What Is NFT Minting and How to Mint Your First Non-Fungible Token?

If you’ve been reading about NFTs lately, you’ve probably seen the term “minting” more than a few times. Is it similar to mining? How exactly are NFTs minted? Those are just some of the questions we’ll explain in this article. Let’s start with the basics.

What Are NFTs and What Is NFT Minting?

An NFT is a non-fungible token, a digital asset that cannot be replaced with another asset — it’s unique. That’s why the technology behind NFTs was often used to create digital art.

If you’re a digital artist, you want to make your art unique by putting it on the blockchain and giving it a stamp to introduce it to the world of digital ownership. This process is precisely what NFT minting is all about. In other words, you need to “tokenize” your work of art, and whoever buys it will become its sole owner. 

This is how many NFT marketplaces work at the moment. They allow artists to turn their works of art into non-fungible tokens and sell them, whereas interested parties can buy and trade them further. Of course, artists usually get commissions whenever their art is traded, and some have built quite a fortune this way.

But NFT minting goes beyond that, as it’s putting any form of digital data into digital assets that are recorded on the chain. For example, Maincard allows fantasy sports fans to buy NFT cards and make predictions about upcoming sports matches, which is quite a creative use of NFT technology. In other words, Maincard allows minting something that’s not a piece of art but rather sports-related collections. Other things that can be minted include in-game items, songs, tickets for various events, and much more. 

How Long Does It Take Mint an NFT?

Suppose you’re an artist who wants to turn your work of art into a non-fungible token. How is that done, and how does it work? This process is relatively easy, but it’s not easy to predict how long it will take.

First, you would have to join an NFT marketplace. To do that, you need to install a wallet, Metamask being the most popular option. A wallet will allow you to connect to a marketplace and start the minting process, which usually includes submitting your digital content and converting it into an NFT. For example, if you want to mint a piece of visual art, you’ll have to provide a high-quality PNG, JPG, GIF, or whatever format is requested. Next, you’ll have to fill in the information, including a title and subtitle, description, royalties info, and more.

Once the information is submitted, the NFT marketplace will add it to the list of available NFTs, but your journey doesn’t end there. Thousands of people submit their art this way and mint NFTs. Hence, you need to ensure that relevant individuals notice your art by advertising it on social media or listing it as a digital item on related e-commerce websites. 

Please bear in mind that your NFTs will be purchased using cryptocurrencies. For example, if you join the OpenSea marketplace based on the Ethereum blockchain, you’ll get paid in ETH.

What to Take Into Account When Minting an NFT?

The process of minting NFTs varies depending on the blockchain platform you select. The current most popular ones include Ethereum, Polkadot, Binance Smart Chain, Tron, Eos, and others, so make sure to explore their pros and cons to pick one that meets your needs. Ideally, you should choose an NFT marketplace with affordable fees and a well-established ecosystem.

Final Thoughts

To summarize, minting NFTs isn’t rocket science and can help talented individuals and organizations monetize their creations. Therefore, if you think you might be able to create a token that could generate profit, it has never been easier to join an NFT marketplace and mint your first non-fungible token.

NFTs are primarily used for digital art, but the technology behind them has paved the way for many other uses, solving the problem of digital ownership. Even if you’re not a creator, you can always be on the other side of NFTs — the one who collects them and, ultimately, invests in them.