What is minting?
What is minting?
What is minting an NFT?
“Minting” an NFT is the process of writing a digital item to the blockchain. This establishes its immutable record of authenticity and ownership.
What is the purpose of minting?
You may have heard people ask, “Why can’t I just screenshot an NFT?” Minting is part of the answer. When you mint an NFT, it becomes stored on the blockchain, where its authenticity and ownership is established. And because the blockchain record can’t be edited, minting is the start of that NFT’s immutable history.
Minting for creators
As a creator, minting your work allows you to establish provable scarcity, verified ownership, and ongoing creator earnings. For the first time, creators can publish limited edition digital works, whose authenticity is validated on the blockchain. Ownership is undisputed and public, allowing creators to build special communities and perks for those who hold their NFTs. Creators can also set “creator fees” to earn on every secondary sale of their NFTs, and these fees are automatically programmed and executed by the NFT’s code. On OpenSea, creators can receive up to 10% of every sale after the initial sale.
Minting for collectors
Minting NFTs isn’t just for creators, however. NFT projects will often offer early access to their NFTs via a mint. When you mint an NFT from a project, you’re the first ever owner of that NFT, since the mint is when it’s written to the blockchain. Oftentimes, participating in a project’s mint is like buying a pack of Pokémon cards: you don’t know if you’ll end up with something rare.
I minted my NFT! Now what?
Congratulations! You’re officially an NFT creator!
You don’t have to do anything after minting your NFT— you could just wait to see if someone discovers it through search or category exploration. But if you want to keep the momentum going, here are some places to start:
Grow your community
Community is really important in the NFT space. It can be incredibly rewarding to build a community around your project, especially if it centers around a certain topic, like inclusivity or food. Projects can have engaged, tight-knit communities even without an overt theme. The most popular channels for community engagement in the NFT space are Twitter and Discord.
Market your project
When marketing your project, it’s essential to understand your audience and what value you are providing them. Is it the art itself, exclusive benefits, the community, or something else? Make sure it’s clear what people will get by buying your NFT.
For social marketing, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit are great places to start sharing your work. Make sure to use relevant hashtags and engage with other people in the space. Be authentic, and welcome feedback from others. Good luck!