NFT Minting

“Minting” an NFT is the process of writing a digital item to the blockchain. This establishes its immutable record of authenticity and ownership.

What is the purpose of minting?

You may have heard people ask, “Why can’t I just screenshot an NFT?” Minting is part of the answer. When you mint an NFT, it becomes stored on the blockchain, where its authenticity and ownership is established. And because the blockchain record can’t be edited, minting is the start of that NFT’s immutable history.

Minting for creators

As a creator, minting your work allows you to establish provable scarcity, verified ownership, and ongoing creator earnings. For the first time, creators can publish limited edition digital works, whose authenticity is validated on the blockchain. Ownership is undisputed and public, allowing creators to build special communities and perks for those who hold their NFTs. Creators can also set “creator fees” to earn on every secondary sale of their NFTs, and these fees are automatically programmed and executed by the NFT’s code. On OpenSea, creators can receive up to 10% of every sale after the initial sale.

Minting for collectors

Minting NFTs isn’t just for creators, however. NFT projects will often offer early access to their NFTs via a mint. When you mint an NFT from a project, you’re the first ever owner of that NFT, since the mint is when it’s written to the blockchain. Oftentimes, participating in a project’s mint is like buying a pack of Pokémon cards: you don’t know if you’ll end up with something rare. 

How to mint on OpenSea

Minting NFTs on OpenSea is easy. On the Ethereum blockchain, OpenSea also offers “lazy minting,” a process by which you can avoid paying gas fees to mint your NFTs. When you lazy mint, you can list your item for sale on OpenSea, but it’s not actually written to the blockchain yet. When someone buys your NFT, the mint and the sale are combined into one transaction, so the buyer pays all the gas fees! 
To mint on OpenSea, you’ll need to do the following:

1. Set up a crypto wallet

In order to do anything on the blockchain, you’ll need a crypto wallet. This will hold your NFTs and cryptocurrency. 

2. Create a collection

Before you mint your NFTs, you’ll have to create the collection that they’re a part of. At this step, you’ll name and describe your collection, choose a category, and add any social links.

3. Upload your work

Once you’ve set up your wallet and created a collection, you’re ready to start minting your NFTs! 
Visit our Help Center for more detailed tutorials on creating NFTs.