Say what you want about NFTs, but they have objective benefits for the people producing them. To this day I find it strange that people would want to buy a piece token of ownership for an infinitely replicable jpeg, or png. However, if I think back to when I learned about bitcoin, I thought the same thing about how strange it is that people want to buy money that exclusively exists digitally.
I still hold the conviction that the current NFT craze is a bubble of sorts. However, I have recently come to terms with the possibility that NFTs are here to stay. As a result of this realization, I have decided to allocate some of my time to helping artists take advantage of this newfound technology.
My NFT Journey Thusfar
Creating NFTs on MintBase
I’ve been exploring NFT marketplaces since January of this year. OpenSea, BakerySwap, Rarible, Crypto.com, etc. There are no shortage of places to try and sell your NFTs. The problem is that some of these platforms are federated. This means that they pick and choose the artists that are allowed to sell their art online. This is great for already established digital artists, but not great for artists who have yet to create a thriving digital and social media presence. I stumbled upon MintBase and was immediately captured by its slick UI and “open-source” approach to NFTs.
Creating an NFT Store for Monad Arts
My friends and artists are Ankur and Amruta Dnyanmote. They create art under the brand/name Monad Arts. We’ve been working together for most of 2021 to try and figure out how to sell their digital, and physical art as NFTs. An entire store, completely controlled by the three of us (Myself, Ankur, and Amruta) is an approach to selling NFTs that resonates with our objectives.
So, in order to mint NFTs on MintBase, you need to have your own store. It is through this store that you can mint NFTs, display them in a virtual gallery, sell them to the public, or auction them off. In order to create the store, I had to pay a one-time fee of $50 USD, payable in a cryptocurrency called NEAR.
MintBase runs on both the Ethereum blockchain, and the NEAR blockchain. But in my opinion, building the store on NEAR has obvious advantages to running on Ethereum. Namely, the fees it costs to run your store.
Visit the Monad NFT Store on MintBase.
Minting NFTs
After you’ve successfully created a store, you’re free to mint as many NFTs as you like. A small fee needs to be paid in order to mint the NFTs. For me, that fee was just a couple of cents per batch of NFTs. I was able to mint 10 of the same jpeg at a time, essentially making the NFT into a “10 of a kind” NFT. Each NFT is ultimately unique, as they are each tagged with an id that distinguishes them from one another.
Royalties
One of the best, and most powerful parts of MintBase is the ability to set royalties on the NFT. This ultimately means that after the initial sale, all future sales will have some % of the proceeds come back to the original artist. You actually have the liberty to split the revenue however you like, amongst however many accounts you like.
Just think about what that means for the creation of collaborative artwork; may that be songs, movies, or digital artwork. It means that the ability for the artists to control and set the proceeds from sales is entirely within their control. No more middlemen (sort of).
Royalties in Perpetuity
The best-case scenario for becoming an NFT artist is to make your art so popular that your NFTs are traded and exchanged regularly. At this point, it almost doesn’t matter what price your NFTs are trading at, as long as you’re getting a cut. The way that these royalties work, is that the artist receives payments in perpetuity. As long as that NFT is being bought and sold, the original artist always gets their cut of the sale.
This means that each NFT created by an artist is essentially a passive income stream in the making. For me, this is the most exciting aspect of NFTs as it manifests a previously unestablished income stream which is hugely liberating for artists.
I’m a Middleman
I’m currently acting as a middleman for Ankur and Amruta. They have the ability to learn how to create a store, mint NFTs, set the royalties, list the NFTs for sale, and/or auction them off. BUT they came to me to get this done correctly, immediately. We have the ability to negotiate my cut of the sales and build that directly into how the money from the sales of the NFTs is handled.
NFTs are still relatively new, heck so is bitcoin. So middlemen are still needed in some situations to allow people to participate without having to learn the ins and outs of what is required. That includes picking wallets, platforms, and navigating the creation and selling process. All of this is becoming simpler for the average individual to accomplish as time progresses.
Selling NFTs
There are two ways to make money from MintBase, either by selling the NFTs for a set price or by auctioning the NFTs to the highest bidder. Both are fun ways to monetize your artwork. In order to sell the NFT, you simply need to set a price and list the item for sale. This is a transaction that requires a fee to be paid.
Many NFT platforms work the exact same way. One transaction to mint the NFT, one transaction to set the price and list it as for sale. If you’re working with Ethereum, then these two operations can become rather costly. On NEAR, these transactions cost me less than $0.10.
Our First Sale
We actually managed to sell a single NFT for $50 USD within the first 48 hours of opening the shop. Below is a screenshot of the NFT that was sold on MintBase.
Someone called bluegirl.near bought the NFT for 6.5 NEAR. I didn’t need to approve the sale, or send the NFT to the account that purchased it, all of this was handled automatically by the store. This is the power that automation brings to digital art. These kinds of stores bring scalability and instant monetization (as long as you have a buyer) to your artform.
Auctioning NFTs
I like the idea of auctioning NFTs, more than I like the idea of selling for a static price. The reason being is it gives more freedom to the buyer to tell me what they think the artwork is worth. Furthermore, I still retain the ability to reject the offers that are made. At the end of the day, I am not obliged to accept any offers. The auctioning of NFTs works the same way as any other regular auction. The piece goes to the highest bidder.
Automatic Virtual Gallery
Easily one of the coolest parts of the store that I created on MintBase is the automatic Virtual Gallery. If there is a single link within this letter that I recommend you click and check out, it is this one. MintBase automatically displays the artwork within a fully explorable 3D space. Individual art pieces are able to be viewed in isolation. All of this is included at no extra cost to the artist.
All in the Pursuit of Bitcoin
At the end of the day, we’re all just trying to make more money, and for us, that happens to be bitcoin. So if we are able to help some local artists bolster their bitcoin holdings by selling their art on a “competitor” blockchain such as NEAR, then this is a win for us. I reject the notion that in order to be a “good bitcoiner” I need to exclusively use bitcoin.
For me, anything that allows people to hone their craft (eg. digital art) and sell it for a form of money that can be traded for bitcoin is a great addition to the entire space of cryptocurrency in general. Plus, if you haven’t already checked out MonadArts’ bitcoin collection I recommend doing so. Ankur and Amruta were inspired by bitcoin and its potential to change the world of money. I also recommend checking out their interview on my podcast titled The Philosophy of Money and Value.
Lastly, if you or anyone you know is looking to mint their art as an NFT, or is looking to learn how to do it themselves, it would be my pleasure to guide you through the process.
Cheers,
Keegan