Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are growing in popularity each day, creating a $41 billion market in just a few years.
Despite being a rapidly growing community, there is a lot of confusion surrounding what an NFT is, and how you create your own.
In this article, we’ll break down exactly how you can mint your own NFT, without breaking the bank!
How to Mint NFTs for Free
Minting is the process of turning digital artwork into a digital asset on the blockchain. NFTs can be minted using a number of different marketplaces, which allow you to put your NFT “on-chain” without any coding knowledge.
This means the creator must pay a certain amount of gas fees to get their NFT minted. However, by using a method called ‘Lazy Minting’, you’re able to produce NFTs at no cost, removing the risk of creating your own digital asset!
What is Lazy Minting?
Typically, when an NFT is minted, it’s put directly onto the blockchain, which is why creators must typically pay a fee.
However, using a method called ‘Lazy Mining’, you can upload your NFT to a platform like Opensea, without moving it onto the blockchain. While the process varies across platforms, this allows you to sell your NFT before paying to put it “on-chain”.
When your NFT is sold, a non-fungible token will be created and either you or your buyer will be charged the minting fees. This is referred to as “lazy minting”, and it’s growing in popularity because it reduces both the cost and the carbon footprint of creating an NFT.
Where to Mint your NFT using Lazy Minting
Currently, OpenSea and Rarible are two of the only established NFT marketplaces which support Lazy Minting. However, these platforms provide plenty of tools to help you create your project.
In contrast, Nifty Giveaway allows you to evade minting fees in an entirely different way. Below, we’ll dive into what each of these platforms has to offer!
OpenSea
OpenSea is currently the largest and most popular marketplace to mint, buy and sell NFTs. Because of this, Opensea is a great place to get your product out there!
Using Lazy Minting, OpenSea allows you to mint NFTs with no gas fees, just a 2.5% commission on the final sale price!
Rarible
Another well-known platform is Rarible. By selecting Rarible’s ‘Free Minting’ choice, you can avoid the minting fees, with the same 2.5% transaction fee as OpenSea on the first sale!
While Rarible gets much less traffic, they allow creators to charge up to a 30% royalty as opposed to OpenSea’s 10%. Less traffic also means less competition, so it may be a good choice for new creators!
Nifty Gateway
Nifty Gateway has built a reputation for being an exclusive platform, where some of the first high-valued NFTs were exchanged.
Unlike Rarible and OpenSea, Nifty Gateway doesn’t use ‘Lazy Minting’. Instead, if your project is accepted, they’ll cover the cost of minting!
Getting Started
Once you’re ready to bring your NFT to the marketplace, and you’ve selected a platform, you’re ready to begin selling your NFT! To learn more about how to sell your NFT, you can visit our blog!
By using this guide, we hope you’ve determined which platform is best for minting your NFT! If you’re still unsure, don’t hesitate to leave a comment or reach out!