3) What is an NFT? -- Practical
Part 3/3 -- Go make your own (and check out ours)!
Here’s a Story for you
The year was 2021.
NFTs — a clever way of leveraging new technology to create, buy, and sell digital things like art — were blowing up.
Twitter (and Discord, a messaging app) was where it all went down. Insiders made and discussed their moves, projects, predictions, strategies. Outsiders looked on with a healthy degree of skepticism — but with each additional NFT sale with a noteworthily-monstrous price tag, increasingly felt they were missing out.
And me? I had bought cryptocurrency (“the other thing” on blockchains) in 2017. Even I, admittedly, did not start taking things very seriously until later.
You’d hear about Crypto Punks:
…24x24 pixel art images, generated algorithmically. Most are punky-looking guys and girls, but there are a few rarer types mixed in.
Ok…
But these things were selling for literal USD$Millions mid- and late-2021.
And (perhaps luckily) it does not matter whether you, the reader, understood why these things were selling for $millions. Remember: This is art. It doesn’t need to make sense to you. It needs to make sense to at least one, and probably at least a dozen or so more, others.
I digress.
The story continues…
It’s August 2021.
Steph Curry buys and shouts out a Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) — another hot NFT project.
…and he Tweets this:
Jimmy Fallon, Post Malone, Mark Cuban, Timbaland, Shaq, Dez Bryant, Logan Paul (social media influencer), Future also all own Bored Apes. You could, too — for a minimum of ~50 ETH (~USD$200k). Again, some go for much more.
That’s the environment / background.
And there I was on Twitter, alongside thousands of other enthusiasts taking note of all this excitement. So, too, was former college basketball star Marcus Hatten. Born into St. John’s fandom, I follow Marcus on Twitter. He had led St. John’s in scoring for two of my apex-fandom years. Marcus put a message out into the abyss (internet):
And there I was. I gave an adequate summary (and later expanded on it in my 1) What is an NFT? — Introduction.
For 2 months, we scheduled and reliably attended phone calls to develop our ideas. We hired an artist, researched Pricing and Marketing strategies, learned blockchain technologies and NFT Exchange services, and closely followed the latest trends… all with the goal of creating memorabilia for Marcus, the formidable St. John’s basketball star. And it won’t stop there — more to come, like an NFT Collection we create for College Basketball greats.
December 13, Marcus’s birthday, we launched a 1 / 1 collectible of Marcus Hatten! With fresh new artwork developed by our friend and talented artist who happens to be monetizing her other artwork via NFT (on a different exchange).
Marcus is in Baltimore, I am in New York, Marcus met our artist while playing ball in Germany. And we are all connected online, working diligently to create the right product and find the right fans who are looking to get in on the NFT collectibles market with something that speaks to their interests.
That’s the backstory. Now let me show you exactly how we did it, and I want to teach you how you can create your own, too, or see if you’d want to work with us to help you make your own:
Here is a step by step guide from start to finish on how you can create your own NFT (and how we did it)
Here’s a real life example that led to the creation of the Marcus Hatten (1 / 1) NFT.
Summary
Create art.
Set up a Wallet (one-time set up).
Set up an account on an NFT Exchange (like OpenSea) (one-time set up).
Upload your artwork to the Exchange (Below are steps specific to OpenSea).
Create a name for your NFT.
Add a description (about the NFT, backstory, etc.)
Add it to a Collection (Are there other similar NFTs that you’d like to group together?.
Decide which blockchain to list on (Right now on OpenSea, you can list on Ethereum or Polygon — Polygon does not charge gas fees).
Market, market, market
Twitter
…TBD — Create a community
1) Create art.
There are many options for what type of artwork can be used for your NFT — short video clips, photos of real life items (originally, an idea we had was to take a picture of Marcus’s jerseys and mint those as NFTs), and literally infinite other possibilities.
Us, Wolin Blockchain (my company):
We decided to create a fresh new illustration.
Marcus is friendly with an artist (who had already started an NFT business with her own artwork). We chose to hire her to create the artwork we will use for our NFT.
You, the reader:
You may choose to make an NFT from:
Photo: Artistic shot, or a shot of a valuable physical item.
Illustration: Make yourself or hire an artist.
Video: Make yourself or hire an artist.
Animation: Make yourself or hire an artist.
And so on (these are just some ideas).
2) Set up a Wallet (one-time set up)
Just like when you create an account on Amazon or eBay, of course you’ll need to link it to some payment solution. This is so that you can pay someone else, or someone can pay you. In the NFT / crypto space, the thing that holds your funds is called your Wallet.
Us, Wolin Blockchain:
I use the crypto wallet called MetaMask — it’s the most popular crypto wallet on the market. Metamask calls itself “A crypto wallet and gateway to blockchain apps.”
You, the reader:
Feel free to follow me, and ~50%+ of NFT owners, and use MetaMask. MetaMask had 550,000 monthly active users a year ago, and 10,000,000 monthly active users (+20x) now, at the end of 2021 (fun stat both relating to MetaMask’s popularity and growing interest in NFTs). Other wallets include Coinbase Wallet, Rainbow, Dharma, Phantom, and many others.
3) Set up an account on an NFT Exchange (one-time set up).
You just need an email, password, and Wallet.
Us, Wolin Blockchain:
We chose OpenSea — the largest and most popular exchange. OpenSea has already facilitated USD$5bn+ NFT transactions.
You, the reader:
Do you buy electronics? Do you buy on Amazon, eBay, Best Buy, and NewEgg (and so on)? You have a similar choice when it comes to NFT Marketplaces to buy (and sell) on. There aren’t many (yet) — Rarible and Foundation are the two biggest after OpenSea. In my words, both have beautiful artwork. And OpenSea is where more collectibles are hosted, and has more activity among athletes.
4) Upload your artwork to the Exchange (Below are steps specific to OpenSea).
Basic info can differ between Exchanges. But generally you’ll want to do the basic — name, description, etc. for your NFT.
Us, Wolin Blockchain:
The screenshot and live link (!!) will do the talking:
You, the reader:
In addition to uploading your file to the Exchange, you will:
Create a name for your NFT.
Add a description (about the NFT, backstory, etc.). You can also link to an external website with additional context about your project.
Add it to a Collection (Are there other similar NFTs that you’d like to group together? You can do so in a Collection).
Decide which blockchain to list on*
*Here’s probably the most important decision you’ll have in this step. If you post via OpenSea on the Ethereum network, you may be looking at paying $300 in gas fees or more to sell your item. If you list it for auction, you pay. If you list it to sell, the buyer pays. But still, someone is paying $300 just to cover blockchain expenses. In addition to that, OpenSea will take a 2.5% fee of the final sale price. Since $300 is quite expensive to most (unless we’re still talking CryptoPunks and Bored Apes), many alternative solutions have been getting attention. Right now, OpenSea offers listing on the Polygon network, which is a “Layer 2” solution on top of Ethereum. There are no gas fees on Polygon. A bit more about this in 2) What is an NFT? — Technical.
5) Market, market, market.
And you’re done! And now, you’re just getting started ;)
Market, market, market.
This is the most challenging part that Marcus and I found — How to market our NFT. Sure, the NFT exists. But who knows about it?
Once the NFT is available on an Exchange, there is not automatically demand for what you are selling. Promoting your NFT is still like the “wild west.” Similar to getting your product popular on Amazon, there will be an opportunity to help NFTs get popular on OpenSea, etc. ie. Via use of Analytics. And that’s where we are building the next phase of our business.
NFT promotion Analytics is definitely a formidable market opportunity. Another opportunity I will mention again is differentiation within NFT Exchanges, ie. eBay v. Amazon vs. Shopify vs. Etsy vs. Wayfair vs…….. you get the point.
NFTs As a Buyer / Enthusiast
To stay abreast of new and exciting NFT projects, I’d suggest starting with a simple search on Twitter for #NFT. Follow some people and then over time look into more and more projects.
In addition, the instant message app called Discord is a good place for NFT Community discussion. And, of course, some folks like Reddit for NFT news as well.
Closing thoughts
I wrote this in part to celebrate the listing that Marcus and I made, to market it, and to reach my target audience of those who are interested in going one step further than just knowing what NFTs are — those who are looking to buy and / or create and sell NFTs.
Thank you so much for your time and attention through the series, and I look forward to your questions!
Now go buy some NFTs! Our’s is available HERE.
This was part 3 of a 3-part series: What is an NFT? Each article is written for a general audience. We will explore concepts related to NFTs, including how you can interact with, create, buy your very own.
The series consists of:
Introduction (Surface level overview on “all things NFT,” and an invitation for you to stay here a while, through the series)!
Technical (What, on the back-end, makes NFTs possible).
Practical (What is available on the front-end, and how you, and everyone, can engage with NFTs, including creating your very own). ←You are here!
Appendix
Meet Marcus Hatten
Marcus is a former college basketball star. About 6’1”, 165 lbs, slithery, quick, deep range, and ability to get to exactly where he wanted on the court, when he wanted, he drew comparisons in style to Allen Iverson.
His alma mater, St. John’s, is a hallowed basketball school in Queens, New York. Marcus led St. John’s in scoring for two seasons while I was growing up. I was, and am, a Marcus Hatten fan!
Marcus, like “everyone,” is looking to see how to get in on the NFT madness. We are working together to create assets to commemorate him, his success at St. John’s, and help other athletes create NFTs for their likeness — for example, we are working on a collection of St. John’s Greats NFTs.
Explaining NFTs through a real life example
Here’s the starting point: Marcus and I are on Twitter engaging in chat about NFTs. We discuss the idea of monetizing his likeness via NFT.
I’m going to take you on the journey with me.