How to get started in the World of NFTs
A trending topic that has been getting a lot of attention in the recent weeks is the art world of NFTs. Seeing how some of these NFTs, short for “non-fungible-tokens”, are getting sold for millions of dollars seems quite bizarre — when did this form of digital art emerge and is it still worth getting into it? Absolutely. As an artist I have been seeking the perfect opportunity for sharing my artworks and getting value out of my creations for years. Struggling with my decisions as to what I should do next — animation, design or digital art — I am certain that my creativity is best cared for in the world of NFTs. Ranging from pixel art to complex 3D renderings minted as GIFs, everyone’s art is appreciated in this vast community. No matter the style of the artist or background of the buyer.
To get started as an NFT artist, you luckily do not have to know much about the blockchain technology, smart contracts or any specific details. The most important thing you should know, is that if you “mint” an NFT, which essentially means if you “create” it, it is uploaded to a particular cryptic blockchain and only exists once. It is just like selling a physical copy of a painting, but the possibilities are much greater, as it is in a digital form, which allows for much more exposure and room for auctioneers and buyers.
When I tried getting started to mint NFTs, I found out that there are a lot of different ways to do it, not all of which seemed appealing. When I created my wallet on one of the biggest platforms for digital collectibles, OpenSea, I minted my favourite artworks and after trying to put them on sale, I was asked to pay fees adding up to more than $70. Since I did not plan to sell my artworks for more than this and did not want to be confronted with such a price every time I wanted to sell one of my artworks, I was slightly disappointed. Especially since OpenSea has claimed that minting would be free. I was new to the platform and did not quite understand it anyway. I then moved to Rarible, another known platform, and came across a similar problem — the actual costs for minting always turned out to be at least ten times higher than what I planned to sell my artwork for, with Rarible wanting to claim “gas prices” of $50 upwards.
Seeing that minting is not as easy as I thought, I looked for alternatives and found a few smaller NFT platforms, one of which caught my attention — NFT Metro. It is a mobile-based platform where I was able to connect the wallet that I had already created for OpenSea, which allowed me to actually see what I own directly on my phone. In addiction to that, it has a comparably transparent and comprehensible cost system, where the minting prices do not suddenly fluctuate, instead you always have to pay a fixed price. It is almost five times less than what the other platforms had asked for and generally more appealing, as it is quite user-friendly and I did not want to log onto my computer every time I wanted to check out my collectibles.
As someone, who does not know much about the NFT space, choosing NFT Metro as my primary platform seems to be the fool-proof way. Even interested buyers don’t have to go through any complex processes, so I figured it’s not only a nice platform for artists but collectors as well. I was even able to talk to one of the developers directly and have heard about some unique features they are going to implement.
