Best ways to create an NFT and NFT collection

If you already have come up with an idea that you would want to convert something into digital NFT tokens here is an our overview of a few ways to make it happen with help of paid or a non-paid options.

1. Use a shared collection on a popular Marketplaces (for free if you would choose to use “Lazy Mint”)
2. Create your own new collection on the Marketplace (please check if the Marketplace supports the function)
3. The most relevant way to write a smart contract of your NFT collection is by using Solidity according to ERC-721 or ERC-1155 standards ( EVM -compatible networks)

This list of options may not be a complete in today’s NFT world, nevertheless we would like to take a closer look at each of these three common-used options.

Let’s dive into and make sure that we both have the same understanding of the terms “Non-Fungible Token (NFT)” and “NFT Marketplace”:

What is NFT Marketplace in general?

NFT Marketplace is a web-platform or a catalog with digital objects inside, those very NFTs. But the Marketplace only displays what is stored in smart contracts of collections on some blockchain.

Therefore, in order to display the objects quickly the marketplace platform caches data on its servers about each NFT source file, its collection, and all the transactions.

NFT Marketplaces have convenient interfaces for user interaction with collections and tokens. By going less convenient ways you can also do it in some explorer (scanner) of the particular blockchain network. You can even do this by sending HTTPS requests through the terminal (console) to the API of some node of the network.

We’re ready to dive into the ways to create a collection.

1. Mint NFT to the collection on the popular Marketplace

This option is for any user with no web development skills.

All you need is:

1. Open the NFT Marketplace website or mobile app
2. Connect your crypto-wallet. For example, Metamask or any other one compatible with the network used on this marketplace.
3. Fill out the NFT creation form
4. Sign NFT mint transaction via crypto wallet

For beginners we could recommend such popular NFT platforms:

• Opensea.io — the world’s first NFT marketplace and the undisputed leader in sales volume, has LazyMint and several networks
• Rarible.com — user-friendly interface, LazyMint and multiple networks
• Binance NFT — a quality marketplace from a leading player in the world of blockchain technology, supports onlyBSC network
• AtomicHub — a convenient custodial wallet in the WAX network
• Magic Eden — the leading Marketplace for Solana network supporters

Before we go any further you have to decide on these two criteria :

1. Which blockchain network matches up to your expectations ?
2. What is the maximum marketplace platform service fee you might accept? Marketplaces charge their users from 1 up to 30% of the service fee .

Make your own research because the market for blockchain technology is inconstant. And we advise starting off by reading such resources as:

• You can read reviews of popular marketplaces for 2022 here, here and here
• The rating of all existing platforms is better to check on dAppRadar. Also the rating of specific collections from all sites you can see on dAppRadar or CoinMarketCap.
• Analytics of the sales history of all collections — on NonFungible or CoinGecko.

Where to mint your NFT — in a shared collection or your own one?

A) Shared Collection

With a few NFTs, which are not a special collection you can doubtlessly mint them in the shared collection.

Popular marketplaces often have two shared collections for each NFT standard:

• Single collection (in Ethereum-like networks used the ERC- 721 standard), which implies that each token in the collection exists only in a single example.
• Multi collection (in Ethereum-like networks used the ERC-1155 standard), which means that each token can be either a single copy or an unlimited number of copies — as many as its author wants before it is minted.

B) Own collection

And if you have a lot of NFTs and they are linked by common meaning or legend of their creation it is more reasonable to create your own NFT collection. Thus, it is already a separate smart contract with a separate address in the blockchain network :)

However, not all marketplaces support the creation of new collections. And there are couple of ways to find a form of creating a new collection:

1. Either on the form of creating (minting) a new NFT in the collection selector there is an option to create your own collection.
2. NFT Marketplace have a separate section with your collections and there will be a button to create a new one.

Also, if the NFT Marketplace supports the creation of your own collection, there is a blockchain fee for the transaction of deploying the smart contract of that collection into blockchain memory. If marketplace supports Ethereum network the transactions are still expensive and contract deployment is a CPU-intensive transaction.

2. Developing and deploying smart contract of your own collection

There are recommendations for artists to find more additional functions of smart contracts standards.

1. Before developing your NFT collection smart contract, you need to choose a blockchain network and that’s why you need to have a good understanding of the existing NFT standards by far.
2. Besides, it is necessary to determine which NFT marketplace will interact with this contract, providing its users with a convenient interface for buying, selling, transferring and other operations.

What are the NFT standards and its qualities in different networks?

Common standards in Ethereum-like networks are:

• Single NFT — ERC721 (final)
• Multi NFT — ERC1155 (final)

These are, undoubtedly, the leaders in terms of NFT standard today. A lot of NFT marketplaces have implemented their support and now interact with collection contracts exactly based on ERC721 and ERC1155.

In addition there are sub-standards that expand the collections capabilities for:

• Temporary lease of a token from the owner — ERC4400 (final) and ERC4907 (final)
• Editing initial token data — ERC5185 (draft)
• Adjusting token lifetime — ERC5007 (draft)
• Transforming NFT into FT (Fungible Token) — ERC4675 (draft) — For example, to pay with “crypto-monkeys”

Several standards have emerged in EOS-like networks, and their key difference from Ethereum-like networks is universality, support for FT (Fungible) and NFT (Non-Fungible), Single (721) and Multi (1155) in one big smart contract:

• dGoods — website / github
• Simple assets — website / github
• Atomic assets — website / github

There are not so many NFT Marketplaces on EOS.io based networks yet, and their NFT standards (or rather initiatives) are still at the “alpha” stage.

Solana network promotes the Metaplex standard ( website / github ). Its key difference is a ready-made framework for creating your own marketplace based on the storefront principle, which interacts with the blockchain directly as if you deploy an online store on Shopify or WordPress platforms.

With this standard in the Solana network you don’t need to have a complex infrastructure on the backend but just use their SDK on the frontend or just clone and customize the frontend template written in React.js. Besides that you’ll get additional features for NFT, like mystery packs, announcement of AR/VR support to view showcases with NFT, etc.

TON (Telegram Open Network) — website / github. Key differences:

• Universality similar to EOS — FT + NFT (Single / Multi) in one contract
• Ability to edit NFT metadata after it has been mined
• Separate contracts for each token in the collection (sharding) → as a result, cheaper token transactions

To which NFT Marketplaces you can import your own collection?

If your goal is only to publish and sell your collection, even if it is your own contract, you don’t need to have your own Marketplace yet. It is enough to find an appropriate one to import your NFT collection and all its tokens into its catalog.

OpenSea is the first popular Marketplace, which provided the ability to import the address of your own collection to its database.

To do this, you need to:

1. Open https://opensea.io
2. Connect your wallet
3. Open the “My Collections” section of the profile menu

Today OpenSea supports 4 popular networks: Ethereum, Polygon, Klaytn, and Solana and you can import collection contracts only within those networks.

Rarible added the third-party collection import into its base, but only for the Ethereum network by now. Although there are 3 other networks Rarible supports in general: Polygon, Flow, and Solana.

Develop an NFT Marketplace from scratch or buy a ready-made one?

Perhaps your goal is not only to publish and sell the NFT collection in the catalog, but also to integrate it with game or your poduct business processes. What about your own marketplace with its own unique functionality?

If you manage your own development team with experience in blockchain technologies and have sufficient budget then you have a chance to create your own marketplace from scratch.

In this case we recommend you to start with 1–2 iterations of design and research and as a result your team get an MVP of your product so it will be easier for you to make decisions about the further development of its features and the cost of implementation. For such an MVP it is enough if the prototype has an option to connect the wallet, mint NFT and buy it at a fixed price.

Do you have save time and effort if you adopt the experience of already formed marketplaces and their developers. Novus provides ready-made options and great solutions regarding all aspects of blockchain development.

To get a free demo to test your NFT-idea and consultation about your product development you can here

P.S. Write in the comments what else you would like to learn from the world of NFT.