The NFT space has been one of the consistently booming and expanding aspects of blockchain technology. A lot of blockchain enthusiasts have shifted their focus on NFTs to be able to make the most of them while they are still in the spotlight.
In the NFT space, there are different waves and trends which last for some time before another takes over. We have seen the dominance of Ethereum-based NFTs that lasted for quite a while before Solana-based NFTs took over the main stage. At the moment, free mint NFTs are taking over the center stage.
What are free mint NFTs
Just as the name implies, free mint NFTs are a set of NFTs that a collector can obtain at little or no fees at all. To get a free NFT, only the gas fee is to be paid by the collector. This is opposed to the previous NFT norms where a collector will have to pay a specific amount which changes from time to time to create and purchase an NFT. The amount at which the NFT is sold is called Mint Price. after the mint price must have been paid, a gas fee will also be paid to the network. For free mint NFTs, it is only the gas fee that is to be paid and the NFT is owned.
The major focus of most free mints is on secondary sale royalties. This means, for every time a freely minted NFT is sold on the secondary market, the team earns a set percentage of royalties as it changes hands.
The main NFT project that brought free mint NFTs into lame light is Goblintown.wtf. After this, a lot of free mint NFTs have been launched. Some of them are We Are All Going To Die, For The Culture and The Octagon by Deca. Before this, some NFTs have been free minted but they did not gain a lot of traction. An example of this is CryptoPunks.
Why free mint NFTs are gaining traction
Here are some of the reasons free mint NFTs are currently in the spotlight and have been described as “the new craze.”
The Current Outlook Of the Crypto market
The prolonged bearish movement of the crypto market has made traders find an alternative and less risky source of income. And with the availability of a free mint option, a lot of traders hopped on it since they don’t need a lot of capital to invest.
Possibility Of a High-Profit Margin
This is another reason a lot of people are exploring the free mint option hence the traction. Since the collection is given out freely, the collector only has to pay a little fee as gas to own a collection that will most likely be worth thousands of dollars. This is a high-profit margin. In addition to this, when a Free Mint NFT project is identified as a scam, users lose gas fees and earn thousands of dollars.
Elimination of Entry Barriers
The advent of free-to-mint NFTs has significantly reduced the entry barrier to the NFT space. Before free-to-mint NFTs, the cost of owning an NFT collection was quite high and expensive, most especially ETH-based NFTs. Some cost as high as 0.5 ETH. This is not so affordable for everyone especially when the market was still stable. But with the incursion of free mint NFTs, a lot of people who want to own NFT collections but could not due to price now own one at almost no cost. Just a gas fee is needed. Hence, more people are getting involved in NFTs.
With the proliferation of freely minted NFTs, it is important to tread with caution so as not to fall prey to scams and lose one’s assets to these scams. These 3 tips will help to tread safely.
- Use a burner wallet to mint these free NFTs. This burner wallet is separate from the main wallet and only stores a limited amount of funds. With this, per adventure the project turns out to be a scam, the main asset is kept safe and secured.
- It is also important to get acquainted with the fundamentals of NFT smart contracts so that any malicious functions within a contract will be sighted.
- Lastly, adequate research should be conducted before making a decision. Suspicious and unverified links should not be clicked on and websites should be double-checked to ascertain that it’s the official site before connecting any wallet.
