As a visual person, I usually have to do a thing in order to understand how it works. The reason for this is that for some, it is only through the process of building muscle memory that something can be understood. For example, you could explain the concept of driving to someone, but they most likely wouldn’t be able to sit in a car for the very first time in their life and immediately be a decent driver.
In that spirit of trying to understand a thing by doing the thing, I decided to turn a graphic that I created, in association with a short story that I wrote, into an NFT. This article is a (very long) step-by-step account of that process.
Please note that I am not an expert on web3 or NFTs. This account is meant to exist as an intermittent chronicle of my journey trying to understand this new phase of the internet. I fully understand that I may get things wrong—don’t hesitate to reach out and correct me if so inclined.
NFT stands for “non-fungible token”.
At a more granular level, an NFT is essentially a digital receipt (like one you would get after completing a store purchase) built by a blockchain-housed program called a “smart contract”. Through code, the smart contract permanently verifies, among other information, that a certain person owns a certain thing.
To an array of opinions, NFTs promise something that users of the internet technically, if tenuously, already have—verifiable, irrevocable ownership.
To go a little bit into the “why” around NFTs (at least as I understand things currently), the internet provides takes aplenty to attempt to clarify what the actual value of an NFT is. Why would one buy an NFT over simply purchasing a unique physical item? What makes NFT art ownership more valuable than an artist physically doodling on a postcard right in front of me, signing it, and handing it to me?
One metaphor that started to help things make some sense for me came from this article, using the plot of the film Phantom Thread. The article revealed what I personally believe is the primary reason for the existence of NFTs: to replicate the scarcity and exclusivity associated with the fine art world.
Art that exists purely in digital form is difficult/near impossible to create exclusivity around, given its very nature as a graphical asset on the right click + save internet. So how does a digital artist manufacture a similar experience to buying a one-of-a-kind framed artwork in a physical gallery? That is where NFTs come in handy, as monetary—and to some extent personal—value can be ascribed to an infinitely save-able image, and a transaction and verification of ownership recorded to a blockchain where it cannot be changed (kinda).
Through this lens of context, the reason for NFTs mostly unwavering popularity starts to make a bit more sense. Many involved in the NFT art space claim, and have proven, that NFTs can help level the playing field for underrepresented artists. The energy of the fine art world, being by design not terribly accessible or inclusive, can finally be claimed by those whose very worthy digital media has struggled to make it into meatspace for a variety of reasons including costs associated with getting into galleries, printing materials, travel, not getting attention from the right audience, lack of resources to network and start getting established, etc.
Contrary takes point out that a majority of NFT artists who are succeeding in the space are already either incredibly wealthy, have existing platforms and audiences, or some combination. The NFT art hustle is not necessarily as kind to every artist as its platform thesis implies. Further issues arise with the frequency of how artists and their work are often taken advantage of, or stolen. Famously, the NFT space is rife with scams and social engineering. This is an ongoing and thus far unchanged reality that is a large contributor to the image of the NFT space as a cringey haven for grifters, thieves and circle jerks of crypto bros looking to make a quick buck.
All this understood, I nevertheless seek to understand more. Not just the reality of this brave new internet, but how the hell it works, and what the value to me as an artist and occasional content creator might be.
As someone who is not deeply invested in anything blockchain related, who has no rooster in the crypto fight and is generally interested in all things tech adjacent, I would personally err on the side of assuming all of the above is true and valid. There is utility to NFTs (creating scarcity and audiences around digital art, redefining how digital and physical work can complement each other), and it is promising to see some of the communities of artists that have sprung up around NFTs. There is also the darker side, further augmented by the concerning reality of the ecological impact of maintaining the blockchain technologies that power NFTs. These are things I was well aware of going in to my experiment, and I am on a continuing journey of trying to unpack all these nuances as I explore the web3 realm.
In deciding to try and create an NFT of my own for the first time, I had a few different desired outcomes. I wanted to:
Understand the process from start to finish of getting an asset up on a blockchain/NFT marketplace.
Understand how much I could customize the NFT content. I wanted to tell a story with my NFT, rather than just put a jpg or mov up on OpenSea and call it a day.
Understand, for myself, what the value would be to having my content on a marketplace. Would this be something I’d do consistently in the future? To what end, other than to get my work visible on a new art platform?
I have a confession to make. I find the majority of NFTs uncompromisingly boring and often ugly. Outside of some legitimately cool art, photography and utility projects, there is not a single NFT I am thirsting over enough to want to buy…with the exception of those associated with the Tableland project, and the only thing stopping me there is I can’t personally justify spending hundreds on them yet. (This from someone who has definitely spent a few hundred bucks total on micro-transactions in games like Destiny 2 and the Elder Scrolls Online—but that’s different*, I can* use those things! When there’s a *quality* video game that allows me to import an NFT and use/customize it in gameplay, then we’ll talk).
Tangent aside, point being that I find most (not all) NFTs ugly and/or boring. So given that reality, I was torn between doing the bare minimum, and putting in probably way too much effort.
I ended up putting in way too much effort because my pretentious ass doesn’t want to be associated with mediocrity. I pulled up some designs for a writing project that had been collecting dust in my NAS, and decided to retrofit them into 2160 x 2160 animated .movs. I wouldn’t go the extra mile and make them looping gifs. In addition to the .mov, I would write a very short story which would be the set up for a universe of flash fiction that I am developing as a personal project. I waffled between making the story “exclusive content” locked behind the purchase of the NFT. But I decided against it for one main reason:
I believe art and storytelling should be accessible. Regardless if the NFT itself is designed to be scarce, I have no current interest in locking my stories behind a paywall.
Whoever is inclined to own a certificate to this work may do so, but the consumption of the content will be fully open in the hopes that anyone who comes across it can appreciate it.
I booted up Illustrator, After Effects and got to work. The design was simple enough, mostly an excuse to throw lots of textures on vector art. I have several iterations of this secondary character, the artificially intelligent sailboat Anthroposophy, ready to go for future stories, and I’m actually really looking forward to animating them and sharing the work in the future.
It’s the writing that’s the hard part (always). These characters and stories have lived in my head for quite some time, so I’ll be honest that this process of freeing bits of them has been a bit cathartic for me.
After some light googling to try and find out if webpages could somehow be turned into NFTs, perhaps publishing here on mirror.xyz, I determined that for simplicity and presentation’s sake, the written story would just be housed on my Squarespace website, while the NFT would live on OpenSea. I was still not sure how the two could be linked at this juncture, but that would presumably reveal itself as I set about setting up the NFT.
Update: It didn’t really. I’ve yet to find a way to connect created content of different asset types together in a way that is trackable via smart contracts…if someone knows how to do this, hmu! Entirely possible that I’m just overthinking it.
I am finally getting more comfortable using wallets to log in to web3* applications and platforms. I like that it’s essentially a version of using Google, Facebook or Twitter to authenticate into applications, but with the added function of housing stuff like crypto tokens, NFTs, and I guess other stuff.
* Note that going forward, I’m simply going to use web3 as a blanket term for anything related to cryptocurrencies, blockchain platforms like bitcoin, ethereum and others, and applications built on blockchain technology. Reason being, that is essentially the ecosystem of STUFF that "web3" is referring to.
1. One thing I googled for and had expected to see in OpenSea was a way to set up a collection for multiple pieces of artwork. I expected that if you had, for example, work that was created on a particular theme, you’d be able to upload a bunch of graphics and have them sorted under that collection.
Sidenote: I am assuming that at some point I’ll be treated to some sort of a preview of what the page with my NFT will look like before it goes live on the marketplace. Not really clear how all this is going to actually look.
2. Aha, finally some context about my question regarding how to sort graphics into collections. I had thought I’d be asked to create a collection earlier on, however it seems that’s something I have to do separately. So that’s what I’ll do now.
3. I clicked on the three dots just for fun. I have no idea what any of this means. “Importing an existing smart contract” or “minting on [platform]” has no meaning to me right now.
4. The page hung up when I clicked “create a collection”. Trying a page refresh.
5. A few refreshes and wallet log out/log ins later, finally got into setting up a collection. So far, so straightforward. I’m wondering if I’ll be able to edit my collection settings after it’s set up.
6. Ruh-roh. Got some conflicting info—a “created” tooltip appeared as the page loaded into a 404. Checking to see if my collection was made or what.
Clicking buttons and refreshing the page currently doing nothing—seems stuck on this 404. Closing the tab and opening a fresh one. So far this experience feels par for the course with web3 stuff. Not sure what is happening or why. Things seem oddly slow, though every other tab and website I have open is working fine.
7. Got a new tab open, went to OpenSea, had to log back in with my same wallet, went to check if I had any collections and seems I’m good to go. Back to making the NFT.
Sidenote that also—yes, a collection can indeed be modified after the fact.
8. I don’t really know what any of the below, besides the last two toggles, means. So I will ignore them for now.
Update that I did sort of finally understand “properties” to be a kind of tagging mechanism to track different assets? I think?
9. I sort of knew what to do here, but also didn’t because my perception of scarcity in relation to digital artwork is still quite jazz-handsy. I set a supply limit of 10, which I think I understand to mean that only 10 of them can ever be minted. I’m using a very low number because again, this is an experimental process and I don’t expect much monetary traction to come of it anyway.
10. So, uh, quite a bit of web3 language sounds like English, but I have trouble interpreting it into something that I understand and can then take action on. I assume this is due to the still very developer-centric nature of the platforms. Need some real microcopy writers stat!
I don’t really think freezing metadata is a thing I need to be concerned with right now. Also…where did I set metadata…? When I hear the word metadata, I think of things like tags that are assigned to a digital asset for tracking or informational purposes. Is metadata in this situation all the info that I’ve already added, like the NFT’s title, description, etc? Not clear. I could google it, but will save that for later.
11. I’m truly and deeply not a fan of web3 applications propensity to leave you in suspense for indeterminate amounts of time. Give me a better progress bar, some cute microcopy, something to let me know what’s going on in the background.
12. Dope, the NFT has been created. However I’m not sure yet if that means that it is live or what…
Instantaneous update—well I guess it is since I’m already on a page that shows the NFT.
It would be nice if links to NFTs were “human readable”, that being, not just a long jumble of numbers and letters but rather something like “opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0xf63/archive01”, or whatever.
13. So obviously I’ll set this up, but as a user it definitely feels like a small bit of friction to have to pause and get card payments set up via Moonpay. It’s just a tiny ordeal to get through.
14. Ope—turns out basic setup was a literal snap! I’ll do the advanced verification at a later time. …maybe.
15. So I’m finally getting some confirmation about things I set up earlier when preparing the NFT. Given that I set the supply of this .mov to 10, there are therefore 10 available to sell (yay rocket science).
16. Tooltip coming in clutch here, didn’t know the pricing couldn’t be edited easily once the item was listed.
Update to call out that the NFT asset itself—description, file, etc—CAN be easily edited after the fact.
Also, thank goodness for the built in ETH calculator. I’d frankly start it in fiat prices and convert to the token value. I swear, too often it feels like web3 developers are trying to reinvent user behaviors without first understanding user behaviors and how mental models work.
Meanwhile, Coinbase has a nice conversion calculator.
17. These “Sell as a bundle” and “reserve for specific buyer” options are so interesting. Now that I know they exist, I may need to look into experimenting with them for any future mints.
18. I’m glad that they explained the “fees” here, I immediately assumed I’d have to pay something.
And she’s officially for sale. After a few moments, the collection I’d made appeared both on my OpenSea dashboard, and in my Rainbow wallet.
The Experience Still Needs Work
The experience itself is an odd blend of feeling straightforward, and leaving some things to be desired. For the vast majority of people who are neither “crypto-native”, nor versed with the basic terminology and processes of the web3 ecosystem, I can’t imagine that this would be a very intuitive experience. As someone several months into her web3 experience, some things are still a little dense.
When using web3 platforms—specifically wallets and now NFT marketplaces—I honestly feel like I’m in a limbo of both knowing what I’m doing, and not knowing what the outcome of an action will be. It feels frustrating. My wish is that web3 platforms would leverage a bit more handholding if they hope to be more accessible or inviting to mainstream users.
The Experience Isn’t Very Exciting/Inviting
This may seem like strange critique, but I wish that the process of minting an NFT was a little bit more inviting. I’m a user of Dribbble, which is a long running design portfolio/community geared towards creators of a variety of digital content. It’s beautifully designed and a treat to explore. Content showcases look great and are very navigable for the most part. The process of uploading content feels good too, you’re aware of being in control every step of the way. Something like that experience is what I’d love to see more web3 applications build up to.
…So, Now What?
Now that I have my NFT in my wallet and on the marketplace, I’m wondering pretty much exactly that—now what?
I could have put this same piece of work on my Dribbble account and gotten value through some instant gratification from seeing a handful of people like it, maybe comment on it or throw me a follow. Same with posting it up on Tumblr, or Twitter, Facebook. Tumblr continues to cling to relevancy by introducing a way to tip content creators—something that could be a small win for those who do use the platform as a portfolio-esque capacity. That, combined with the community driven aspect of the platform, feels like more of a step in a useful direction than NFT marketplace design as it currently stands. With no discernible tagging mechanism that I’m familiar with on OpenSea, no way to specifically target my type of audience beyond sharing OpenSea links on social media—which I personally am not inclined to do, it feels like I’ve dropped my animation into a void of apes and assorted squiggles that are trendy for reasons forever mysterious to me.
The NFT marketplace audience still feels very nascent and vague to me. I don’t know who will be looking at my NFT, let alone who would be interested in it enough to buy it. My audience is typically other artists, storytellers, consumers of media. People who enjoy supporting one another and having conversations around work that interests them. The NFT audience still feels primarily monetarily driven. The assumption I have about the majority of OpenSea and other NFT marketplace audiences is that they are either looking to make some money, or collect work that they can later profit off of. These are not necessarily people who will read a word I’ve written on my website, or consider storytelling potential. I could be entirely wrong, but that’s my current observation based on my admittedly small sample size of interaction. My animation, for all intents and purposes, indeed exists in a void, and that quite frankly, makes me feel more depressed than accomplished.
Though I’ve alluded to it throughout this article, I don’t know if I will mint future pieces in this series. More than likely, whatever I animate next will be fodder to revive my dusty Dribbble account, since I know that space and know what to expect.
I’m glad that I performed this experiment. It took quite a chunk out of my weekend, but it was worth it to understand what the process is like, what’s good, what’s mediocre, and what could be improved. I’m not certain that I understand NFTs or web3 any better than I did before, but I do feel resolute in my belief in their budding potential to build an internet that delivers value back to the content creator in a tangible, consistent way.
Others have seen the promise of this decentralized land, and as someone who believes that the only way forward is to take a chance on things that hold promise, who am I to sneer at that?