The process of creating a nonfungible token is typically called minting. The term refers to the process of turning a digital item into an asset on the blockchain. Similar to how metal coins are created and added into circulation, NFTs are minted once they are created.

The term nonfungible token (NFT) usually refers to a cryptographic asset on the blockchain that represents an intangible and unique digital item like a piece of art, a photo, an in-game collectible, or a tweet that other assets cannot replace because it has a set of exceptional properties. Each NFT is unique and limited in quantity and not interchangeable; it can function as proof of authenticity and ownership.

NFTs are distinguished from one another by metadata and unique identifiers like a barcode. The information that makes up the asset is known as metadata. Metadata allows users to buy or sell objects based on their metadata rather than the entire object.

NFTs aim to replicate tangible attributes of physical items like uniqueness, scarcity, and proof of ownership. On the other hand, fungible goods can be swapped because their worth, not unique features, characterizes them. However, digital products are only valid when used in conjunction with their product.

The first asset representing a nonfungible tradable blockchain marker was created in 2014 as an experiment for the Seven on Seven conferences at the New Museum in New York City.

While digital collectibles and art NFTs continue to attract the most attention in the crypto community, their potential use cases continue to increase. They expand from the general use cases like digital art and games to fashion, music, academia, tokenization of real-world objects, patents, membership sales, and loyalty programs. There is also room for combining the advantages of NFT technology with the functionality of decentralized finance (DeFi). For example, it is possible to borrow and lend nonfungible tokens, and they can be used as collateral to secure a loan.

Anyone interested in selling and sharing their digital creations like content, art, music, and photography can create NFTs. Here is a practical guide on successfully jumping on the bandwagon of creating a nonfungible token.

NFT creation is quite a simple process. For instance, users can pick their content and get a crypto wallet. They can choose a proper NFT marketplace and follow its instructions. After an NFT is created, it is ready to be sent to friends or sold to collectors.

Here’s what you need to know more about the NFT creation process.

Understanding NFTs

One NFT collector paid $69.3 million for the digital artwork titled “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” by Mike Winkelmann, also known as Beeple, making this NFT the most expensive in the history of crypto art. The CryptoPunks collection consists of 10,000 pixelated images of punks with a set of unique characteristics, which pioneered in 2015 on the Ethereum blockchain, sells for thousands of dollars.

The question arises: What is the value of these digital creations and why are collectors spending so much money on them?

Beeple’s “Everydays,” a collage of 5,000 drawings referencing every day for the past thirteen-and-a-half years, was an arduous task. However, many NFT collections, which are incredibly successful, most likely do not require a particularly complex contribution from the author.

Therefore, for anyone who wants to become an NFT artist, it is somewhat necessary to have a goal in mind and a great level of creativity. Even for those who are not as skilled as Leonardo da Vinci but have a bunch of ideas, creating an NFT is undoubtedly worth trying. Moreover, for artists by occupation who most likely already have several Beeple-like artworks that are idle in the digital studio and just waiting in the wings to be sold as NFTs, this could be a great point to start.

Truthfully, an unknown person’s innovative and appealing digital art piece will not reach the level of a craze as celebrities’ creations like Canadian singer Grimes’ 10 digital paintings which have been sold for about $6 million, NFT releases from Kings of Leon which has generated $2 million in sales, or an exciting NFT which presents Jack Dorsey’s very first tweet, which has been sold for more than $3 million.

After all, NFT technology is ideal for preserving scarcity and establishing ownership of digital and tangible assets. It offers digital creators solid options for monetizing their work and a level of flexibility that is often lacking in the traditional creative industry’s models. Attaching digital content to the blockchain as a nonfungible token is a safe and verifiable way to sell it online. Furthermore, NFT creation offers artists unlimited access to a global network of collectors and like-minded people.

Fortunately, the process of creating an NFT is neither costly, complex nor technical. Without writing any codes and with the right guide, anyone can create an NFT.

Choose the format and pick your content

Firstly, creators need to choose the format of their NFT. They can generate a nonfungible token from any multimedia file. It can be a digital painting, a photo, a text, an audio file, or a video from some notable event. There are other creative products such as crypto-collectibles, video games’ virtual items like avatars, weapons, and currency, as well as virtual land in metaverses that can also be represented as NFTs.

Of course, there is room for creators’ ideas here, as it seems like everything digital could be an NFT these days. For example, it could be the World Wide Web’s source code, which was sold by its inventor, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, in the form of NFT for $5.4 million, a “high-res artistic representation” of professor George Church’s genetic data, or the data of the first person to ever sequence their own DNA. Moreover, there is still a place for non-digital tokenized real-world assets, from real estate and diamonds to designer sneakers, all of which sell in the form of NFTs.

As for the format, creators are given complete freedom of choice. It may depend on the theme of their artwork and their imagination.

Keep in mind that after creators decide what content and in which format they want to represent as an NFT, they will need to convert it to an appropriate file type, especially if it is not already digital. Most items tend to be stored as portable network graphics (PNG) or graphics interchange format (GIF) files. Texts would typically be available in portable document format (PDF), while music would likely be stored as MP3 and video kept as MP4.

How to create and mint NFTs

The value of NFTs is defined by their uniqueness. There are situations where users might want to create several identical copies of their creations. For example, if you sell a collectible, you might offer different versions, some more exclusive than others. In this case, you need to decide how many identical copies of a particular NFT you will include within the blockchain because this number will be fixed and your NFTs become immune to any modifications after their creation.

The process of creating a nonfungible token is called minting. The term refers to the process of turning a digital item into an asset on the blockchain. Similar to how metal coins are created and added into circulation, NFTs are minted once they are created. After the process, the digital item becomes tamper-proof, more secure and difficult to manipulate. Since it is represented as a nonfungible token, it can then be purchased and traded, as well as digitally tracked when it is resold or collected again in the future.

Some NFT technologies allow continuous commissions to be paid to the original creator whenever a referenced item changes owners. When minting a token, creators can program a royalty clause so that subsequent sales of their digital item generate passive income for them. If their work gets popular and increases in value, they can get monetary benefit out of it.