What is so cool about NFT’s and how to create them

Of course the pictures are cool, but this is about digital ownership and creating uniwue digital assets, combined with the blockchain technology that helps with the verification. So this can be anything, such as an image, video’s, music, tweets, characters in games, tickets, houses etc.  

Each NFT is distinct and cannot be replicated, which means it has a specific value that can be bought or sold. As there are stored on a blockchain with a token, it means that ownership of an NFT can be traced back to its original creator and every subsequent owner.

Key take away, NFT’s represent a new way to think about ownership and the value of digital assets, as well as a new avenue for creators to monetize their work. 

As in the last years the NFT’s have gained popularity in the art world, we decided to create an digital art NFT, to celebrate the ZKSync ERA launch.

Easy steps to create an NFT

Below the key steps to create a NFT, as there are many articles on creating an NFT, I found the one created by James Kelly an easy to use. Do pay attention that the world of NFT’s is changing rapidly, and the article has been written end of 2021. https://www.nftgators.com/how-to-mint-an-nft/

Step 1) Choose your token standard

Within blockchain there are multiple standards of which you can choose to build your NFTs on. Most of them adopted the ERC-721 standard, but there are multiple very cool variations available. As we wanted to create a simple standard out of the box NFT we selected the 721 standard, which comes ‘’out of the box” with ZKSync Lite. 

Want to know more?

There are multiple standard solutions and continuously developments within the NFT world. As a start I would recommend to read this great article. https://research.aimultiple.com/nft-standards/

Our next challenge will be to create a Dynamic NFT’s as these offer some cool features where you can dynamically update any traits of the NFT while keeping its unique id. 

Step 2) create a smart contract

You can create a smart contract that implements the ERC-721 standard. You can use tools like Remix, Truffle, or Hardhat to write and deploy the smart contract. As we are minting on ZKSync, make sure to use the ZkSync compatible version of the ERC-721 standard. We selected to use the standard solution of ZKSync; Which is an out of the box minting solution offered on ZKSync 1.0 aka ZKSync Lite.

Step 3) Design your NFT

Now it is time to design your NFT. There are many AI solutions that can help you with getting a tremendous amount of relevant samples, which you can use. As with this design we wanted to generate multiple versions and variate some specific traits and sub traits. For example different eyes, color etc. You can use some software to automatically generate these versions, only thing to be aware of is that you create the base template and different traits and sub traits. 

Want to more?

we hired a digital designer via Freelancer.com, who had some experience with developing these kind of art. The art is called generative NFT’s, would recommend to read this article to get a better understanding https://medium.com/scrappy-squirrels/creating-trait-artwork-for-generative-nfts-995fc163a662.

Step 4) Storage

Our NFT needs to be stored somewhere. Within the blockchain technology also this field is rapidly developing and see all kinds of decentralized storage solutions empowered by blockchain. When minting your NFT on ZKSync you will need to import your file (in this case a picture) from IPFS InterPlanetary File System. There are plenty of service you can choose from that provide IPFS-protocol. These services provide you a unique Content Identifier (CID). With its help, anyone can retrieve its content on IPFS Network and assure your file remains decentralized, resilient and, persistently available.

Want to know more? 

For our use case we have tried several solutions, from a peer-to-peer solution IPFS Desktop to NFT.storage. Many art gallery, reseller platforms offer the storage out of the box. For our use case we selected https://nft.storage/, where you can easily upload and get your CID. 

Here you can find the original content

https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmUcJ6JLoAb8Tjop5nNKH77QiMwy4cEgVhUAisU7EZmxuN

Step 5) Mint it!

This is where the magic happens! Minting an NFT refers to the process of creating a new non-fungible token (NFT) and adding it to a blockchain. For the minting you often have to pay a fee to the platform to cover the cost of processing and storing the data on the blockchain (take a look at lazy minting, aka only paying once you start using the NFT)

Want to know more?

For this case we have minted a single NFT and will be minting other NFT’s once the ZKSync ERA solution and partners are fully up and running. 

Interesting to deep dive into Lazy Minting, which is an option where you pay the fees not when generating the NFT, but when somebody buys an NFT it will be minted. At that time the fees are paid by the new owner. For example the OpenSea gallery has this lazy minting service. Which is build on the ERC-115 standard (which is for a lot of use cases way cooler than ERC-721).

Step 6) Have fun with it !

Once minted you can transfer, sell, upgrade etc. use it as a unique token to consume your content, get access to your website, sell adidas shoes in the metaverses etc. to potential is endless. 

The first Fox is available on nft.openmeta.finance/#/assets/detail/280/33136136