If someone offered you millions of dollars to make and sell a piece of digital artwork would you do it? NFTs are all the craze right now as people are spending millions of dollars buying digital artwork using cryptocurrency. So what exactly is an NFT? NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, are unique assets that can’t be replaced with something else and are verified and stored using blockchain technology. NFTs can be anything from music to a website domain but in this case, we are focusing on digital artwork.  

The secret behind NFTs is that they are one-of-a-kind digital entities. In terms of art, traditional artwork gets its value from being one-of-a-kind. On the other hand, digital artwork is usually easily duplicated and endlessly distributed. However, with NFT digital artworks, the artwork can be “tokenized” creating a digital certificate of ownership with allows the work to be exclusively sold by its owner and not duplicated by anyone else. 

How much are NFTs worth and how do you buy them?

Cryptocurrency is how you purchase NFTs. When buying an NFT with cryptocurrency, a record of who owns the digital entity is stored in a shared ledger called a blockchain. These blockchains are maintained by thousands of computers around the world, making it so the records have no possibility of being forged. As for their worth, the amount sold is partially due to luck and the name behind who is selling it. For example, the musician Grimes sold some of her digital artwork for more than 6 million dollars but Christie’s sale of an NFT by digital artist Beeple sold for 69 million dollars – which set a new record in the digital art industry. 

How does it work?

Wondering how you can take a stab at becoming an overnight digital artist millionaire? If you’re willing to take the risk, here are the steps you need to get started. 

1. Buy some cryptocurrency. 

First and foremost, you will need to pay a platform to ‘mint’ (or generate) an NFT of your work. Most platforms want payments in Ether, the native cryptocurrency of the open-source blockchain platform Ethereum (ETH). This is where the NFT is first launched.

2. Create a digital wallet 

You can use payment platforms such as MetaMask, Torus, Portis, WalletConnect, Coinbase, MyEtherWallet, and Fortmatic.

3. Add money to your wallet 

Once you have your digital wallet, you’ll need to add some ETH. Most platforms are fairly simple: just click the ‘buy’ button (make sure it’s ETH) and you’ll be taken to a screen where you can purchase ETH with either Apple Pay or a debit card. 

4. Connect your wallet to an NFT platform 

Once you have some ETH deposited in your wallet and ready to spend, you can go to the NFT platform of your choosing to create your NFT. Some platforms include Rarible, OpenSea, SuperRare, Nifty Gateway, Foundation, VIV3, BakerySwap, Axie Marketplace, and NFT ShowRoom. 

5. Upload your file 

This part is pretty straightforward. Just upload the file you want to make into an NFT. Each platform may vary but most take PNG, GIF, WEBP, MP4, and MP3 files up to 30MB in size. 

6. Set up an auction 

There are three options for how you can sell your NFT: ‘Fixed price’ lets you set a price and instantly sell; ‘Unlimited auction’ allows people to continue making bids until you accept one; ‘Timed auction’ is an auction that takes place for a fixed amount of time. Next, you’ll need to set up a minimum price. Be careful not to set it up too low, or else the fees will swallow your profit. Finally, you’ll need to unlock the work once purchased so that the eventual buyer will be provided with a download link or secret web page of your work. 

7. Describe your NFT 

Next, add a title and description to your listing. Make this as specific as possible to maximize your chances. 

8. Pay the fee (with caution)

Once you create your NFT, you’ll be invited to connect your wallet to pay the listing fee. Be careful tho! The initial listing may seem low, but this is only the beginning of the fees you’ll be charged. There will also be a commission fee on the sale and a transaction fee for when transferring the money from the buyer’s wallet to your own. 

9. Wait for the magic to happen! 

Good luck!!