I’ve essentially outlined the steps Kevin Roose took in his NY TIMES piece about creating the first NYT article ever sold as an NFT. So - here you go:
SET UP A DIGITAL WALLET: The browser extension MetaMask is one you can use to create one. This holds NFT’s you create (in Step 4 below), and any crypto you make from asset sales. You configure your Wallet to hold a particular cryptocurrency (Ethereum is very popular in the NFT scene, but others work with Bitcoin of course).
SET UP AN ACCOUNT ON AN NFT AUCTION SITE: Something called Foundation is apparently one of them (although there are plenty, just like there are IRL auction houses). Then link your MetaMask Wallet to your new Foundation account.
UPLOAD YOUR DIGITAL FILE (audio file, image, script pdf, etc) TO A STORAGE SERVICE. Roose used something called IFPS.
CREATE OR “MINT” YOUR UNIQUE NFT. Roose says Foundation makes this “easy”. This is when you attach or brand your NFT code to your digital asset for eternity. Then you generate the code to run your auction (again, sounds like Foundation can do this). These actions cost about $50 to $100 total depending upon overall site volume at a given time. But unsurprisingly there is now an app for that, which does it for free if you want to explore.
LIST YOUR NFT AS “FOR SALE” / BEGIN AUCTION ON FOUNDATION. Enter a minimum price in Ethereum coin… and publicize away my friend. Auction will last for 24 hours once you get a bid for your minimum price. If there’s a bidding war in the last 15 minutes, the auction will extend.
A WINNER IS DECLARED AT THE END OF THE 24 PERIOD: the NFT ASSET goes from your Wallet account to the Wallet of the buyer; ETHEREUM COINS go into your Wallet, where you can then sell/convert it to real $$ if you like.
You can also put in a clause (for lack of a better term) in the auction whereby you’ll get a certain percentage of any future sales made by people who buy your digital asset in perpetuity, something the Blockchain records as part of the sale. Seems a 10% creator cut is standard.
ALSO 10% of the sale goes to FOUNDATION/the auction site. Just like having an agent.
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