A step-by-step guide on how to mint NFTs for free in 2023

Whereas the crypto as well as the NFT marketplace has temporarily lost its momentum, NFT still retains a large community of creators and investors, and it could be a viable gateway into crypto and NFT gains even in this crypto bear market. Despite the crash, the over $11 billion NFT market still has some exotic NFTs that are worth millions of dollars. Everyone should be minting an NFT in 2023, but we understand that not everyone can afford to due to the exorbitant gas fees, regardless of the actual cost of the said NFT. In this tutorial, we take you on a step-by-step guide on how you can mint your own NFTs from virtually anything: your artwork, pictures of beautiful moments, a piece of land, or an estate, all for free without paying any gas fees.

Mint your first NFT at zero gas fees. Image source: BBC

• What are NFTs?
• What is NFT minting?
• Challenges of NFT
• What exactly is blockchain?
• Minting NFTs for free
• Free NFT Minting Marketplace
• Conclusion

Won’t it be great if you can convert your pictures into NFTs and earn a huge income with zero gas fees? Though some marketplaces charge expensive gas fees to mint your digital art, new marketplaces are coming up with cheaper and better ways to mint. But in this article, we'll show you how to do it completely free of charge, without having to worry about exorbitant gas prices.

What are NFTs?

For those who are completely new to crypto and the world of NFTs [blockchain], it wouldn't hurt to start with this clarification to get everyone on the same page. NFTs are non-fungible tokens, unique packets of digital data representing ownership that cannot be replaced by anything else. NFTs are not limited to paintings; they can be anything digital, such as music, sketches, artwork, or drawings. These days, the greatest excitement is around using this disruptive technology to sell digital art. As a matter of fact, the growing popularity of NFTs has attracted many creators and artists who have migrated to the digital space by minting their artworks into NFTs and generating huge profits. According to a bybit article, "NFT artist Beeple, known for his top-selling NFTs, had an image sell for $69 million at Christie's."

What is NFT minting?

NFT minting is the process of uniquely publishing your token on a blockchain to make it purchasable, unique, and non-fungible. In simple terms, minting is converting your digital file into a digital asset that can be bought or sold by adding it to a blockchain, such as Ethereum.

Challenges of NFT

NFT markets have gained so much popularity in recent years, and many digital files and tokens are exchanged daily. But the greatest challenge mitigating the buying, selling, and transferring of NFTs comes from the high gas fees associated with NFT minting and transactions on the Ethereum network. The average cost of minting an NFT on OpenSea could be as high as $500.00 at the minimum. But don’t worry, we know you want to mint, buy, and sell NFT at zero fees, hence this publication.

What exactly is blockchain?

A blockchain is a decentralized network that is not owned by any central authority. The blockchain is maintained by miners who mint creators’ NFTs with their computing power and resources, and in return for their computing power, earn gas fees as an incentive.

Minting NFTs for free

If there are fees involved in minting tokens to incentivize miners who maintain the network, one may now ask, "How is it possible to mint and sell NFT art for free?" Lazy minting is one of the ways to go around it without paying the gas fees.

What is lazy minting? Lazy minting of NFTs is a situation whereby an NFT is available outside the blockchain and only minted after a sale has been made. This method does not entirely eliminate the gas fee, but it does shift the boarding. That means that you don’t have to pay gas fees upfront, as they are borne by the buyers of your NFT instead.

Free NFT Minting Marketplace

Some of the most popular NFT marketplaces where you can mint for free include OpenSea, Rarible, and Mintable. openSea and Rarible are more popular options than Mintable, but they are the three most common platforms that allow you to mint NFTs for free with ease.

Conclusion

There are many other creators of NFTs; in fact, almost all cryptocurrency exchanges now have NFT marketplaces where you can mint your NFTs, but with a fee. But as a beginner, we advise trying out the free options above to see if you find the experience exciting enough to go deeper with the paid options.

We will now take each of the platforms mentioned above [OpenSea, Rarible, and Mintable] in subsequent posts.

Meanwhile, let us know how you feel about this post and your knowledge of NFTs

You can now start minting on any of the maintained platforms, see the detailed tutorials on each of them below

How to Mint NFTs on Mintable for Free in 2023 [The Beginner’s Guide]

Step by Step Guide on How to Create NFTs for Free on Rarible

A Beginner’s Guide to Creating NFTs in OpenSea for Free

Shalom!