How to mint your first NFT on Solsea from Solana? Walkthrough

Irreplaceable tokens (NFTs) have become especially popular in 2021, and this trend will continue, albeit slightly more slowly, in 2022. Users tend to create, sell and collect various NFTs for many reasons. Some like art, others try to speculate on its value, others are used as part of a blockchain-based game, and so on.

Whatever the reason, it looks like NFTs aren't going anywhere. Naturally, Ethereum has become the dominant network for their creation, and the ERC-721 token standard continues to lead the market. However, this has also led to network congestion, huge fees and slow transaction processing, and other blockchains have proven to be a reasonable alternative as users look for cheaper and faster solutions.

One of them is Solana. In fact, Solana is thriving in the non-fungible token space as more creators look to Ethereum alternatives to launch their NFT projects. In this guide, we'll explain step by step how to mint NFT on Solana - specifically on Solsea, the largest NFT marketplace on the web.

Quick navigation

What is NFT mining?

How to create your first NFT on Solsea?

Connecting a phantom wallet

Creating an NFT Collection

Minting your NFTs on Solsea

What is Minting?

Minting is the process of tokenizing a digital file using cryptography, while tokenization is the process of turning an asset into a digital token that can be moved, stored, and recorded on a blockchain. You can turn almost any digital file into a token - mp3, mp4, jpeg, WAV, PNG, GIF, etc.

Don't worry about the technical process now - you'll understand it as we go through this guide.

How to mint NFTs on the Solsea Marketplace by Solana

There are several NFT marketplaces on Solana such as Solanart, Magic Eden or Solport, but for now we will be minting on Solsea, the first and most popular NFT marketplace on Solana. We're also going to be using Phantom, a non-custodial cryptocurrency wallet and browser extension commonly referred to as MetaMask of Solana.

Let's go step by step. First, set up your wallet.

1 - Installing the Phantom

If you don't already have Phantom installed, go to Phantom.app and download it as an extension for your browser. In this case, we are using Brave.

Once added to the browser, you will see the Phantom icon on the extension button in the top right corner. Click the icon and continue with the installation.

You will be redirected to a new page. Click "Create a new wallet".

You will receive a recovery passphrase that you will use to recover your account if you need to reinstall it on another device later. This is the most important step in creating your wallet - if you lose this phrase or spell it incorrectly - you will not be able to recover your wallet and may lose your funds. So be sure to write it down and keep it in a safe place and remember:

Never save your private key on your PC! Never share your passphrase with anyone, this will give them full control over the funds!

Also, Phantom doesn't currently have an Android version, so be careful of phishing and fake apps.

After that, Phantom will be added to your browser. You can easily access it by clicking the Phantom icon in the menu bar.

2 - Replenish your wallet

To start mining, we need SOL, Solana's native cryptocurrency. If you have SOL on a crypto exchange like Coinbase, you will have to send funds to your Phantom wallet. To do this, simply click on the $ icon.

Select SOL and click "Deposit".

You can either fund your wallet by scanning the QR code, or you can copy and paste the address below the QR code.

Once your wallet is funded, you are ready to start minting NFTs on Solana.

Creating a new Solsea account

The next step is to create an account on Solsea. You can do this by connecting your wallet to the platform. Just click the Connect Wallet button in the top right corner and select Phantom.

Phantom will appear on your screen and ask for permission to link your wallet. Solsea will be able to view your funds and activity in your wallet, and request confirmation of the transaction.

Once connected, you will be redirected to the Solsea login page. Enter your email account and password.

Agree to the terms and click "Register". Solsea will send you an email to verify your Solsea account. After that, your wallet will be automatically connected to the Solsea platform.

Now you can go! The next few steps will show you the actual minting process.

Create an NFT collection

First, you need to create an NFT collection where you will store your NFTs. Go to the "Create" tab and click "Collection".

2. Choose a title and add a description for your collection.

3. Upload title and icon image.

4. You can add your social media accounts and website if you want more people to be interested in you and your future work.

5. When you're ready, click "Create Collection" and sign the transactions to create the collection. Note that you may see a pop-up message saying that the mint transaction failed - this is probably a bug on the Solsea side and you may have to wait a bit for the transaction to complete.

If you are not sure if a transaction was approved or not, go to your wallet, select SOL and view your transaction history or use any Solana block explorer.

After confirming the transaction, go to Wallet and click on My Collection. It should look something like this:

Minting your first NFT on Solsea

Now that we have our NFT collection set, let's add some NFTs to it. Return to the "Create" tab and this time select "NFT".

2. Download the file. Accepted formats are JPEG, PNG or GIF (image) and MOV or MP4 (video). Make sure you read the supported file formats first. For the sake of this guide, we will upload an image of our awesome laser eye potato.

3. Then choose a name and add a description for your NFT.

4. Now we have the option to set the royalties. This is the percentage that you, as the creator, will earn each time your NFT is resold on the secondary market.

The percentage ranges from 0% to 50% and you can set it based on your own business model.

The following fields are optional but highly recommended, such as an external link to your artwork page if you have one, so people can see more of your work.

When it comes to tags - in our case it's a regular image - choose the right tag for your file type (if it's mp4, then choose video). Once created and listed, your NFT becomes searchable based on its tag.

Solsea is also the first NFT marketplace to embed licenses in NFTs. These licenses allow you to specify what you are selling and buyers will know exactly what they are buying. If you are still not sure, read here.

If you have created an NFT collection before, you can add a new NFT to it by selecting it from the Collection drop-down list.

Finally, you must add traits, but be careful because you can't change them after minting.

Click Mint NFT. Again, you will have to sign transactions in order to create an NFT.

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How NFTs are Transforming the Art World

A massive intersection between the worlds of art and cryptocurrency is redefining the concept of ownership in the digital age—all to the tune of millions in sales for savvy artists. The surge of non-fungible tokens (NFT) allows virtual images, and their original underlying code, to be sold as unique works of art, even if copies of those same images proliferate.

This evolution was evident Thursday, when a purely digital work of art by Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, sold for a record-breaking $69.3 million at a Christie’s online auction. It was the third most-expensive work of art sold by a living artist, and the most expensive digital asset to ever sell with a NFT.

The buyer of the work was revealed Friday as Metakovan, the pseudonymous founder of Metapurse, the world’s largest NFT fund. The buyer will receive both the image and the token, according to Christie’s.

The online world produces no shortage of art from photo edits to memes to animated GIFs. Meanwhile, any physical artwork—from drawings to paintings to photographs—can also exist as digital imagery. Once transformed to 1s and 0s, that artwork can proliferate throughout the internet and end up just a simple screen capture away from your computer.

A NFT, once assigned by an accepted blockchain clearinghouse, attaches to the digital artwork permanently and marks it as original, official, and unique. That NFT allows a buyer to own the artwork, even if copies of it exist on hard drives and servers around the planet.

In the last month, cryptocurrency NFTs sales have boomed throughout the art world. According to the ranking site CryptoSlam, the top five NFTs during that period generated more than US$366 million in profit. The boom has everyone from artists to academics exploring what it means to own something in a crypto world.

Marc Craig, successful London artist and curator of the Chopperchunky Gallery, sold more than 12 of his original pieces as NFTs in less than two weeks. He discovered this crypto market through online news articles, realizing the potential to create individual digital art pieces stamped as exclusive entities.

“There is a real sense that the pandemic is changing everything,” Craig says. “People are actively looking for ways to not only make money, but also to connect in the online world. The NFT art community is very vibrant and supportive, and I had no anxieties about getting started because it was easy to connect with the energy it’s creating.”

Craig describes an NFT world of unusual synchronicity. He sees artists who both sell their work as NFTs and also buy NFTs from other creators. He finds collectors who sell are becoming artists themselves. He tracks corporate entities funding the purchases of major NFT artwork.

In Los Angeles, artist and portrait photographer Justin Aversano creates his own work and collaborates with partner Nicole Buffett (Warren’s artist granddaughter). Through their individual and combined works, they sold more than 130 pieces in two weeks to the tune of more than $100,000. He describes the emerging NFT phenomenon growing from a sense of community.

“We help each other,” Aversano says. “Those of us who found success in NFT art look to bring in other artists and help them through encouragement and collaborations.”

For Aversano, one of the most unique aspects of selling through the blockchain world is the actual physical artifact outside the crypto environment is still in play even once its digital cousin sells. Artist and buyer can negotiate what’s to become of the real world creation. Artists sometimes include the original with the NFT, charge an additional fee for the object, sell the hardware piece to another buyer, or simply keep it.

Aversano retained the material originals for some of his more recent NFT successes and hopes to gift them to a gallery or library for permanent display.

Beeple's "Everydays: The first 5000 days"
Christie's
“With NFTs, the physical work is actually a bonus,” Aversano says. “The buyers of NFTs don’t want stuff. They view ownership in an entirely new way.”

Deborah Small, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business disagrees, pointing out that the idea of owning an NFT isn’t that far removed from the concept of owning something in the material art world.

“The concept of art is much more than the experience of seeing it,” Small says. “You can go visit the Mona Lisa in the Louvre or buy it as a postcard—but, you don’t own the Mona Lisa. By purchasing an NFT, you buy the implicit knowledge that you’re closer to the art’s curator.”

Small suggests cryptocurrency investors buying NFTs are more akin to gamblers, making a buying decision on a different level than traditional investors.

“It’s a decision based on a consumption idea, not a business idea,” she says. “The cryptocurrency buyer perceives risk in a different way. It can seem strange to others because the NFT is virtual, but the buyer sees it, likes it, and buys it so he or she can feel closer to the artwork, the artist, and their peers.”

Dr. Carey K. Morewedge of the Boston University Questrom School of Business studies how cognitive processes influence human judgments and decisions. When considering why art buyers would spend millions purchasing NFTs for images they could pull off the internet for free, Morewedge looks at the concepts of control. At its simplest level, the non-fungible tokens allow buyers to take possession of the digital as they would otherwise seize on the physical at purchase.

“Our identity is expressed through what we own,” Morewedge says. “A buyer pays money for the NFT so they control that piece of art because we exert control over our world through ownership. The idea of making something uniquely your own is very powerful. It’s what’s called the ‘endowment effect’—we value what we own over the same thing we don’t own.”

Morewedge suggests that the early NFT sales bringing in seven figures exploded onto the scene due to their historical significance.

“The NFT is changing the perception of ownership through user-generated content,” Morewedge adds. “It could signal the start of redesigning how platforms are monetized by changing concepts of who owns the material—by determining ownership through blockchain and not governmental means.”

Back in London, Craig sees the NFT experience so far as a rollercoaster ride.

“I don’t see the market slowing—all thanks to the pandemic,” Craig adds. “The physical art world may need to play catch up out there.”

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What Is ApeCoin (APE)?

ApeCoin is the official cryptocurrency of the famous Bored Apes Yacht Club (BAYC) project, an NFT collection that has Paris Hilton and Jimmy Fallon among its owners. The token was issued in March 2022 with quite a buzz and instantly entered the Top 40 cryptocurrencies list.

One of the main trends of today’s Internet is the merger of Web3 technology with entertainment, art, and gaming. ApeCoin takes advantage of all these at once, which may be the reason for its success. The token has utility and governance functions without the Ape Ecosystem — it will fuel P2E games and products launched by the ApeCoin DAO.

Let’s take a closer look at ApeCoin.

About ApeCoin (APE)

ApeCoin (APE) is a token launched on the Ethereum mainnet and controlled by the Ape community. Its goal is to encourage user activity and foster the formation of the Web3 Internet. APE plays a major role in the recently launched ApeCoin DAO — an organization behind the ApeCoin community that defines its development paths.

The only requirement to become a member of the ApeCoin DAO is holding some APE. Anyone who meets this criterion can submit proposals, vote on how the Ecosystem Fund is distributed, define what partnerships the DAO starts, and more. Thus, ApeCoin DAO with APE as the governance asset goes far beyond BAYC in an attempt to build a decentralized ecosystem.

What is the ApeCoin (APE) Team?

The core inspiration for the launch of ApeCoin was the NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club released by Yuga Labs in 2021. Neither ApeCoin nor ApeCoin DAO are controlled by this studio, Apecoin Foundation of the team behind BAYC, yet still Yuga Labs took active participation in creating APE. The token’s official website states that the asset was created by the ApeCoin DAO.

It’s still unknown what exact role Yuga Labs took in the project. Anyway, the studio remains one of the backbones of the Ape Ecosystem and will help it launch new products and services.

Who controls ApeCoin?

Although ApeCoin DAO is a decentralized organization that is fully controlled by ApeCoin holders, it’s overseen by a dedicated council of the Ape Foundation that comprises top professionals in Web3 and gaming:

• Alexis Ohanian, Reddit, Co-founder,
• Amy Wu, FTX, Head of Ventures and Gaming,
• Maaria Bajwa, Sound Ventures, Principal,
• Yat Siu, Animoca Brands, Co-founder and Chairman,
• Dean Steinbeck, Horizen Labs, President and General Counsel.

DAO members elect new council members every 6 months, which ensures rotation in the ApeCoin Foundation leaderboard.

How Does ApeCoin Tokenomics Work?

ApeCoin plays two key roles in the Ape Ecosystem. First, it’s a governance token — it gives its holders the voting power where 1 APE equals 1 vote. There will be the opportunity to delegate a vote to another user if a holder supposes that they have a better chance to promote the decision. APE is also a utility token that will give access to new products launched within the Ape Ecosystem, including play-to-earn games.

The total supply of APE is 1 billion tokens. A part of them will be locked for DAO contributors and released 4 years later. The unlock schedule started on March 17, 2022.

Token distribution

• 62% of APE tokens are being set aside for NFT holders (BAYC and two other ape collections released by Yuga Labs) and the DAO treasury,
• Another 38% are reserved for initial contributors:
• Yuga Labs that is a part of the ApeCoin DAO holds 15% of all APE, so it will have a considerable influence on decisions made in the decentralized organization,
• Another 14% of APE were reserved for “the companies and people that helped make this project a reality” — their exact names are unknown,
• 8% went to four Yuga Labs founders,
• 1% was reserved for Jane Goodall Legacy Foundation — an organization that takes care of real apes.

Even though the numbers suggest that all APE tokens were reserved, there are already enough coins in free circulation, and anyone can buy APE and join the ApeCoin DAO.

ApeCoin 2022 Value Data and Price Prediction

It’s yet hard to make a robust price prediction for ApeCoin since the project is very young — it’s only one month old and the price dynamic has been relatively stable to date. The further price movements will become more clear in the coming months as we see the first products launched in the Ape Ecosystem. The BAYC success suggests that if Yuga Labs takes active participation in project management, it will have a bright future.

When ApeCoin was just released and listed on Binance, KuCoin, ChangeNOW, and other major services, its price soared by 900%. After a quick plunge to $7 and lower, the token returned to the above-$10 level, and during the last month, it was trading between $10 and $14.

At the time of writing in the middle of April 2022, the APE market cap was $3.3 billion, its daily trading volume was $727 million, and the circulating supply was 277.5 million tokens. Currently, APE is taking the 39th position in CoinMarketCap and frequently gets onto the list of trending assets. According to the service, ApeCoin is on watchlists of 156,000 users. Etherscan shows that there are almost 45 thousand APE holders, of which only 3 wallet addresses keep between 1% and 3% of the token’s supply.

Although the token is young and there’s little data to make a solid price prediction, some services display a moderately bullish forecast for ApeCoin. Wallet Investor expects the token will cost $13.4 in a year and $22.1 in 5 years. Gov Capital gives APE $17.7 in a year and a whopping $79 in 5 years. Finally, Crowd Wisdom believes the token will cost $20.2 by 2023 and $44 by 2025.

How Do I Buy and Trade ApeCoin?

ApeCoin is traded on all major centralized and decentralized exchanges. If you have a multi-currency wallet or an account on any large exchange, you can buy and store your APE tokens there.

Best ApeCoin (APE) Wallets

NOW Wallet is a mobile wallet for those who value the simplicity of interface and are not ready to compromise on security. NOW is a non-custodial wallet that doesn’t store any sensitive data and does not give access to private keys to anyone besides the owner of crypto. The app is available for iOS and Android.

As ApeCoin is an ERC-20 token, you can also use Metamask to buy and trade the token. The wallet works well for those who actively use the Web3 infrastructure such as decentralized exchanges and blockchain games.

If you consider storing your coins in the long-term while enjoying ultimate security, choose Ledger. You can use the wallet to store your APE together with 1000+ assets offline. In the LedgerLive app, you can buy or sell ApeCoin using the swap tool powered by ChangeNOW.

ApeCoin (APE) Crypto Exchanges

ApeCoin is available on numerous exchanges and exchange services. One of them is ChangeNOW — a limitless crypto exchange service where you can buy APE in just a few clicks for 350+ cryptocurrencies. Our non-custodial swap platform allows you to get some ApeCoin without registration, KYC, and hidden fees.

Summary

ApeCoin is a new crypto token that boasts a strong community and team. The founders promote Web3 and are aimed to implement their vision in the ApeCoin DAO. Yuga Labs that created BAYC has demonstrated their promotion skills, but there are doubts regarding its possibly too large influence in the ApeCoin DAO. Besides Yuga Labs, the list of token holders includes NFT owners, APE Treasury, and Ape Ecosystem contributors. The DAO is guided by a council made of top professionals in the industry.

APE is still a young token, so it’s hard to say yet where its price will go in the months to come. The asset demonstrated great success in the first couple of days and managed to stay on the Top 40 crypto list. The fact that it was instantly listed on all major exchanges and the big plans of the Ape Ecosystem make us believe that APE is here to stay.

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DeepRedSky: New Marketplace Looks To Attract Crypto Users With Trump NFTs

On Wednesday, social media platform Parler officially announced the launch of its new Solana NFT marketplace, DeepRedSky. According to the announcement, the first collection, which is dubbed “Official CryptoTrump Club,” is dedicated to the former U.S. president.

Meanwhile, DeepRedSky has confirmed that each CryptoTRUMP is unique, with images of former President Donald Trump in different settings. However, out of the 10,000 NFT collection, 250 are said to be extremely rare NFTs.

DeepRedSky To Help Parler Move Beyond Politics

Speaking about the launch, Sam Lipoff, Parler CTO, confirms that the platform will certainly be playing host to a wide variety of NFTs in the months ahead. However, he says while Parler is more than happy to host political discourse, the team wants to move beyond politics.

Lipoff also admitted that the Parler site of today is truly heavily political. He then added:

“But I think, beginning in the next few months, you’ll see a variety of NFTs that we would call both partisan and non-partisan, and we hope that diversifies the audience a little bit.”

Will Trump Really Appeal To The Crypto Community?

To an extent it may be understandable, why a high-profile public figure like Donald Trump is being used in the latest Solana NFT project. But it is also a risky take, considering how polarizing a figure Trump is, particularly with crypto audiences.

Recall that in 2021, Trump shared his negative view on cryptocurrencies in an interview. Trump said:

“Bitcoin just seems like a scam. I don’t like it because it’s another currency competing against the dollar.”

The Trend of Online Platforms Integrating NFTs

Meanwhile, it has somewhat become a growing trend for online platforms to integrate non-fungible tokens NFTs into their user experience. For instance, the likes of Twitter and subscription-site OnlyFans already allow verified NFT profiles.

But Parler CTO Sam Lipoff insists that the case is different with DeepRedSky, who is not in anyway following anyone.

“Let me be clear that we are not trying to copy Twitter, in any way,” Lipoff says. Lipoff explained further about what sets Parler aside from the rest saying;

“Part of our pitch to creators is that we’re a free speech platform that is not going to demonetize you or kick you off if you say something that violates orthodoxy,” Lipoff says. “We also want to provide additional creative features for creators to be able to not only reach different audiences but be able to monetize.”

One might also notice, that it is easy to confuse DeepRedSky with Twitter’s decentralized social media platform project, “bluesky.” However, they are two entirely different projects

DeepRedSky is the latest Solana NFT project that Parler is getting involved with. Before now, the platform had also featured former First Lady of the United States Melania Trump.

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