Let’s address the elephant in the room, of course, I want you to buy my NFTs. They are awesome. I come from a long line of pedigreed and famous artists, and I may very well be a time traveler. “Martin Bammes,” go ahead google it. In addition to coming from the Slytherin house of traditional artists, I do however want to help people adopt this new way to collect and trade art.
No judgment, I have been helping people and businesses set up their wallets and using their first crypto since 2014. Back then, we were giving away Bitcoin worth tens of thousands of dollars today. I bought enough pizza with bitcoin to buy a not modest house. In 2014, everybody looked at us like crazy nerds. Now, I go to the same meetups with Ferraris parked outside, but this is about you.
Better late than never. Believe me when I say that NFTs, and the smart contracts they live on, are the next iteration of the internet “After the search engine.” You have an opportunity of a lifetime by just enjoying the things you enjoy on the blockchain. Unfortunately, for one reason or another, you don’t have a wallet yet and you haven’t adopted the tech yet.
No problem. No judgment. I introduced hundreds of people to crypto and you are in safe hands. This is my opinion of the best and fast way to get set up in the NFT world.
In the NFT world, there are two wallets that really matter, Metamask, and Coinbase. Coinbase is really great at sharing all your information with the government, especially the FBI and IRS. If you have any questions about compliance, taxes, etc… CoinBase is for you. They are an exchange. I do not recommend them for holding your crypto for long periods of time. I recommend Trezor for that. They also have seamless integration with your normal bank account and heightened security. Metamask however, is the default. It is the best browser-based wallet and works effortlessly with all the major NFT marketplaces.
Go to Metamask and install the Chrome extension. Create a better than nice password and PHYSICALLY write it down along with the 12 security words they give you. That is your key that will allow you to move your account with you wherever you go. Write it down, maybe laminate it, and keep it in a literal “Safe,” place. There are billions of dollars in bitcoin lost, sitting on the blockchain forever because people lose this information. Create your wallet and keep your information safe. It is the new bank account.
I’m not a fan of fake money, but the government has a monopoly on monopoly money. You are going to have to fund your account somehow. Most people use CoinBase and their escrow services for this. For Newbies, go ahead and do this. They hold your hand through the entire thing. Set up your wallet. Write down your keys as you did before, and run through the prompts to fund your account with Ethereum (ETH).
The main go-to for NFT art is OpenSea. There are more where that came from. I got my start on SuperRare, a luxury bland NFT marketplace for the nice stuff. There is also Rarible, Mintable, and several others, but OpenSea is the best. Create an account with your Metamask. “But Martin, I funded my Coinbase account. How do I get my Ethereum to my Metamask account?” Great question. It’s time for your first transaction.
You’ll notice that your accounts have addresses. They look like this: 0x3A877429D71cA2cfaFBb343053a25C847CbD9a33 Go ahead and send me some ETH if you want, but what you probably want to do is send it to your Metamask so you can buy some NFTs. All wallets have a send option and most have a price conversion to show you how much you are sending in USD. Send an appropriate amount of ETH so your Metamask using whatever “Send” option your wallet has. This takes a few minutes. You will be able to watch the validations from the miners. It’s pretty cool stuff. You are watching the way banks will operate in the future.
Literally, there is a really cool horse racing NFT where people are making millions of dollars. You should check it out. But first, you should consider buying a Ganscape, Icon, or GuideStone right here. No pressure (okay, a little bit of pressure).
There is a lot of garbage. Be careful to buy authentic and rare work. Especially if you intend for it to gain in value. An NFT is a smart contract first and a thumbnail second. If there is a contract that exists, there can be an NFT that represents it. I’ve seen houses, companies, cars, and real million-dollar physical paintings sold with NFTs. You are entering the wild west of crypto markets and buyer beware. Here are my rules about what makes art and NFTs valuable: 1. Art must be rare and near impossible to forge. (NFTs do this with code) 2. Art is better when it’s timeless. (It has to still be relevant a long time from now) 3. Art is designed to stand alone. (It has to be able to completely transfer to its new owner without rules r hosting of its use) 4. It has to be beautiful.
Follow those rules and you’ll do just fine.
Thank you, Martin Darko