Minting an NFT sounds like an expensive thing to do. The marketplaces have fees, the blockchain transactions have gas fees, and who knows what other costs are hidden in between.
So, are NFT artists and creators destined to always pay gas fees for each NFT they list?
Not really. If that were the case, there would be fewer NFTs being uploaded every day on OpenSea, but statistics show that 1000 NFTs are being sold per day.
However, the entry-level bar for the world of NFT minting has been lowered with the advent of lazy minting. On top of that, there are alternatives to lazy minting that still might allow you to mint an NFT for free.
Let’s take a look at the best ways to mint an NFT for free.
What is mint NFT?
Minting an NFT is nothing more than making your NFT part of the Ethereum blockchain. Minting an NFT makes your NFT counterfeit-proof and stores your NFTs in an unchangeable ledger available to the public. Once the NFT is created, you’ll be charged by the marketplace for publishing it.
Minting an NFT usually requires the payment of a gas fee. These are payments made by NFT creators to blockchain miners as a reward for validating transactions on the Blockchain. When the Blockchain is particularly congested, the gas fees skyrocket.
Once an NFT has been gassed, it has become part of the Blockchain and cannot be further modified. On any given day, gas fees can be as low as $2 or as high as $300. This volatility is part of what makes investing in NFTs a bit off-putting for some, yet it can be played to your advantage if you know which days to mint on.
Since most people trade NFTs because they want to earn money from sales, it’s a bit discouraging to see gas fees and marketplace fees eat up any profit you might gain from the sale.
When NFTs are minted, they usually become part of an NFT marketplace. Once your NFT has been created, it’s time to begin trading it on OpenSea, Rarible, or any other marketplace of your choice.
Not all types of Blockchain have gas fees, though, opening the possibility of NFTs minted for free. To understand why some types of Blockchain have fees and others do not, first, we need to know how Blockchain works.
A blockchain is a public, tamper-proof ledger that records transactions and assets in ways that are impossible to modify in a business network.
That’s when Polygon comes in. Polygon is what’s known as a scaling solution for the Ethereum blockchain. Instead of using their Blockchain, scaling solutions work on top of another existing one, in this case, Ethereum.
Thanks to it, you’re able to bypass the gas fee to mint the NFTs for free in a process known as lazy minting.
Lazy minting has lowered the entry bar to the NFT world by allowing NFT creators to list their NFTs without the upfront gas fees.
An interested buyer could purchase the NFT with either the option of paying for the NFT and the gas fee or paying for the NFT and having the gas fee deducted from the seller’s profits.
Best place to mint NFT
The best places to mint NFT are OpenSea and Rarible. These two marketplaces have the advantage of allowing lazy minting while still being reasonably popular.
OpenSea in specific is the top NFT online marketplace, and Rarible has a relatively beginner-friendly step-by-step guide for those interested in creating their NFT collection.
One of the premier ways to mint an NFT for free is using the Collection Manager on OpenSea, which allows you to create your NFTs without paying gas.
As per OpenSea’s rules, your first listing on their site will need to pay gas fees anyways associated with initializing your account.
Mintable is also another platform that allows the creation of free NFTs. Mintable has a free creation process with zero fees for creating or even listing the NFTs, making it more promising if you’re looking for lower investment and higher gains.
One of the downsides of the platform is its lengthy registration process, on top of being considerably less user-friendly than both OpenSea and Rarible.
How to mint NFT
To start your lazy minting collection, we’ve assembled a guide based on the leading marketplaces: OpenSea and Rarible. We’ve also included a guide for Mintable, as it allows the creation of NFTs for free.
When minting on OpenSea
- The first thing to do is create an ERC-1155 collection at OpenSea, by clicking here.
- Once you create your collection of NFTs, select it. This will prompt an Edit Button and Add New Item button.
- Click on the Edit button and adjust the listing’s settings, including the royalties, currencies, social tokens allowed, and any social media links you’d like to add.
- Then, click on the Add New Item button to create a new NFT. This will encode your address, and it’s supply in the token’s ID so no one except the owner can mint more of them.
When minting on Rarible
- Go to Rarible.com’s site by clicking here.
- Select “Create” and answer the questions and general info of your NFT.
- Press “free minting.”
- Press “create item” and sign the authorization with your wallet.
When minting on Mintable
- Visit Mintable’s webpage here.
- Sign up on Mintable’s and connect your wallet.
- Click on “Create a new item” when it shows up on the screen.
- You’ll be shown a pop-up that offers you an easy or advanced way to mint NFTs. We recommend you choose easy if you’re a beginner.
- You’ll be shown a second pop-up inquiring which Blockchain you’d like to mint the project on.
Pros and Cons of Lazy minting
While fantastic on paper for those who want to get into NFTs without spending their life savings just on fees, lazy minting isn’t without its drawbacks.
Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of lazy minting:
The main advantage of lazy minting is that it allows creators to mint digital NFTs without risking selling. If you minted the NFT and paid for gas plus the marketplace fees, there’s still no guarantee that it would be sold. You would be paying fee after fee with no certainty that you’d even break even.
Any transaction that occurs on the Ethereum blockchain requires gas. Gas and minting, while related, are paid for differently.
The project’s creators determine the mint price for the NFT, while the gas fee is determined by the number of transactions submitted to the Blockchain.
What are gas fees?
The gas fee is incurred as payment for miners approving the transaction. The miner must first ensure that the transaction is legitimate, and when any of them occur on the Blockchain, users can easily see it thanks to the P2P network.
The price of gas rises because of the number of users submitting transactions on the Blockchain, which is determined by the time of day and day of the week.
That’s why you might see some NFT creators dropping collections at awkward times or days of the week. They want to avoid gas fees by choosing the time with fewer people transacting.
Now, are there any other free tools for NFT enthusiasts to mint their collections for free?
OpenSea has a collection of developer tutorials that can provide you with free tools to mint your NFT at the lowest cost or even for free altogether. You can also run a crowd sale for your items, which counts with OpenSea integration.
However, many of these methods will require you to know one or two things about developing, so if you’re a stranger to these, what other options do you have for minting an NFT free of cost?
Crowdsale
A crowdsale consists of a public offering for new crypto or NFT, allowing creators to raise funds for an NFT project. Crowdsales can help you allocate tokens to participants in exchange for Ether.
In essence, you’re using the OPM principle for this method. Other people’s money is a strategy for financial leverage, which serves as borrowed capital to finance a project.
In theory, you’re not minting the NFT for free, but you’re not using your capital to mint it either, thus minimizing costs as long as you can provide the investors a return.
This is much easier in practice than other types of businesses, thanks to the possibility of using NFT airdrops and giveaways to promote your collection.
Final words about minting NFT for free
These days, it’s challenging to find someone not interested in minting an NFT. The big companies like Walmart, Adidas, and Nike are doing it, while others are dabbling in their ways into the future of digital art.
Independent NFT artists might be interested in minting an NFT for free but be unaware of the marketplaces that allow lazy minting. The best place to mint an NFT, lazy or not, is OpenSea, though both Rarible and Mintable are great alternatives.
