Learn how to mint an NFT for free in these three NFT marketplaces – OpenSea, Rarible, and Mineable.

While NFT may have lost some of its luster as compared to the past, it still retains a large community of creators and investors. Some of the most expensive NFTs can cost up to millions. Everyone wants to mint an NFT, but not everyone can afford them due to sky-rocketing 

But did you know that you can mint NFTs for free? Though some marketplaces charge expensive gas fees to mint your digital art, new marketplaces are coming up with cheaper and better ways to mint.

In this article, we will look at different ways to mint an NFT for free without having to worry about paying gas fees. 

, unique packets of digital data representing ownership that cannot be replaced by anything else. NFTs can be anything digital, such as music, sketches, artworks or drawings. But these days, the greatest excitement is around using technology to sell digital art.

The growing popularity of NFTs has attracted many creators and artists looking for blockchain-based technology to monetize their talents and earn profits. NFT artist Beeple, known for his top-selling NFTs, had 

NFT minting is the process of uniquely publishing your token on a blockchain to make it purchasable. In simple terms, minting is converting your digital file into a digital asset that can be bought or sold by adding it to a blockchain, typically that of Ethereum.

NFT markets have quickly grown, and myriad digital files are exchanged daily. But buying, selling and transferring NFTs typically comes with high gas fees. In fact, the average cost of minting an NFT could be 

. While Nifty Gateway has created a smart contract to 

, who among us wouldn’t prefer being able to sell their NFT art free of fees?

 are decentralized networks that aren’t owned by any central authority. Miners maintain the blockchain and mint creators’ NFTs by using their own computing power and resources, earning gas fees as an incentive in return.

You may be wondering: If there are fees involved in minting tokens, how is it possible to sell NFT art for free?

To overcome the higher gas fees, you can try lazy minting, whereby an NFT is available outside the blockchain and is only minted after a sale. This means you don’t have to pay gas fees as they are borne by the buyers instead. Some of NFT creators’ most preferred NFT marketplaces for minting NFTs for free include OpenSea and Rarible. While a less popular platform, Mintable also allows you to mint NFTs for free with an Easy option that creates gasless NFTs.

OpenSea is the first and largest marketplace for NFTs, where you can buy and sell any digital goods in the form of assets stored on the blockchain. It supports multiple blockchains like 

, focusing on growing the marketplace for creators, buyers and sellers. 

Creating an NFT on OpenSea is free, but selling it is not. The OpenSea marketplace 

 before they can sell NFTs on the platform. The first fee is charged while initializing an account, priced between $70 and $300. The second fee of $10 to $30 is required to enable OpenSea to access the NFT. This platform is among the most trusted and preferred by NFT traders.

Follow the step-by-step guide below to mint your first NFT on OpenSea for free. 

, you must log in through your cryptocurrency wallet account, which supports multiple blockchain networks. The most commonly used wallet on OpenSea is MetaMask, which can be created and used for free.

2. Create an OpenSea account and connect a wallet

Then, create an OpenSea account and link your wallet to it.

Next, set up your first OpenSea collection by going to your 

. Fill in the relevant fields — your name, logo, descriptions, price and royalties, etc.

 costs can be high, make sure to switch to the 

at this step to make your minting process gas-fee-free. 

Begin minting NFTs by clicking on the collection, and then on the 

 option. This will open up the form. Upload the piece of media that you want to convert into an NFT. Click on 

Now you’re done. You’ve just minted your first NFT on the Polygon Network, without paying gas fees. If you want to sell this NFT, click on 

Rarible is an Ethereum-based platform that facilitates the creation and sale of digital assets on blockchains. Rarible is both a marketplace and a network built on Ethereum that facilitates trade between them. It even has its own token, RARI, an ERC-20 governance token that allows its holders to propose improvements to the marketplace.

To create NFTs for free on Rarible, follow the steps given below:

When your NFT is sold on Rarible, it will be minted, which automatically transfers the gas fees to the buyer.

Mintable is another Ethereum-based platform. What differentiates it from others is that its gasless NFT creation process isn’t just free, but also easy. With its breezy steps, it’s an ideal platform for beginning users. That said, it has a 5% service fee for the completion of a sale. 

If you want to mint an NFT for free, just follow these steps:

Once you’ve minted your NFT, the next step is promoting it with a systematic marketing plan that helps you reach potential buyers. The crypto and NFT marketplace is saturated daily, so it's essential to ensure buyers find your creation and buy it the right way. Once you “drop” your NFT, your next task is to let the world know about it. The following points can help you if you’re wondering how to reach NFT collectors.

Community plays a significant role in any online business. As an artist or creator, building a community where you can talk to your followers, connect with them and introduce them to your projects is essential.

Continuous engagement in the community can help your NFT price increase, and your asset will be worth building upon. When you plan to create an NFT, let the people in your community know about it. Your NFT should be the only thing discussed within your community. You can get help from various community managers, who can do this work for you for a fee.

Promoting your digital art is not a one-day task. You must create hype around your NFTs within your community (and crypto nerds) to get traffic on your marketplace and help the artwork reach a higher price. NFT promotion can be done within the community and across available social media platforms to engage multiple users toward your artwork. Using tools like NFT Calendar, you can launch your NFT on a large scale.

As an aspiring NFT creator, your first step toward promoting your NFT should be 

, which you can use to build hype around your NFT drops. NFT calendar allows you to list events for free, and to set up your calendar for the date you release your NFTs. Fill in all the required details about your artwork and submit it. Your event will show on the upcoming NFT drops sections in NFT Calendar.

Social media is undoubtedly the most effective tool for marketing your NFT. It doesn't matter if you have a large enough promotion budget; you can still gain popularity on social media with the right marketing skills. Platforms like Medium, Instagram, Reddit, Twitter (most used), Discord and TikTok can be immensely helpful when promoting NFTs online. 

Collaborate With Influencers Regarding Your Artwork

This decade is undoubtedly the period of influencers and collaborations that can help your artwork reach more people and create awareness about your product. Tech influencers on different platforms can help you promote your NFT in their community, and can kick-start your project’s journey. Their promotions will definitely contribute to substantial traffic on your landing page.

If you’re a digital art creator, explore NFTs and mint one for free to see if this interests you. If you find this space as exciting as your artwork, you can also try out other NFT marketplaces that charge gas fees — but which also provide a good amount of return. Who knows, you may very well be the next 

Beginner

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How to Mint an NFT for Free

Celebrities are jumping on the NFT train and coming up with their own celebrity NFTs. Find out the impact they have and if these NFTs are a good investment.

From famous supermodels like Kate Moss to thriving musicians like Steve Aoki, celebrities of all stripes are actively supporting 

. Some are avid fans of digital art. Others see celebrity NFTs as a way of giving back to society. Whatever their motives, their massive impact on the digital marketplace is undeniable.

In this article, we’ll discuss how celebrities are driving the NFT craze. We’ll also explain some of the most prominent celebrity-run tokens, giving you a brief overview of what the stars are offering. Finally, we’ll explain why celebrity NFTs can be worth the investment for people interested in supporting charitable causes.

Celebrity NFTs are non-fungible tokens that are created, promoted, or owned by celebrities. By lending their star power to NFT collections, actors, athletes, and musicians significantly raise the profile of these digital assets.

Most celebrities with their own NFTs see the tokens as a way to deepen their connection with fans. Snoop Dogg, for example, created digital art that harkens back to the imagery and themes that defined the earlier stages of his career. By bringing his trademark style into the digital sphere, he’s maintaining his place on the cultural frontlines.

Celebrity NFTs can also raise massive amounts of money for meaningful charitable causes. Ellen Degeneres, for example, 

 by selling NFTs of her bad cat drawing. Musician Shawn Mendes used the proceeds from his NFT collection to support young artists. Paris Hilton 

, a charity organization that helps feed struggling seniors. These examples show how well-meaning people can use celebrity NFTs to fund important social projects.

For other celebrity NFT producers, the tokens serve as a way to fight for social and cultural change. The model Emily Ratajkowski 

 of herself standing in front of a once-appropriated image, thereby reinforcing the idea that models should have the right to profit from their own images. This important message is meant to be empowering to creators from around the world.

Some celebrities may also be investing in NFTs as an asset, hoping their support of a collection will increase the price and boost the value of the tokens they’ve already purchased. When considering celebrity NFTs, it’s worth remembering this potential motivation. 

While most celebrities profess noble reasons for their involvement in NFT markets, investors and traders should remember that actors and musicians are neither omniscient nor omnibenevolent. In some cases, celebrities have supported collections that ended up being 

. It’s your responsibility as a trader to bring a healthy skepticism to all potential investments, including those that have been promoted by your favorite celebrities.

How Have Celebrities Driven NFT Adoption?

Celebrity NFTs demonstrate what a substantial effect famous people can have on societal norms and customs. Thanks to the participation of famous actors, musicians, athletes, and internet celebrities, non-fungible tokens have gone entirely mainstream. Whether they’ve participated in the market or not, Americans are discussing digital art and NFTs around the dinner table. Celebrity NFTs are likely what brought the technology to their attention in the first place.

Not only does celebrity involvement normalize the NFT marketplace, but it also drives greater trading volume. Popular collections like the 

 (BAYC) exploded when celebrities like Jimmy Fallon revealed their participation.

Impressionable people have long modeled their behavior on celebrities’ conduct, and an entertainer’s purchase of a token is often enough to convince a trader that they should follow suit. Whether this dynamic is positive or negative for traders and their digital wallets, it has certainly played a major role in defining the development of the NFT space.

There are countless examples of celebrities raising a collection’s profile by purchasing tokens. By learning more about specific cases, you can further your understanding of celebrity NFTs.

For months, a trader using the pseudonym Cozomo de’ Medici bought some of the oldest and most prominent NFTs on the market. In September 2021, the world learned that this mysterious trader was none other than the rapper Snoop Dogg. Before launching his own token, Snoop had amassed a collection of NFTs worth more than $17 million. He also made headlines by 

The Bored Ape Yacht Club is perhaps the most famous NFT collection in the world with many celebrity members, including Eminem, Justin Bieber, and Neymar Jr., owning it. Snoop Dogg’s token is of an ape wearing a cheetah-print coat. By announcing the purchase on 

, the rapper helped attract even more attention to the collection.

Steve Aoki, a musician and producer known for his lively performances and streaming hits, raised the profile of the Clone X collection by purchasing a token in December 2021. He paid 13.95 ETH, or about $42,000, for the collection’s token #2004. Featuring a surreal octopus hat and a respirator mask, the figure is as beautiful as it is bizarre. Unsurprisingly, the participation of a famous musician gave the collection added cache.

Aoki has become a significant supporter of celebrity NFTs. He owns over 200 tokens, including some belonging to famous collections like the Bored Ape Yacht Club. He has also been outspoken about his optimistic take on NFTs. The musician sees the technology as a revolutionary breakthrough that will help artists support themselves in a thriving digital marketplace.

Nobody better represents the current era than internet celebrities like Logan Paul. While plenty of actors, musicians, and athletes have used online channels to augment their fame, creators like Paul developed their wealth and public personas entirely within digital spaces. This makes them likely candidates to support celebrity NFTs.

Paul is a YouTube creator with over 23 million subscribers. He’s used his tremendous wealth to spend over $3 million on NFTs. In January 2022, he purchased a VeeFriends token for 90 ETH, or $290,000. He explained his motivation on Twitter, telling his followers that he valued the collection’s creator, Gary Vaynerchuk, as an innovator and visionary. Paul has since announced plans for his own collection of celebrity NFTs, which will include tokenized versions of polaroid pictures.

The singer Justin Bieber is a massive fan of celebrity NFTs, and he’s made several high-profile purchases. His holdings, which amount to over 2,000 tokens, include NFTs from popular collections like BAYC, Clone-X, and World of Women. While many of his purchases received significant attention at the time, it was buying an Alien Frens NFT that most clearly demonstrated his ability to influence the market.

 token for 2 ETH. In the immediate aftermath of the purchase, the floor price for an Alien Frens token jumped to 3 ETH. This obvious shift allows observers to see how celebrity endorsement can boost the price of an NFT.

For many celebrities, launching or promoting an NFT is about more than simply making money or maintaining a prominent place in popular culture. Actors, athletes, and musicians have raised serious money for charitable causes by creating or purchasing meaningful celebrity NFTs. Some of these projects also include digital art that promotes positive messages.

When discussing the best celebrity NFTs, it’s best to start by analyzing the meaningful projects that truly make a difference. Many celebrities profess to seeing ethical tokens as a way of giving back to society. By learning a bit more about these collections, you can decide whether investing in meaningful NFTs is a good idea.

The world of blockchains, cryptocurrencies, and NFTs remains a largely male-dominated space. Creator Yam Karaki has worked to change this dynamic by launching 

, an NFT collection explicitly marketed toward female traders. Reese Witherspoon, the famous American actress, contributed to the collection’s popularity by purchasing a token.

Witherspoon’s involvement with World of Women extends beyond simply buying NFTs. Her company 

 has formed an extensive partnership with the project. The company hopes to help the collection create additional content. By expanding on the characters in the World of Women collection, Witherspoon’s company could help create an even more meaningful movement.

Former NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal, commonly known as Shaq, has long been a prominent champion for youth groups and underserved populations. His 

 has teamed up with the Boys and Girls Club of America to help underprivileged youth across the United States. Now, he’s capitalized on the mania for celebrity NFTs to raise even more money for the cause.

 in December 2021. Within a week of the initial launch, the project had raised $2 million. Coinciding with the holiday season, the token’s immediate success helped raise spirits and boosted important charitable work in countless communities. Bolstered by the project’s success, Shaq is planning further involvement with NFTs and the metaverse.

Musician Shawn Mendes has shown how artists can launch celebrity NFTs alongside more traditional artistic endeavors. When he released his album “Wonder,” he also paired up with the NFT-producing company 

 to release a set of digital products. The digitally “wearable” tokens included images of necklaces and earrings, and the collection had produced more than $1 million in sales after just 10 minutes.

Mendes could have used his impressive digital earnings to bolster his bank account, but he had a more meaningful plan. The musician announced on Instagram that the money from his digital sales would go toward grants for young artists around the country. By empowering his fellow creators, Mendes is helping to make the world a more beautiful place.

While many people have capitalized on celebrity NFTs to raise money for charity, model and actress Emily Ratajkowski has found another way to make digital tokens meaningful. When the artist Richard Prince put Ratajkowski’s image on canvas, she had to buy the image back for $81,000. Now, she’s selling a picture of herself standing in front of the image as an NFT.

For Ratajkowski, the NFT marketplace represents a place where women can control their own artwork and images. By creating this new token, she has linked the general idea of empowerment and artistic control with the concept of an NFT. Her action demonstrates how digital tokens can give artists and models greater autonomy and control.

Perhaps supermodels, many of whom spend their entire careers watching others profit from their hard work and beauty, are particularly inclined to recognize the potential benefits of NFTs. Kate Moss, a model with a decades-long track record of global success, has joined Ratajkowski in releasing her own tokens. The celebrity NFTs feature intimate videos of Moss engaged in 

. The most provocative is called “Sleep With Kate,” and it shows the model dozing while wrapped in white sheets.

Moss is doing more than simply raising awareness about NFTs. She has also donated all $17,000 she made from the tokens to 

, a non-profit organization that helps girls and young women discuss difficult issues. By raising awareness and funds simultaneously, Moss has successfully turned her image into a powerful force.

Cara Delevingne is another supermodel who has turned her attention toward the world of celebrity NFTs. She has taken advantage of the technology to raise awareness about an essential cause while simultaneously donating funds to charitable organizations doing important work around the world.

Delevingne’s token consists of a video of herself reciting an inspiring poem. Centered on themes of ownership and female empowerment, the imagery is both raw and provocative. She collaborated with artist Chemical X on the project, and the results are breathtaking. The earnings from the sale went to groups involved with environmental justice, female empowerment, pandemic-related healthcare, and LGBTQ causes.

Today, Twitter is a massive public square at the center of most political and social controversies. In 2006, it was a new concept that existed primarily in the imagination of founder Jack Dorsey. When Dorsey created the world’s first tweet in 2006, he couldn’t have imagined what his platform would become. Now, over 15 years later, he’s turned that original tweet into an NFT.

 simply read, “just setting up my twttr.” Despite the brevity and simplicity of the message, the associated NFT sold for $2.9 million. Evidently, internet enthusiasts were eager to own a little piece of online history. Dorsey, an avid crypto evangelist and big-time philanthropist, announced that the earnings would be converted into bitcoin and then donated to help fight COVID-19 in Africa.

Now that you’ve learned about celebrity NFTs and seen some prominent examples, it’s time to decide whether investing in these tokens is good for the world and your crypto wallet. First, let’s analyze whether celebrity NFTs are successful mechanisms for improving society. Then, we’ll examine the soundness of celebrity NFTs as investments and discuss the potential drawbacks.

As described above, many celebrity NFTs do an excellent job of raising money for charity. Shaq’s tokens, for example, quickly earned over $2 million in revenue, all of which went to help children. There’s not much to criticize in a project like that. Shaq’s NFT collection acts like many celebrity auctions and giveaways. Athletes often sell autographed apparel and donate the money to charity. Shaq did the same thing but with digital art.

More nuanced projects like Emily Ratajkowski’s token are more difficult to assess, but they still seem to have a positive impact on society. However you feel about sexualized images and the best way for young women to represent themselves, you can probably agree that creators deserve a say over the public use of their images. By reclaiming her rights in such a public way, Ratajkowski has likely inspired other creators, and especially young women, to be more forceful in their demands for fair treatment.

It’s worth noting that celebrities might not have purely selfless motives for releasing NFTs. Many stars maintain their celebrity status through ceaseless self-promotion, and producing digital art might represent one more avenue for demanding attention. All the same, much of this self-aggrandizing work brings genuine benefits for society, so there’s nothing wrong with supporting it by purchasing tokens.

While celebrity NFTs can certainly make the world a better place, they might not always represent the best investments. There’s no way to know how a token will do in the market, and some digital artwork will see its value plummet. Also, traders should always remain wary of potential scams. Even celebrity-endorsed projects have ended as

. Celebrities are just as human as anyone else, so it’s your job to make sure their poor judgment doesn’t lead you astray.

If you’re a fan of digital art and you want to support charitable causes, then celebrity NFTs are worth considering. Countless stars have endorsed or launched projects, and they’ve succeeded in raising millions of dollars. With a bit of research and constant awareness of the inherent volatility of NFTs, you can make a worthwhile habit of investing in celebrity tokens.

Intermediate

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Celebrity NFTs: The Impact Celebrities Have on NFTs

OpenSea is the world's first and largest NFT marketplace. Find out the origin of it and why it is so popular amongst NFT collectors and digital creators.

If you’re still not quite sure what the buzz around 

 (NFTs) and marketplaces like OpenSea is all about, you’re not alone. The invention of and subsequent dramatic rise in the popularity of NFTs are relatively recent — a burgeoning digital phenomenon catching fire only in the last few years.

OpenSea's platform was first on the scene as a dedicated online marketplace for these digital tokens, and it remains the largest NFT marketplace to date. The following article will describe in detail everything essential you need to know about OpenSea and its primary position in the world of NFT markets.

A specialized marketplace for NFT buying, selling and trading didn’t exist initially after these unique digital tokens entered the mainstream. OpenSea's creation was the first of its kind. It’s frequently compared to eBay when conveying its workings to beginners. This comparison is apt, since OpenSea essentially operates like eBay, Etsy or any other well-known buying/selling platform. 

The only difference is this site transacts exclusively with digital items — NFTs. You can use OpenSea’s platform to set fees on your tokens, and to create custom marketplaces for NFT art projects and auctions for selling them.

As OpenSea’s marketplace is noncustodial, the transactions made on the platform are facilitated by self-executing smart contracts. This means that fair trade is guaranteed. Transactions for both buyer and seller achieve win-win situations — or the parties don’t transact at all.

Even though there’s no middleman between buyer and seller, since OpenSea offers P2P exchanges, the platform still charges a 2.5% fee for every successful transaction. While this may seem like a large amount, OpenSea certainly offers a lower transaction fee than most NFT marketplaces, some of which charge up to 15%.

The OpenSea network utilizes the Wyvern Protocol for its transactions. For the uninitiated, it’s a decentralized digital asset exchange protocol that runs on Ethereum and it is made to facilitate the exchange of NFTs.

To understand the function of such online platforms, you have to be at least passingly familiar with NFTs first. In brief, NFTs are unique digital items made discrete and securable by code identifiers, and they exist transparently on a 

NFTs are, by definition, not interchangeable. On NFT marketplaces like OpenSea's, they function like items/objects, not currency. For example, individuals may use a cryptocurrency like 

 to buy NFTs. But unlike bitcoins, NFTs are not perfectly equivalent or exchangeable with one another by design.

The average layman might be aware of the art market associated with NFTs. Digital art projects can indeed be tokenized, but so can a variety of other digital properties, such as:

The above list isn’t exhaustive, either. The number of things that can become NFT art projects is growing all the time and is potentially infinite.

To participate in an NFT marketplace, you’ll first need to acquire a web-based, 

 is a leading example of this type of tool. A crypto wallet allows you to interact with blockchains, and to complete transactions involving NFTs or cryptocurrency. 

Regardless of whether you intend to buy, sell or trade NFTs on OpenSea, you’ll need to select and create an account with one of the wallets supported by the OpenSea marketplace to access the blockchain underpinning it. Fortunately, the platform is compatible with an impressive array of wallets, so most wallets will likely interface just fine with the site.

The OpenSea marketplace supports the following wallets:

Once you have your wallet, the next step is to connect it to the site's blockchain. After establishing an account on the platform and linking your wallet to it, any assets that you own should display on your account page. For example, if you already own any NFTs in your wallet, they'll show on your account page for you to trade or sell.

Before you can execute any transactions, however, you may need some 

 cryptocurrency (ETH). ETH is the default currency on OpenSea, which you’ll use to buy NFTs and pay 

Like eBay, Amazon or any other online marketplace, many aspects of OpenSea are conspicuously user-friendly. Its 

 page is no exception. This page is the main window into the market's activity. If you only want to look at what’s available and trending, you can head right to the primary listings and either scroll around or toggle the search and filter features. When browsing the main page with no parameters selected, you’ll typically see the most popular collections and trending OpenSea NFTs appear at the top of the results by default.

You have many options for sorting and filtering. Foremost, OpenSea has six overarching filter categories called "status pills," which can narrow things down quickly and easily. You can find these status pills located at the top of the sidebar. They are:

If you want to narrow your search further, you may also select additional filters and refine by shareable traits, currency, collection, etc. Sort using parameters such as "most viewers," "highest price," "expiring soon" and "recently listed" to bring items of greatest interest to you to the top of the results.

To buy OpenSea NFTs, you can use ETH, as described previously. However, because of interoperability requirements, this currency needs to undergo an additional transformation to become usable in a transaction. 

 (WETH). On other platforms, transforming one kind of crypto into even a slightly different one might be tricky. You would need to use a centralized or 

. However, it’s not much of a hurdle on OpenSea, as you can make the change easily without ever leaving the site.

There are three listing options for sellers to choose from when they’re ready to put an NFT up for sale. A seller can post an item as a fixed price, English auction or Dutch auction listing.

Fixed-price listings are intuitive. They’re the same as what we typically see with everyday products. The seller assigns an item a price, and a purchase is made when the buyer agrees to pay that price. A fixed-price NFT remains available until it’s either purchased, or the seller cancels the listing.

An English auction listing functions like the type of auction you’d customarily see on eBay. The seller assigns an item its minimum price in the hope that more than one person will bid, pushing the final purchase amount much higher. 

Sometimes, sellers set the minimum at zero dollars to stoke the initial bidding. The platform also allows sellers to create a reserve price, meaning the NFT will not sell unless bidding comes up to a certain amount. However, the seller can accept a bid at any time if they’re ready.

Another name for a Dutch auction listing is "declining price listing." As the nickname suggests, Dutch auctions function somewhat opposite to English ones. A seller sets the price for an item artificially high at the start of the auction, and lets it decline with time.

To create the listing, the seller must input a starting price, ending price and the duration that the auction will last. The idea behind this auction strategy is that once a price reaches an acceptable amount, a buyer will hastily purchase it to beat out everyone else. In this way, the NFT theoretically sells for what the highest bidder will pay for it.

Even without any previous experience creating NFTs, beginners can easily create a collection on OpenSea's platform. They only need to have a digital item like a piece of art or music, or a document available in an accepted format. From there, they can follow OpenSea's guidelines for uploading so that the site can generate the NFT version of the content.

To sell newly created NFTs, sellers just need to select the 

 button and fill in the parameters for their listing. Most follow the strategy of selling lower-priced items as fixed-price or Dutch auction listings, and higher-end items in English auctions. You can always change or cancel a listing if your NFT hasn’t yet sold.

Transactions on OpenSea's platform are referred to as "atomic" because the entire deal happens immediately and completely. Compare this to an Amazon purchase. The buyer pays on faith that the seller will ship their items in a timely manner. Since NFTs are digital wares, the buyer receives them instantaneously when the deal is struck, simultaneous to when the seller is paid. Neither third-party intermediaries nor trust is required to transact on this site. Sales and transfers are handled by a series of automated smart contracts, collectively known as the Wyvern Protocol. This tried and tested system reliably facilitates the secure transfer and exchange of NFTs for currency.

Another thing that’s remarkable about OpenSea's marketplace is that it’s noncustodial. In other words, there is no central authority controlling the market activity on the site. The company behind the platform is responsible for maintaining the infrastructure, but not for managing transactions. Neither does it own anyone's digital assets at any stage. Wallets "own" NFTs, and the individuals with access keys own the wallets.

Like other NFT marketplaces, OpenSea's platform includes an optional gifting function. While most of the activity on the site is transactional, it’s also possible for you to send an NFT to another user as a gift. You may do so with their username on the site or their ETH address. Recipients will see gifts delivered directly to their wallets.

Another benefit of trading on OpenSea's marketplace is that it permits creators and sellers to mint their NFTs. This function is free, but sales and gas fees still apply.

Joining OpenSea's platform and creating NFTs is free, but the site does impose a 2.5% sales fee on every transaction. In the context of NFT marketplaces overall, this charge is relatively low, though not the smallest. Additionally, if you’re interacting through the Ethereum blockchain or trading Ethereum NFTs, you may be subject to additional "gas" fees. You can avoid these fees by opting for the 

Because of the way OpenSea's platform is designed, with everyone connecting their wallets to store NFTs, sellers are inherently vetted by the site. That is, users cannot post NFTs for sale that they do not have — because the platform must recognize an NFT’s existence in the seller's possession before it can be listed. This fact, coupled with the certainty of atomic transactions, should give all parties peace of mind when buying and selling NFTs on the site.

Outside of OpenSea's marketplace, getting a handle on critical NFT or crypto data can be challenging. Fortunately, OpenSea's platform makes it far easier to review marketplace data, statistics and analysis, relative to others. It compiles all of this information on its site so that it’s easily accessible by anyone.

Software engineers Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah created OpenSea's founding company in 2017. Finzer and Atallah were inspired by the successful Ethereum game 

, and conceived of a market that would allow users to buy and sell Ethereum NFTs like those in the game. However, their vision and OpenSea's capabilities soon expanded well beyond this starting point, as the full potential of digital ownership became evident.

Artists quickly recognized the fresh potential to establish and protect their intellectual property. In 2020, the platform only saw about $21 million in trading volume, but this increased several fold by the next year, partly due to high-profile investors publicly taking interest in the platform.

The following year, OpenSea's trading volume skyrocketed to a total of $12.5 billion, representing approximately 88% of the total for NFTs in 2021. While many NFT marketplaces have formed since OpenSea's arrival (at least one has begun to surpass it regarding trading volume), this forum remains the best NFT marketplace owing to its unmatched total sales volume and number of unique traders.

Now that the basic questions about Open Sea are answered, let’s look at how to get started. Some of the basics for how to use the site were touched upon broadly in an earlier section. The following is a simple, direct guide on the specifics of how to use OpenSea's platform step-by-step.

 Navigate to a currency exchange and purchase some ETH. You’ll need this currency to make any purchases and pay fees.

 Choose from a list of compatible wallets and install one by following the prompts.

 Add your ETH cryptocurrency to the wallet.

 Browse NFT projects, or conduct a search if you’re looking for something specific by toggling the 

 functions (or typing keywords in the search bar). When you find an NFT that you’d like to purchase, click on its name or thumbnail image to view more information and options.

 Verify all pertinent details before making the purchase or bid. When you’re ready, click on the 

 A prompt will appear asking for payment details. Verify the amount of ETH you’ll be charged, and take note of the NFT token address.

 Confirm and complete the transaction by entering the private key for your wallet and clicking on 

. Do note that once the transaction is completed, it cannot be canceled. However, if the site shows that it’s still pending, you may still be able to click on 

 You can view any NFTs you’ve purchased on your dashboard.

If you run into problems, you can navigate to the 

 and search through the information provided for basic troubleshooting. You can also use the 

 option and fill out the provided form if you still need more assistance.

OpenSea Now Offers a Gas-free Marketplace Option

One of the downsides to using the Ethereum blockchain or purchasing Ethereum NFTs is the potential for high gas fees. This issue spurred OpenSea's owners to add the option of trading on the Polygon blockchain instead. Doing so permits creators to conduct business and mint NFTs on the OpenSea network while avoiding those heavy gas fees.

OpenSea has also recently announced that it will be 

. Users can look forward to 35% lower gas fees and the removal of new account initialization fees. This will give rise to higher savings when users conduct transactions on the network.

One game-changing advantage that OpenSea's blockchain-based marketplace provides is the option for creators to receive royalties on their original NFT projects. Not only can they profit once from a direct sale or auction of original work, but they can also set a royalty percentage for themselves for all future sales of that NFT. 

This feature is made possible by both the discrete quality of NFTs and OpenSea's technology, which tracks each digital item's entire sale history. It’s a boon to artists and other digital creators, allowing them to make the kind of compounding gains off their work that otherwise usually eludes them in the digital realm.

Broad Compatibility With Currencies and Wallets

OpenSea's site supports over a dozen wallets, including the most popular ones, such as those offered by MetaMask and Coinbase. The platform can also exchange hundreds of different cryptocurrencies for ETH, its in-platform currency, making it accessible to the majority of the crypto community.

The site initially relied solely on Ethereum-based NFTs and Ethereum's blockchain for its business, which meant users sometimes had to pay high fees, especially during times of heavy congestion. It has relieved this problem somewhat with the introduction of cross-chain support via Polygon. However, it hasn’t eliminated the original network or Ethereum NFTs entirely. Ethereum is taking steps to address issues of cost and energy efficiency with a 

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OpenSea NFT Marketplace: What Is It & How Does It Work?

What is a music NFT and how can it change the music industry? Learn all about it and how to invest in or even create your own music NFT.

When speaking about NFTs, digital art images and collectibles are often what first come to mind. Yet, many other 

 have since evolved, from gaming NFTs to NFT TV shows. And with the revelation of 

, the music NFT seems set to be the next big NFT trend.

But what exactly is the buzz around it? How is buying a music NFT different from purchasing music from the iTunes library or Amazon? When you buy from the usual online platforms, you’re only purchasing the right to listen to the music. If you buy a music NFT, you actually own it.

There’s so much more that the music NFT can do than simply transferring ownership to the people. Its potential for changing the music industry is boundless. Read on to better understand how NFTs can revolutionize the music industry and shape our future.

. Each NFT is unique, as there’s only one token for each asset. This is unlike fungible tokens, which can be further divided into smaller units. NFTs can be used in various industries, of which the music industry is just one.

Music NFTs are a new way to collect, sell and share music. A music NFT is a unique, one-of-a-kind token that can be sold on the blockchain as a song, a music video, or even a whole NFT album.

These tokens can be used as currency for concert tickets, merchandise, etc. Unlike typical cryptocurrencies, NFTs are indivisible, thus allowing artists to create and sell unique art pieces in exchange for cryptocurrency. 

They are also a way for musicians to monetize their work by creating unique digital assets, which can be traded on 

, the artists can even earn royalties each time the NFT is sold, as the previous ownership right has been recorded in the blockchain.

By purchasing and owning music NFTs, music lovers can show their love and support for an artist — while also getting some financial benefit from their ownership. When you buy a music NFT, you're not just buying a digital file — you’re buying something unique to you, which no one else has. You can also trade your music NFT with other fans or resell it.

Let’s look at how music NFTs work. First, an artist creates a unique piece of music. Then, they transform that music into an asset by attaching it to a blockchain (such as 

 to manage data transactions between users and other parties without relying on a central authority.

Music NFTs can then be purchased online, and used however the buyer wishes. Thus, the music becomes part of the blockchain — making it secure and immutable, so no one can ever copy or steal it from the owner.

Each NFT token is unique, and is linked to one song or other composition from an artist's catalog. This allows users who own the token to access the piece that it represents.

As a music NFT creator, you can also decide the number of copies that will exist of your song, and sell those copies through an exchange. Once people buy those copies from you, they can trade them on any crypto exchange that supports NFT trading.

For instance, if someone owns a token representing Grime's song "Death of the Old," with the highest bid amounting to almost $400K, they can listen to that specific version of "Death of the Old" whenever they want.

As more people buy copies of a song, copies available for sale reduce, thereby increasing the value of the NFT.

How Can Music NFTs Change the Music Industry?

Since a music NFT is a distinctive type of musical art that cannot be replicated or interchanged, music NFTs can transform the music sector in several ways. 