How To Make An NFT? All You Need To Know

HOW TO MAKE AN NFT?
ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW

© 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
HOW TO MAKE AN NFT? ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW
In this article we provide a simple explanation of how to make (or mint) and
NFT (non-fungible token). We cover the process, from start to finish, and the
key choices to make.

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have taken the world by storm in the last few years. You may
have heard of collections such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club, or one-off creations like those
by artists like Beeple, or even corporate NFTs created for the metaverse by companies like
Nike and Gucci.
Whether you think they are indeed the future of art, music, and other fields or an over-
priced, over-hyped fad - and there are valid opinions on both sides of the debate - the fact
remains that they have become extremely popular very quickly. And if you’re a creative sort
looking to put your work in front of a wider audience, there are some good reasons why
you might be interested in understanding the process of making (or “minting”) your own
NFTs.

So here’s my quick overview of how to get started and a general guide to
the stages of the process to give you a better understanding of one of the
most interesting and potentially transformative technology trends.

As the name suggests, an NFT is a token (an object that can be used to represent something
else) that isn't fungible. This means that it’s unique – unlike, say, money, which is a token of a
currency with lots of units in existence that are all the same.
In digital terms, an NFT is a token that is stored on a blockchain. This means it’s held on an
encrypted, distributed ledger- a database file of which multiple versions are stored across many
different computers, and no one can alter or amend any copy without consensus across the
entire network.
Fundamentally, because NFTs are tamper-proof (thanks to the encrypted nature of blockchains)
and unique, they can be used as a unique identifier of another digital asset, such as a picture, a
video file, a piece of music, or pretty much anything else. Twitter founder Jack Dorsey famously
minted his first-ever tweet as an NFT and sold it for nearly $3 million.
SO WHAT IS AN NFT?

WHY MAKE AN NFT?
The most obvious answer to this question might simply be to make money. However, the majority
of NFTs won’t sell for anything like the stratospheric amounts we’ve occasionally seen them go
for. In fact, as it costs money to mint an NFT, it's likely that most people who try it out will lose
money in the process – although there are a couple of options for minimizing the risk of this
happening, which we will cover below.
However, there are still some good reasons to give it a go. If you plan to make a living through
selling art, then NFTs offer an interesting new model of building bridges between creators and
consumers. Firstly, they allow creators to cut out the hassle and expense of dealing with a lot of
the middlemen that can be involved with marketing and selling their work. All that’s required is to
understand a little about the technological components that are involved, such as wallets and
marketplaces, and you’re good to go.

Secondly, because they are blockchain-based – usually existing on platforms such as Ethereum,
Solana, Binance, and Tezos – they can take advantage of “smart contract” functionality offered
by those networks. This means they can be programmed to execute code, and typically with
NFT sales, this means code that ensures every time the NFT is sold on, a portion of the revenue
goes directly to the original creator.
Another reason you might want to mint an NFT is simply to understand the technology.
Although at the moment, we mostly hear about them being used to sell art and other creative
works, all sorts of commodities – from event tickets to rare whisky and even diamonds – are
sold with NFTs. Understanding the impact this new technology is likely to have on your
industry, whatever that happens to be, is a valid reason that many people may be drawn
toward learning and experimenting with the tools and platforms in the NFT ecosystem.

Firstly, as mentioned above, you will want to choose which blockchain you will use to mint your
NFT. Ethereum is by far the most popular blockchain used for holding NFTs, but it comes with a
few significant downsides. One of these is the high environmental cost associated with proof-of-
work blockchains - which Ethereum still is, despite ongoing efforts to switch to a less energy-
intensive proof-of-stake model. The technical differences are beyond the scope of this article,
but you can read a primer here. Other networks such as Polygon, Solana, and Tezos are already
proof-of-stake, so if you know the computers being used to mint your coins are generating
carbon emissions, you may want to pick one of those.
Another downside to using Ethereum is that the fees – known as gas fees – charged for using the
network are significantly higher than on many other blockchain networks. The fee fluctuates
depending on how busy the network is but typically starts at around $20 to $30. On other
networks, the fees are more likely to be denominated in cents.
WHERE TO START?

Next, you will want to choose your marketplace. To some extent, this decision will be made for you
depending on the blockchain network you want to use. The biggest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, for
example, supports NFTs that live on the Ethereum, Klatyn, Polygon, and Solana blockchains. If you
want to mint on the Binance Smart Chain, your options will include Binance NFT marketplace, Venly,
and Refinable.
Another popular NFT marketplace is Rarible, which lets you use the Ethereum, Flow, and Binance
smart chains. As with everything related to NFTs, there are positives and negatives about every
option, and it's often a matter of making trade-offs – choosing a more popular marketplace with a
potentially bigger audience but higher fees, versus choosing a less popular but cheaper
marketplace, for example. Also, using Ethereum – while more expensive and (potentially) more
polluting in terms of emissions – means your customers have the opportunity to pay using ETH,
one of the most popular cryptocurrencies. Using other networks such as Polygon or Tezos means
customers may have to pay using their associated cryptocurrency tokens, of which there are simply
fewer in circulation.

Once you’ve got an idea of the chain and marketplace you’d like to work with, you’ll need to get hold of
a wallet. Although there are various options, a straightforward choice here is to simply use Metamask –
which integrates well with many of the most popular NFT marketplaces, allowing you to transfer NFTs
straight into your wallet. Math Wallet and Coinbase Wallet are other well-supported options.
One point to remember if you’re interested in the technicalities is that, despite their name, wallets don’t
actually store your NFTs. The NFTs themselves are stored on blockchains which are stored in a
distributed manner on hundreds or thousands of computers all over the world. Wallets simply store the
private keys that are used to prove ownership of a particular NFT to the algorithms that keep all the
copies of the blockchains in synch.
After setting up your wallet – which is usually either a smartphone app or a browser extension - it’s
usually just a simple case of connecting it to the marketplace you want to use for selling or trading your
NFT.
Now, with your wallet set up and connected to your marketplace of choice, it’s time to finally create that
NFT.

CREATING YOUR NFT
This is one of the simplest steps with no real tough decisions to be made. The marketplaces all offer
functionality that lets you create your NFT by simply uploading the artwork (or whatever) that you want
the NFT to represent and linking it. This is very straightforward, and the marketplaces, such as OpenSea,
walk you through the process of creating and adding the necessary and optional metadata. You can set
some information so it only becomes visible to the buyer of the NFT (useful if you are making objects for
a game or a code to redeem if the NFT is linked to a physical object that the buyer can obtain).
Unfortunately, this is where things start to cost money. With NFTs, fees are incurred whenever changes
are written to the blockchain, and minting your NFT is probably where this will start to happen. As noted
above, minting on the Ethereum blockchain is the most expensive of the options available, but you will
have a bigger pool of potential buyers and be able to accept payment in ETH, the second most popular
cryptocurrency (after Bitcoin).

There are, however, a couple of ways around these fees. Firstly, and most obviously – use a
blockchain and marketplace combination that doesn’t involve fees. One popular option here is
minting on the Polygon blockchain (a comparatively environmentally friendly blockchain that
uses proof-of-stake) using the OpenSea marketplace. As of writing, this combination can be
done without incurring fees.
If, however, you have your heart set on the super-popular Ethereum blockchain, you might want
to investigate the “lazy minting” options offered on some markets, including OpenSea and
Rarible. This allows you to create NFTs that aren’t actually deployed to the blockchain until
someone buys them – at which point the minting fees are bundled in with the selling fees.
Once it’s created, the NFT should appear in your own wallet to show that it belongs to you and
is ready to be traded.

So here’s the fun part, where you finally (and hopefully) see some reward for all of your
hard work. As you might have guessed from their name, the marketplaces are where, as
well as creating and minting your NFTs; you actually sell them.
Depending on what blockchain and marketplace you’ve chosen, you will have the option to
sell either at a fixed price, through an auction, or a bidding system. Bidding works much
like an auction, but there's no time limit – buyers simply offer what they want to pay, and
you, the seller, chooses to accept or decline each offer.
This is the point where you will also get to set options such as recurring royalties –
meaning you will be paid a percentage of all further sales of the NFT, should the buyer
decide to sell it on at a later date.
SELLING YOUR NFT

So you’re all set to become an instant millionaire. One small problem – so are thousands
of other artists and creators, and, right now, the pool of buyers willing to spend enough
to make it happen isn’t big enough to make everyone rich. If you’ve been following the
news on the topic, you are probably aware that the amount of money being spent on
NFTs is currently far lower than it was at the peak of the hype cycle, during 2021 – when
million-dollar-plus sales were happening on a daily basis. This isn’t necessarily a sign that
interest is waning. Many believe that, although the initial wave of excitement was around
art and speculative assets, the real value of the technology will be linked to the arrival of
the metaverse and persistent digital worlds. If this is right, then it’s likely that NFTs will
go on to play a far bigger role in our lives in the future.

To stay on top of the latest on the web3 and wider business and tech trends,
make sure to subscribe to my newsletter and have a look at my new
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You can also follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. And don’t forget to
check out my website.

hello@bernardmarr.com
www.bernardmarr.com

How To Make An NFT? All You Need To Know

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