Have you been seeing how the term “NFT” is being thrown around these days and big brands such as Nike and Adidas joining the hype?
Here’s a quick guide for you to catch up. Before we start, we’ll need to first answer the question: what are NFTs?
NFTs are “non-fungible token” and can be in forms of digital works of art or other digital collectibles, verifiable assets that are easy to trade on the blockchain. They can include everything digital such as 2D/3D images, music, videos and website domains.
With that out of the way, here are the 5 things you need to know before getting one:
- A Wallet to store our NFTs
Similar to how we use our physical wallets to store our cash and credit cards, a crypto wallet allows us to store our private keys, cryptocurrencies and NFTs. The popular ones are MetaMask and Phantom. - Buying Cryptocurrencies
We’ll need to top up your wallet before making any transactions. Depending on which cryptocurrencies we need before our purchase, we can use exchange platforms such as Crypto.com and Coinbase before transferring the cryptocurrencies to the wallet or even purchasing directly on the MetaMask wallet. - Where to purchase/mint NFTs
There are 2 main spaces to get an NFT — from the project developers or the marketplaces. For new projects, the developers would often conduct mints through their own website by connecting your wallet directly. For marketplaces, it depends on which network you’re looking to purchase your NFTs on. The common marketplace would be OpenSea for Ethereum/Polygon (MATIC) projects and Solsea for Solana projects. - Paying for transaction/gas fees
Sadly, nothing is free in the world. There would be fees for transactions on top of the purchased price of an NFT. Depending on which network the project is on, we can look at Etherscan for the gas fee for Ethereum projects. For projects on other networks, the gas fees are negligible as it cost a few cents. Also, if we are purchasing a resale NFT — there would be a percentage of the sale price which is paid as royalties to the project creator. - Collecting or trading NFTs
The NFTs that we have minted or bought would be shown and stored on our wallets and we can flex it to our friends/families. We may also view them on our profiles within the marketplaces. And if we decide to trade/resell it, we may list them on the respective marketplaces accordingly.
These 5 things are just the basics of how to kickstart your NFT journey. Let us know in the comments section below on if you have more tips to share and give us a clap if you like to see more of such articles!
