Minting NFTs: What does it mean to mint an NFT?

Muhammad Naeem

Blogger

NFT market size is growing apace and turning from a fleeting fad to a potential investment class. Artists and creators are turning their work into NFTs to get ownership and incentivize their work.

NFTs are digital assets that are unique and non-interchangeable like currencies. If you’re still struggling with understanding what are NFTs, you can click here to fully grasp the idea.

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What does it mean to mint an NFT?

An NFT can be anything like an image, GIF, audio file, property deed, or video. The process that turns these digital files into an NFT is called minting. The digital file, say an image, is added as a token on a smart contract whose ownership can be verified through the blockchain. This makes that image unique which is protected by the immutable blockchain. In this way, not only the creators and artist can save their work from stealing online but also they get incentivized as it can be sold as a commodity in the NFT marketplaces.

Minting NFTs as a creator vs consumer:

Mint an NFT as a creator

Minting NFTs can be different for different people. As a creator minting an NFT means publishing a token on a blockchain. It can be a single image or an entire collection of thousands of words. Usually, the creators first combine all the digital files they want to mint as NFTa and then use different platforms to mint it. NFTs can be minted by directly writing a smart contract or using an online platform for it.

Mint an NFT as a consumer

As a consumer, minting an NFT means buying an NFT for the first time. NFT projects use such a platform where NFTs are minted as they are bought. Minting an NFT has a cost that varies from project to project. Also, there are other fees involved that consumers have to pay to mint an NFT.

Is Minting NFTs free?

Minting an NFT for a consumer can be different from buying it. If an NFT is already minted and a consumer buys it, this is called a secondary sale. An NFT can be minted only once. The creator set the ‘mint price’ which is the same for the entire collection, however, there can be some people in the white list or allow list minting for a lower price. But the price of NFTs in the secondary sales is different as it’s entirely on the sellers for how much they want to sell their NFTs.

How to mint an NFT?

To mint, an NFT means to turn the digital files into crypto or digital assets stored on the blockchain. The major NFT projects use their own websites to mint NFTs. For this purpose, the developers have to code the Web 2 platforms to support the Web 3 assets, the NFTs. Also, a smart contract (code for minting NFTs) is embedded in the website to support the process.

However, NFT marketplaces save the creators from all this trouble. These platforms already support all types of small contracts and minting NFTs on these platforms is as easy as posting a picture on social media. Here are some simple steps you can follow to mint your NFTs.

Pick your Item

Only digital files with certain extensions (types) can be minted to NFTs. If you have your favorite painting that you want to turn into an NFT, take a good picture of it. Combine all the files into one place. Remember whatever you are trying to mint should be your own property. You cannot simply download an image and mint it as an NFT – mmm… you can but since it’s not your property it will not be bought and the platform might likely remove your NFT listing once it is reported by the NFT community. Therefore, it is in the best interest of all parties to play fair.

Select platform:

Selecting a platform is your next task. There are many minting websites and NFT marketplaces that allow you to mint. While selecting a minting platform you should keep the following points in your mind:

• What blockchains does it support?
• What is the cost/fee to mint?
• Is the platform reliable?
• Can it handle huge traffic?

The more blockchains a platform supports the better. Support more blockchains gives you an option to choose the best and it also guarantees that various chain communities will be on this platform. This will give your project more exposure in secondary sales.

Every platform charges a fee, make sure you see it before finalizing one. If you mint your NFTs on an unpopular platform to save fees, people will be hesitant to connect their wallets to it. It can also backfire and hurt your community.

Also, if your project is really popular among NFT communities and you are sure there will be thousands waiting for the mint to go live, choose a platform that can handle that much traffic.

Choose Blockchain

The choice of blockchain can be made on many grounds. A blockchain for an NFT project has a key role in deciding the direction of a project. Ethereum blockchain is supported by almost all of the NFT marketplaces and it has the largest community but it costs more fees. Likewise, Polygon is chosen for its speed and low fees.

Choose blockchain to mint NFT

Set up your wallet:

Once you have chosen a platform and a chain you want to mint on, the next step is to set up your wallet accordingly. Your wallet should have enough funds to pay the mint fee and the gas fee required. For this article, we’ll be using the Opensea NFT marketplace, Polygon chain, and MetaMask wallet to mint an NFT.

Go to Opensea and from the top right corner click on the Wallet icon to connect your wallet.

Connect your wallet to the marketplace

Upload your Files/Digital Assets:

Now that you have connected your wallet, click on “Create” button on the left of the wallet icon.

This page includes everything you’ll require to mint an NFT. This is where you submit your NFT assets. You can upload digital art, videos, or other format file of fewer than 100 MBs. If the file is bigger or your art is displayed somewhere else in a better quality, you can include an external link to it.

Mint an NFT

Write Metadata

This is where you put all the information regarding your NFT. Give your NFT a name, write a short description, and provide other necessary details. If these NFTs are a part of the collection, you can name the collection and define other metadata that makes it unique and valuable. In the blockchain drop-down menu, choose the blockchain you want to mint your NFTs on. After you have filled everything in, click on Submit. It might ask you to respond to a captcha and sign a transaction on your wallet.

Minting NFTs: Source

And that’s it, you have just minted your first NFT. You can drop this NFT to attract buyers and earn profit from it.

Mint Fee and Gas Fee:

When it comes to minting there are two types of fees you are most likely to pay. The first is the mint price or mint fee. This is the price you will be paying to mint your NFTs as a consumer. The Mint fee is set by the creators and it varies from project to project. Some NFTs charge thousands of dollars as mint price and some even offer free mint. As a creator, you might also have to pay a mint fee to the platform but it can be avoided through ‘lazy minting’.

The second type of fee is called the gas fee. The gas fee requires a separate article to discuss it in detail but you can consider it as a transaction fee. When the minting process starts, it performs transactions on the blockchain network which are verified by the miners. These miners use huge computational powers to validate your transactions. This fee is given to these miners as a reward for their service to keep the network running. If the network is too busy, you might have to pay more gas fees than normal. You can check the Ethereum gas fees here.

NFT Marketplaces to Mint NFTs:

Opensea:

Opensea is the largest NFT marketplace that has the largest NFT community around it. In June alone, the trade volume of Opensea was ~$600 billion. Since there is a lot of competition on this platform, it is hard for smaller artists to get ample exposure.

Rarible

Rarible is a decentralized NFT marketplace that puts the control of your NFTs in your hands. The platform supports a wide range of blockchains to mint NFTs. Rarible was founded in 2020 and it is getting exposure in the NFT space.

Foundation:

Like Rarible, Foundation NFT marketplace was founded in 2020. Foundation is relatively less known as compared to the previous two marketplaces. Foundation is mainly chosen by the NFT projects that bring their own community and want to conquer this digital space. Surprisingly, Foundation has had an average sales volume of $640 in the last 30 days which is a lot more than that of Opensea’s which is just $120.

Conclusion:

We are the early adopters of blockchain-based assets and living in the blockchain infancy. As the developers seek more ways to define the utilities of NFTs, these assets would have a wild growth. NFTs are being used in blockchain games, Web 3, and Metaverse – which means almost all of the blockchain domains require these assets as their building blocks.

However, if you’re getting into NFTs, it should not be a hype or FOMO-driven approach. It’s a good idea to first thoroughly understand what you are getting into.