Usain Bolt is launching his own sets of NFT cards on Tom Brady’s Autograph. In addition, Tiger Woods’ collectibles that we covered last week are now reselling for more than $5,000 each.
Oh, and that kid who created his own $400,000 NFT project, Benyanub Ahmed, joined another successful NFT group. Together, their sales volume moved past the $5 million mark after just three weeks.
That’s right, “Non-Fungible heroes,” a competition-based project about animal superhero cartoons, hit $5 million. OK, time to get in on the action.
So how do these people keep making these NFTs, and how do you buy them?
Starting off easy, the best way to buy an NFT would be to go out to DraftKings, or NBA Top Shot, or another more mainstream company that offers easy purchasing.
Unfortunately, though the paying experience will be pleasant, the only collectibles to pick up are made by the company: no way to upload your own. That also means prices on the secondary markets will be much higher. It’s hard to find an easy way in.
To get lower prices and the ability to post your own images right onto blockchains, we have to go deeper.
What creator Ahmed and what many NFT projects use are websites like OpenSea.io. Like Instagram but for post your own NFTs, the site saw $3.4 billion in August alone, leading NFT marketplaces as the largest exchange.
One peek into the marketplace, and it looks like a copy-cats paradise: There must be hundreds of millions of profile picture NFTs or generated sets of animals, characters, and faces that are swapped and traded like CryptoPunks.
There are guides out there on how to spot new projects by jumping on the bandwagon early to pick some up for cheap before selling them off.
A way to find new exciting projects is by spending time on crypto Twitter. The digital place is an endless 24/7 hype train where everyone is a millionaire, new projects land all the time, and no one will tell you why you’re not making any money.
Instead of that, let’s practice just how to get money into the claw machine in the first place. The most significant barrier in the cryptocurrency world is still how to move crypto around to pay for things. It can be a little complicated, but before posting images to OpenSea, new accounts have to link a cryptocurrency wallet.
Even five years ago, it was hard to find trustworthy services to send your digital cash.
Lucky enough, many big-time names have begun developing crypto wallets, including Coinbase and Robinhood. But the easiest way is to get crypto to a wallet that sits in your internet browser: a Chrome or Firefox extension. MetaMask, the wallet from ConsenSys, is one of the oldest, if not original, browser extension wallets that just reached 10 million users.
To set up, it’s as easy as heading to the Metamask or Coinbase websites, signing up, and downloading the extensions.
First, make sure to write down the 12 or even 20-word passphrases they use to add to security. Once that is sorted, there should be a long key of numbers and letters that works as your wallet address.
The OpenSea website should ask to connect with a wallet; MetaMask will ask to “sign” the connection. After that, everything should be good to go.
Now, to create a new collection of NFTs, it’s as easy as clicking “Create.” There will be some options, like description or external links or properties: most famous NFT projects have external websites and communities they connect with, along with different “traits” like rare hats or skin colors that set apart the most valuable collectibles.
Instead of all that, let’s start with a picture of a smiley face. To set what blockchain the data will be stored on, change the blockchain setting. Ehtereum is a fan favorite but usually costs “gas” fees for loading information to the chain.
There’s the option to use Polygon, a free blockchain option. Even still, transferring value between the two blockchains costs gas fees: the second biggest hurdle in the crypto world. Basically, it’s a transaction fee: the higher the price, the faster the transaction occurs. Don’t feel too bad though, things could be worse.
When everything is ready, click Create, and yippie! The image data is saved onto the OpensSea site! Up next, to sell your work of art, list the item for sale, for whatever price fulfills your desires, or as low as possible in the hopes someone may buy one.
Check out my test result up on OpenSea: downright hideous, isn’t it?
So, you’re a big-time art creator now, but how do you start trading, swapping, and buying other OpenSea NFTs. All it takes is buying cryptocurrency, usually Etherum, at a well-known exchange like Coinbase. Then, head to the Send/Recieve or withdraw option on the exchange. Coinbase lets you choose what crypto you are sending, with that long number and letter code on your Metamask account as an address.
Simply plop that in there and click send; it should go through pretty quickly. Make sure you get the address correct, or you’ll run into the fun mistake of sending money to the wrong place.
From there, it’s about finding projects that float your fancy and clicking purchase — if you can afford the ETH gas fees.
