So, you have finally decided to give in to the hype and create your own NFT? Or, maybe you cannot afford to buy NFTs but you think you might have something to offer to the NFT world? In either case, you have come to the right place.
In this article, we will do a step-by-step breakdown of creating an NFT project using Ethereum and Coinbase.
If you choose to use another NFT marketplace or other crypto tokens, the process will still be more or less the same.
Disclaimer: This article does not encourage creating NFT projects, purchasing/trading crypto, or spending your money in any way. This article is only meant for educational purposes.
How to create Digital Art NFT?
The first thing you will need is a piece of art you have lying around. If you are an artist, you probably have a ton of them lying around.
However, NFTs can be more than just digital art. Have you been taking selfies a lot lately? Why not turn your selfies into NFTs? This guy did, and they are worth over a million dollars right now.
The point is, you can turn anything into an NFT.
For the sake of this blog, I might use the term art a lot, since digital art is the hottest thing right now since sliced bread. Imagine that. If someone had made sliced bread in 2022, they would probably turn that into an NFT first.
Back to the topic.
Since Ethereum based NFTs are in right now, this tutorial is going to focus on ETH.
Create Digital Art NFT
The first thing you’re gonna need to do is grab a piece of art you have (virtually). For the sake of the memes, let’s call them jpegs. So, you have your favorite jpegs handy.
Choose your Crypto Wallet
All cryptos are stored in a wallet, like a Coinbase wallet or metamask. There are other wallets out there, but let’s stick to one as we don’t need this article being any more confusing.
So, Create a new Coinbase wallet. You can download the Coinbase Wallet app in Appstore/Playstore. The app will prompt you to create a new username. You can choose to make your username private or public.
Protect your wallet with a pin or face id. You don’t need me to tell you why protecting your account is important.
The next message you see in the app is going to be about backing up your wallet. While you can do this later on in the settings, I would advise you to do it immediately. You will be promoted to back up with Recovery Phrase. Make sure you save this Recovery Phrase because if you somehow lose your account and you don’t have your recovery phrase, you will lose everything in your wallet. Cloud storage is always a good bet when you need something stored and yet easily accessible.
And, you’re done.
Purchase some coins. Like I said before. If you want to create Ethereum based NFT, you will need to load your wallet with some ETH coins.
Difference between Ethereum and Ether
Ethereum and Ether are terms that are used interchangeably, so no need to be confused.
Ethereum is a blockchain-based software platform while Ether is the cryptocurrency asset that runs the Ethereum network.
We will be trading in Ether, the symbol for which is ETH.
NOTE: Ethereum is not the only blockchain that allows NFT. However, ETH is the leader in the NFT space at the moment.
Spend Crypto to Make Crypto
Every NFT project requires an investment, much like you are starting a company. If you want to know more about how NFT projects are like companies and NFTs are basically stocks, follow the link.
Go to Ethereum.org. Click on Get ETH and search your country. Select the Coinbase wallet you just created. Coinbase lets you purchase crypto using a debit card.
Download the Coinbase app and sign up to create your account. Once your account has been created, log in and confirm your account. Add your security, and you will need to verify your identity using your government-issued Identity card.
Note: You should check the legalization of Crypto and related trading before you purchase any coins.
Once you’re verified, you can choose your mode of transferring money to Coinbase and add a payment method. At the time of writing this article, purchasing $100 worth of Eth costs approx. $3.50 in the gas fee. Yes, gas fees are expensive. That’s one of the disadvantages of Ethereum at the moment. Understand more about Ethereum gas fees here.
Once you have your hard-earned money in the Coinbase app, you will need to transfer it to the Coinbase wallet you created earlier. Yes, two different apps, not the same thing. Transferring money from the Coinbase app to the Coinbase wallet will require some processing fee as well but it’s a pretty straightforward process. At the time of writing this article, I received $87.87 in my Coinbase wallet. This is what I have left from the original purchase of $100 worth of Eth.
It might seem like a lot of apps and signups and too much complication, and it is. The good news is that we are almost done.
Now, you need to sign up for decentralized apps that allow NFT project creation. The most popular one on the market today is Opensea.io. You can sign in using your Coinbase wallet.
You will receive multiple options to pair with your Coinbase wallet, use Walletlink.
You will reach the collections page.
Now, Create a new collection.
Upload a logo.
Give your collection a name, and voila! You have created your first NFT project.
Note: You can edit these details later.
Once you have your collection, you will need to upload some items. Click on add new item and upload the jpegs you selected earlier. Give your jpeg a name and fill in the rest of the details.
Congratulations. You have just created your NFT project. You can now share your NFTs and hope others will buy them.
I purposefully missed out on the part where you set the price for your NFT items. That’s for you to decide. What is your NFT worth? Does your NFT reflect the value you are setting the price for?
Disclaimer: This article does not encourage creating NFT projects, purchasing/trading crypto, or spending your money in any way. This article is only meant for educational purposes.
