There is a new phenomenon in the online business world that tends to have exploded this year in a similar way that bitcoin did in late 2020 and early 2021. This new phenomenon is called Non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Artwork, music files, iconic moments from different games to even tweets on popular social media platforms down to things like toilet paper are now easily converted to digital assets and are selling at quite unbelievable rates. If you have been involved in any conversation on NFTs and have been wondering how you can mint your own NFTs in Nigeria and join the league of millionaires from digital arts this post is for you. How to mint your own NFTs in Nigeria and make millions from it is actually among the business ideas I like to refer to as Blue Ocean Ideas.
But what are NFTs? Are NFTs worth the money paid to acquire them or the hype it generates? What are experts saying about it? How can one make money from it? What should be your position on NFTs? These and other questions are what we are going to attempt to answer in this chapter.
What is NFTs?
NFT – Non Fungible Token in the simplest possible definition I can relate to is a digital asset that represents real-world objects. It could be real objects like art, music, in-game items, pictures, videos, books etc. They are bought and sold online, most notably with cryptocurrency. And they are generally encoded with the same underlying software as many cryptos. Specifically, NFTs run on the Ethereum platform. It is called ‘non-fungible’ because it is neither exchangeable nor transferrable. Meaning it holds unique value and worth in the hand of whoever needs it.
Unlike physical money or cryptocurrencies, one NFT is not equal to another NFT even if they are similar. One dollar in America is equal to one dollar in Nigeria. And one Bitcoin in Texas is exactly the same value and can be exchanged with another one Bitcoin in Tokyo. But the same cannot be said about two similar art works. As confusing as this sounds depending on what you already know or otherwise about NFTs but your understanding and accepting it that way is what will help you appreciate this business opportunity.
Although NFTs have been around since 2014, it is gaining notoriety now because they are becoming an increasingly popular way to buy and sell digital artwork. And to be sincere, the whole world only started taking proper notice of NFTs and the power it holds in April 2021 after crypto artist Mike Winkelmann sold an NFT for $69.3 million at Christie’s auction house. That sale broke the world’s records of the amount paid for a digital artwork by some miles.
So essentially, almost any item can be minted as an NFT. And once an NFT it could potentially be sold for millions of dollars all things been equal. I will explain this better as we proceed.
How Does NFTs Work?
As mentioned earlier, most NFTs are part of the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum is a cryptocurrency just like Bitcoin or Dogecoin, but its blockchain also supports these NFTs, which store extra information that makes them work differently from, say, Ether coin. It is worth noting that other blockchains can equally implement their own versions of NFTs – some are already doing.
To participate in the NFTs business all you need to do is to simply visit any of the market places where NFTs are traded. And with your credit card or your digital wallet you can purchase any NFTs of your choice. In like manner you can also sell it whenever you locate someone who is willing to pay higher amount for it.
You can also mint your own NFTs (which is something I greatly recommend). In fact this post is majorly about how to mint your own NFTs right in Nigeria.
Also Read:
How to Start a Football Academy in Nigeria (2022)
How to start palm oil business in Nigeria (2022)
Perfect Example of a Sachet Water Business Plan for 2022
HOW TO MAKE MONEY FROM WEB DESIGN AS A BUSINESS
Why Elon Musk Bought Twitter at All Cost
Why You Need a Blog – 20 Benefits of Blogging
HOW TO START ONLINE TRAVEL AGENCY IN THE US
Which items can one mint?
As I have said before almost anything can be minted. Iconic moments from special events can be pictured and minted as NFTs and I want you to consider the followings:
Drogba’s Champions League Final Celebration
Imagine that iconic picture of Didier Drogba celebrating with the Champions league trophy that historic night in 2012 with cameramen chasing him around at the Allianz Arena. If the original picture of that moment is minted by the photographer that took it or Didier himself and auctioned as an NFT I tell you it will be worth millions of dollars today.
Kanu Nwankwo Golden Goal Celebration
How many of you remember Kanu Nwankwo’s golden goal celebration in Atlanta Olympic back then in 1996? I am sure that even you that is reading this book would have loved to have the exclusive picture of that celebration with an autograph on it hanging somewhere in your house.
End Sars Protest Iconic Pictures
I once saw two iconic pictures from the End Sars protest that happened in Nigeria in 2020. That protest holds so much emotional moment for many Nigerians, especially the young people. If those pictures were minted as NFTs, it could potentially make millions of dollars for the photographer.
Your Personal Moments
I don’t need to mention all the iconic moments in the history of mankind before you understand my drift. But I am sure I have got you thinking and that you can remember things that could easily pass for valuable NFTs, starting from the titanic shipwreck, to iconic moments in your own life, to standout moments in events you have organized in the past, to beautiful nature’s gifts in your village such as rivers, mountains, monuments to artifacts and many more.
Do People Really Pay for NFTs
But one question I will be surprised if you are not asking is ‘how could someone possibly be willing to pay hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars for an ordinary JPEG image that I can easily go online and screenshot or download? Well, if you are asking that question, then you are not alone. You are only been normal. The only problem is that people who are completely normal are not likely to make so much money from NFTs. Yes, that is the truth. It looks like a business for weird men. NFT is for the misfits. It is exactly at this point that NFTs gets so messy and almost funny. However, in attempting to answer that question I will tell you that there are about four reasons I can think of, why people pay that much:
- NFT allows the buyer to own the original item – originality.
- It contains built-in authentication, which serves as proof of ownership and the fact remains that people of the internet don’t think like you do, most of them value those “digital bragging rights” almost more than the item itself.
- Some people treat them like they’re the future of fine arts and a playground for the mega rich, in this case it is more of a status symbol.
- Finally, most people pay that much with full conviction they can even sell it higher.
So if you are planning or thinking of how to mint your own NFTs in Nigeria, just go ahead. You might just be lucky to get interested buyers.
Why You Should Seriously Consider NFTs in 2022
I was having this conversation with some friends recently and one of them made a statement like ‘if Bitcoin can make you a millionaire, NFT will make you a billionaire’. Yeah, that may be speculation. The market is such that no one may be able to say for sure if it will turn out that way. But here are few reasons I think you should seriously consider NFTs in 2022.
- As at December 2016 one Bitcoin was worth $753. But not many could exactly explain what it was all about then. By December 2021 (5 years later) one Bitcoin sold for $60,955. Before the advent of NFTs I don’t know any other investment in the world that could have done better, except of course investing in yourself.
- A piece of NFT already sold for nearly $70 million dollar before our very eyes. Jack Dorsey also sold a single tweet as NFT for over $2.9 million.
- Notable personalities who could potentially influence the world and investment narratives are getting into the NFTs conversation. Think of Elon Musk.
- Digital currency could potentially replace the physical currency as we have them today.
- Even very conservative nations like the Nigerian government are launching digital currencies – it could be a pointer to what will eventually be.
- Young people and teenagers are taking the business seriously which also points to the future. In August 2021 a 12 year old Benyamin Ahmed made about $400,000 from Whale NFTs.
- Pudgy Penguins (a type of NFT) moved from $40 to about $10,000 within a space of 3 months in 2021.
What is the Difference Between NFTs and Cryptocurrency?
Like we have mentioned repeatedly, NFT is generally built using the same kind of technology (Blockchain technology) as cryptocurrencies. Just like Bitcoin or Ethereum and others, but that’s where the similarity ends. So the issue of classifying NFT as a cryptocurrency is grossly misrepresenting it. So here are key differences to note about the two:
- Crypto1currencies just like physical money (pounds, dollar, and naira) are fungible. This means they can be traded or exchanged for one another. NFT on the other hand is non-fungible. This means that each always has a digital signature that makes it impossible to be exchanged.
- Physical money and cryptocurrencies are always equal in value. One dollar is always worth another one dollar. Similarly, one Bitcoin is always equal to another Bitcoin. On the other hand no two NFTs are equal in value even if they are sold or bought for the same amount.
Step by Step Approach to Mint your Own NFT
For the purposes of our practice in this post I will guide you using the Mintable App. But the process is very similar for almost all the other marketplaces you might want to consider. And the good part is that they are all very user friendly. So each step is self-explanatory.
So here are the steps to mint your own NFTs from anywhere in Nigeria:
Step 1: Download a Crypto Wallet
You need to have a digital or crypto wallet like, Ethereum wallet, Trust wallet, Metamask, Coinbase, AlphaWallet etc. Each of this is easily downloadable from playstore or apple store. Please, note that Mintable works majorly with Metamask Wallet.
Step 2: Fund Your Wallet
You need to fund your wallet with Ethereum coin which is the most popular coin for transacting NFTs.
Step 3: Create an account with any NFT Marketplace
A marketplace is where NFTs are bought and sold. Popular marketplaces you will find are OpenSea, Rarible, and Grimes Choice, Nifty Gateway, Superrare, Mintable and others. So you will have to create an account in any of them. And in this case Mintable since that is what we are practicing with. They will send a verification email to the email address you used to create your account. Please do make sure to onfirm the email to proceed.
Step 4: Connect Your Wallet to the NFT Marketplace
After you have created an account on Mintable you can now connect it to your Metamask Wallet. NFTs are stored on the blockchain, and crypto wallets are the only way that you can access funds or assets stored on the blockchain. So without linking your wallet you will not be able to access the money people are paying you for purchasing your NFTs.
Step 5: Start Minting
The process of converting your artwork into an NFT is called Minting. And it involves creating new tokens on the blockchain that are eternally linked to your artwork as a unique digital certificate of ownership. It is that digital certificate of ownership that gives value to the NFT. And it equally shows that you are the original creator.
After you have verified the email address you used in creating your account in step 4 above you will see on the home page 2 options ‘Start Minting Now’ or ‘Shop Now’. If you are looking for an NFT to buy you should click on ‘Shop Now’, but since we want to sell instead we will click on “Start Minting Now’.
When you click ‘Start Minting Now’ you will further see another 2 options; ‘The NFT is already in my wallet’ or ‘Create a new item’. If you have created an NFT in the past and want to sell it now, you click on ‘The NFT is already in my wallet’, but since in this case we want to mint a brand new NFT that has never been in existence we select ‘Create a new item’. Once that is selected the “easy” mode is automatically set to help you create a gasless NFT. Click on “Create a new item” again to make a gasless NFT FOR FREE.
Fill out the details of the item you are uploading and then upload it.
Step 6: Set your price
You are the digital artist and you have the right to set the price to whatever amount you prefer, but please be reasonable, if you are not Beeple don’t think you will automatically sell yours for $69 million.
That is all – you just minted your own NFT and it is listed on one of the most popular marketplaces with any of the 7 billion people in the world as your potential customer. You don’t need anyone to help you and do this; rather, now that you have learnt it from here you can setup and start offering that service to people who refuse to read this book. Yes, I know several people that their job is to help ‘Crypto Novices’ to buy and sell coins and for each purchase they make they collect a certain percentage and they are making good money from it. This is even far less popular, so chances are that 99% of the people you know have zero knowledge on how to mint NFT. So you can charge and do that for them.
Important Points to Note about Minting NFTs
1. Be driven purely by knowledge and not by greed.
There are lots of people out there following speculators and throwing in their money in the name of buying NFTs that may never amount to anything. And this is one of the reasons I recommend more of minting your own NFTs than buying the ones you know nothing about.
2. If you are minting include reselling option
If you are minting your own NFT, I strongly recommend that you include the option of reselling it. There are two things it does for you: One, most of the people you see buying NFTs in those marketplaces are not buying it because they want to use it to do anything, nor because they believe it has any value in itself (few however do), they are buying them purely for business with the hope that they will see someone else who will place more value on it and pay them higher.
So if you include the option that it can’t be resold you have significantly reduced the number of people who will be interested in buying your NFT. The second reason you need to include that is because for a reseller option you are still entitled to royalties from further sales. So as the owner you never really lose ownership of the product completely (at least reward-wise). And I think this must have been one of the things the people that started NFT had in mind. They wanted to protect ownership of different digital works, which is also another way of fighting piracy.
3. NFT has no absolute value
NFT’s value is based entirely on what someone else is willing to pay for it. Therefore, what will drive the price is demand rather than fundamental, technical or economic indicators, which typically is usually the case with other investments such as stocks. What this means is that there is a possibility that an NFT may resale for less than what you paid for it or you may not even be able to resell it at all if no one wants to buy it.
4. Experts agree that NFT investment is a risky venture
Experts say that NFTs are risky because their future is uncertain. And we don’t yet have a lot of history to judge their performance – all the results we have today are short term. And speculations don’t help matters too.
5. Start with an amount you can afford to lose
Since NFTs are so new, I would advise that you start your investment with a small amount. Preferably amount you may not need immediately – and not your children 2022 school fees. In fact, start with something you can afford to lose.
6. You may be enjoying first mover advantage
I seem to be persuading you to get into the NFTs market. Well, maybe I am. And the reason is because I am a great advocate of positioning for first mover advantage. If you had bought Bitcoin in 2016 it could have been great. But I am not too eager about it today. But for NFTs my curiosity is charged towards it.
7. If you can mint yours, please do.
I have shown you the step by step guide on how to mint your own NFTs even in Nigeria. So if you are passionate about NFTs, I would recommend you learn how to mint your own rather than buying based on speculation.
8. Do your own research (DYOR)
I have taken time to explain what NFTs mean. I have also explain how you can buy or sell NFTs. And I equally explain how to mint your own NFTs even in Nigeria. But don’t stop with this post. If you truly want to make money from minting NFTs as a Nigerian do more research. Ask questions around. And find out what the current situation is as at the time you are ready.
Now you are ready to mint your own NFTs in Nigeria. I wish you the very best.