If you are looking for a definitive guide to buying NFTs on the Internet Computer blockchain in 2022, you’ve come to the right place. NFTs are booming on the Internet Computer. This blockchain is now among the top 10 in daily volume. So let’s start out with the basics. We’ll take you from knowing what NFTs are and what they can do to how to buy NFT tokens and where to do it.
What Is an NFT?
NFT stands for non-fungible token. But let’s break this down into its simplest form. An NFT is a collectible. Sometimes you are just buying a work of art. At other times, your token will also have utility to it. Some NFTs, like Bored Apes and Cryptopunks, can sell for millions of dollars.
Meanwhile, other projects turn out to be rug pulls or may go to zero simply because of a lack of interest in the project. So you need to understand that just like investing in cryptocurrency has a much higher degree of volatility than the stock market, NFTs tend to have a greater degree of risk and volatility. However, this may also lead to even bigger rewards.
While you will have to do your own research on each project before investing or collecting, today's article should give you some basic principles to go by. Thus, before we get into how to buy NFT tokens, it is crucial to discuss what type of NFT you should be looking for.
What Type of NFT to Buy
The most straightforward type of NFT to buy is digital art. Before discussing how to buy NFT art, it is essential to note that anyone can create digital art. Since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, what one person views as incredibly valuable may seem like a worthless piece of junk to another person.
Therefore, art for the sake of art is just as subjective in the NFT world as it is when it comes to physical artwork. As a result, many collectors lean toward NFTs that have some sort of utility. This can take several forms:
· Gaming assets – A popular type of NFT is connected to online gaming. Owning the NFT may allow you to use a certain character or feature of the game that is not accessible to other players. You may also be able to gain income by renting your NFTs to someone else who wants to be able to play or gain an advantage in the game. ICmojis is a great example of a game on the Internet Computer that uses NFTs. The original collection is used to play ICmoji Origins, and both the original collection and the Legends collection will be used to play ICmoji Adventures when it is released later this year.
· DAO voting rights – Owning an NFT may grant you voting rights in a decentralized autonomous organization. Such organizations allow NFT owners people to make decisions in a democratic manner. The NFTs serve as the token that determines the weight of an individual's votes. One example is the ICP Art DAO made up of "governors" who own pieces in the Tranquility or Equanimity collections.
· IRL proof of ownership – The digital token can also serve as proof that you own a physical asset. For example, some artists will send a physical painting to the person who buys their NFT.
· POAP or ticketing – Some NFT tokens are used to show a person was there for a specific event, or it may even serve as a ticket to an online or IRL event.
These are just some of the utility cases for which people buy NFTs. Again, some people buy NFTs strictly for the artwork. This may also involve other digital content such as music, video, 3D graphics, and more. Now, let’s take some time to discuss how to buy NFTs.
How to Buy NFTs
I’m not going to rehash the process in great detail since we have outlined how to buy NFTs many times on the Dfinity Community blog. However, I will give a brief example of the step-by-step process. In today’s example, I will explain how to buy NFT art on the C-C-C (Crowd-Created-Canvas) marketplace.
Step 1: Buy ICP
You will have to do this from an exchange. Some examples include Coinbase, Binance, and KuCoin. The exchange will help you to convert fiat currency into the cryptocurrency you need in order to buy NFTs. Send the ICP to the wallet you will be using to buy NFTs. On the Internet Computer, this is almost always a Stoic or Plug wallet. Remember to fund the wallet with enough ICP to purchase NFTs and to pay the transaction fee (which is currently a fraction of a cent).
Step 2: Connect Your Wallet to the Marketplace
This is a pretty straightforward process. You have to connect your wallet of choice to the marketplace. Simply choose between Stoic and Plug – the two options available on C-C-C – and then confirm that you want to connect your wallet when asked to do so. While this can be risky on a third-party site, you can connect your wallet to most marketplaces with confidence.
Step 3: Browse the Marketplace for the NFTs You Want
On the C-C-C homepage, you will see any projects that are currently minting, along with the purchase price and how many are remaining in the collection. The collection will also appear on the marketplace where you can purchase NFTs from current owners. Search through the different projects, and be sure to learn about them before making a purchase. For example, you may want to learn about a project’s utility or the artist before you buy NFTs from them.
On C-C-C, you need to use WICP (Wrapped ICP) to make purchases. If you click the wallet button in the top right-hand corner of the screen, it is simple to move ICP back and forth between being wrapped or unwrapped within the wallet you connected to the site. A transaction fee is charged for each exchange, but this is a set fee (unlike gas on Ethereum), so you will pay a fraction of a cent at the current value of ICP.
Now that you understand how to buy NFT art as well as utility tokens, it is time to discuss the various places where you can buy NFTs.
Where to Buy NFTs
Each blockchain has multiple marketplaces where you can buy NFTs, and this is also true on the Internet Computer. So that you have an idea of where to buy NFTs, I’ll create a shortlist of the currently functional NFT marketplaces.
· Entrepot – This was the first NFT marketplace on the Internet Computer, and it is by far the largest. If you want to buy NFTs, you can’t beat the selection in this marketplace. There are also usually at least one if not several projects in the launchpad (where you mint new NFTs).
Furthermore, Toniq Labs is the same team that made the Stoic wallet, so you can be confident that integration will be seamless. However, you can also buy and sell most projects by connecting your Plug wallet. Using Entrepot, you can easily see NFTs that are for sale, view the transaction history of a project, and even see the transaction history of a specific NFT.
· C-C-C – As I explained above, it is also a simple process to buy NFTs on the C-C-C marketplace. The marketplace started with its own collection of Zombie NFTs. Then, ICTurtles decided to allow secondary marketplace trading on both C-C-C and Entrepot.
The DfinityGangs collection was a free airdrop, and this is the marketplace where secondary trading takes place. Finally, Avocado Research recently minted their collection here, and this is the only place where you can buy the Avocado NFTs on the secondary market. Look for more projects like ICGiraffes to launch soon.
· Gigaverse – The Gigaverse marketplace so far consists of their test NFT and ICats. ICPunks will be added soon. And while they plan to host NFTs from other developers, we don’t have a date yet on when this will happen.
In addition to these marketplaces, there are quite a few others that are either early in production or are still in the planning stages.
· ICSnakes is working on their marketplace. The $50,000 DFINITY grant the team recently received will certainly help them get this project completed. Right now, they are also working on a new ICP wallet to compete with Stoic and Plug, which has temporarily delayed the marketplace launch, but the team is still making good progress.
· Psychedelic’s marketplace is highly anticipated. Since they are the team behind Plug wallet, we can expect this to integrate seamlessly. They are also the team behind Sonic, so this is the first development team that is getting into NFTs (Crowns), a wallet (Plug), a marketplace, and DeFi (Sonic). They have a ton of other stuff going on as well.
· NFTAnvil is now allowing minting. This isn’t the same type of marketplace where they do launches and frontend minting so much as a place for creators to mint their own collection and put it up for sale.
As you can see, there are already several places to buy NFTs on the Internet Computer, and there are more on the way.
How to Buy NFT Tokens the Ethical Way
I just want to address one more point on the topic of how to buy NFTs, and this is related to some of the issues that we’ve seen with recent launches on the Internet Computer. People use bots to attack launches. This happens on every blockchain, and there are few ways to stop it unless a project commits to only selling to whitelisted addresses and limiting the number of NFTs that each address can mint. Most people who are reading a beginner's guide on how to buy NFTs are probably not developing a bot to mint a crazy amount of NFTs, but it’s something you should know exists.
Education is your best friend if you want to buy NFTs that will hold their value. Don’t be fooled by floor prices suddenly dropping or spiking after a collection launches. This could be the work of just a few bad actors, either creating FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) or FOMO (fear of missing out) to meet their own desires. You should only buy NFTs that you’ve researched. Don’t just get in on the mint because there’s a lot of hype of big promise. Or at least know that if you do so, you are increasing your risk.
Here are a few tips to help you avoid scams:
· Projects shouldn’t be asking you to send money to a wallet with the promise of getting something in return. You should receive something at that moment. If you are supporting a project through presales, make sure it is a reputable project. For example, with three NFT collections already available on Entrepot, sending ICP for an ICP Art presale is a safe bet. They’ve always delivered so far, and there is no reason to believe that would change. Other projects like Team Bonsai are using CrowdFund NFT. This site guarantees that if the funding is not completed in 60 days, you get your money back (less the .0001 ICP transaction fee), so this is also a safe way to get in on a presale.
· Get to know the team. See if they have an artist on the team or if they just paid someone on Fiverr to create the art. A freelance artist doesn’t guarantee a scam, but it shows that there is no artist with a reputation to uphold connected to the project. So be sure to learn about the developers. They don’t have to be doxed, but they should be transparent with their processes.
· Rely on known players in the space. Sure, everyone will probably be fooled by some project eventually, but if they have passed the vetting performed by marketplaces or by a community like DC, then you have a much better chance of it being a legit project.
· Be cautious about any third-party site that requires you to connect your wallet.
In conclusion, buying NFTs can be a fun and rewarding experience. We hope one project you will consider buying is ICPSquad, Dfinity Community’s very own NFT collection that will work with an engage-to-earn game to be released later this year. We keep a member counter on our minting page, so you can trust our site to connect your wallet. At 5,270 members and counting, we’re one of the largest NFT projects on the Internet Computer.
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- Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on this website are solely those of the original author and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the Dfinity Community staff and/or any/all contributors to this site.
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