An NFT is an object that exists via its token on a blockchain.

The creation of a token is commonly called “minting”, and generally happens with a transaction with the blockchain network, when you “mint the NFT”.

The assumption that a blockchain has enough support to last for a long time is what gives these objects much of their value: will you be able to use it? get some appreciation? profits? thinking long enough, could it be a life changing inheritance?

Sometimes minting can yield more luck, when you get a rare or expensive piece of art. And sometimes less, when you get a less satisfying one.

Sometimes minting mechanics can break a community and create FUD and even adversaries, and sometimes the mint turns shameful depending on the rug.

Mints can be done by the creators, or can be done in a user initiated transaction, or can be done after the transaction, in a post-sale transaction + drop. They can also take more or less realtime input, from transaction time, to random number, to frontend input, to user input, and so on.

They can be done from a custom contract, created just for them, with varying levels of intricacy, from open source pfp generators, to ACK. Or from existing services that have their own contracts and systems, from an enterprise like opensea to the *hic et nunc *protocol.

Now, the poetry of minting is the creation of the object, which is a function of all the work put in by the project team, by the developers of tools and the blockchain, and the network, like gas fees).

If you assume that Ethereum will be here 100 years from now, then Ozzy’s CryptoBatz will be an enduring piece of his legacy and a rare piece of art. But if you believe that Ethereum will be here 1000 years from now, then those objects carry the legend of Ozzy, the Bat Biter, forever, to other planets and so on.

From that perspective, the minting of an NFT can be a legendary act. The lores around it, and their cultural impact POSSIBLY reverberating through time.

Anyway, observe the NFT become the supreme and everlasting link between the physical world and an idea, or the metaverse… like an art with properties ABC that give access to XYZ, a purposeful mint can help define a decentralized process of great consequences.