this by changing the base URI, in the smart contract, that points to the metadata for the set.
- Once we flip that switch, all of the minted NFTs are then revealed. When people go to their wallets, they can then see what cats they own (though it sometimes…
