I minted an NFT!
A non-fungible Token a.k.a NFT is a token (a digital certificate) distributed on a blockchain.
Fungible assets are items that are mutually interchangeable. They hold their values and are quantifiable. Examples include currencies, commodities like gold, and cereal like rice or wheat. A given $10 note is the same as another $10 note as their value is the same.
Non-fungible assets are items that are not interchangeable. They cannot be substituted. Examples include unique art pieces, memorabilia, house, patents, etc.
NFT provides a way for artists to sell their digital art on the crypto blockchain. They are essentially digital certificates that are publically verifiable on the blockchain. Once you purchase this digital certificate which represents the digital art, it entitles you to ownership of the art. This however doesn't transfer copyright to you unless explicitly done by the owner.
What is a blockchain?
A blockchain is a digital ledger of transactions globally distributed across multiple computers. Cryptocurrencies are transacted on this blockchain. All transactions are documented on this blockchain. You can think of it as distributed banks with completely transparent records.This is very different to our existing financial system.
Let's find out what the process of publishing an NFT is like. There are two popular NFT marketplaces, OpenSea and Rarible. Both are on the Ethereum blockchain. Of course, there are also other NFT marketplaces, like Binance NFT which is on the Binance Smart Chain.
The process of creating an NFT is called "minting an NFT". Minting requires a gas fee which is a transaction fee for creating the NFT. For this demo, I will be minting an NFT on OpenSea which only charges a gas fee when the NFT is sold, unlike Rarible which charges upfront regardless of whether it's sold.
Step 1: Get a crypto wallet
First, you need a crypto wallet. I used MetaMask which has a browser extension for Google Chrome. There are 10 other wallets to pick from.
Once you have signed up for an account, make sure to save your Secret Recover Phase. Without it, your wallet is lost. Keep it safe. You don't want to end up like these guys. Don't forget to load up your account with ETH. You can deposit directly via a debit card. Only Visa and Mastercard are accepted. In my case, being in Australia my Westpac card worked but my ING one didn't. It's possible that the smaller banks deny crypto transactions. I opted to deposit $100 worth of Etherum.
Step 2: Create a Collection + Item
After you have set up your wallet, you can go to OpenSea and create a collection for your NFTs. Then you can go ahead into your collection and create an item . I decided to make an NFT of my most popular youtube video that got 84k views.
Step 3: Sell the item
After you've created the item, you can sell it. Here you have 2 options. Either you can sell it at a fixed price or you can run an auction. I opted to sell it on a month-long auction for 0.5 ETH ($864) which is presumptuous of me but who knows. OpenSea charged me a small one-time-only gas fee ($10) to verify my account. I will be charged another gas fee when the item is sold. OpenSea takes a 2.5% cut of the sales.
This is how you mint an NFT. Here is my NFT.