NFT is a digital cast of any unique object. It can be a photo, a gif, a game artifact, a tweet, a fragment of text or audio. They are traded on special marketplaces. What to do to build NFT marketplace that will be successful? Learn more about this.
The value of NFT is in its uniqueness. You can also create NFT for an object from the physical world – a picture, a car, or a house. But an NFT for a car is an obscure category because it does not prove ownership of the physical object. So “tangible” NFTs are rarely used.
If you buy an NFT on a tweet or a game artifact, you will only have such virtual ownership. Each token is tied to a unique record on the blockchain, a chain of blocks in which information is stored. These blocks are scattered all over the world and have multiple owners. The difference between an NFT and an ordinary token is precisely its uniqueness: an ordinary token is duplicated on the blockchain an infinite number of times.
The value of an NFT depends on the context and the identity of the author. The NFT version of “Black Square” will cause a stir among collectors, while the work of a hopeful enthusiast will only interest their friends. Anyone can put their tweets up for an NFT auction, but they’re unlikely to get $3 million for them, like Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.
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How most modern NFT marketplaces work
Transactions require a cryptocurrency wallet, an app that allows you to use cryptocurrency. The most common is MetaMask which is supported by almost all NFT marketplaces.
NFT marketplaces work in an auction format. This means that the seller puts the token up for sale, and potential buyers leave bids for how much they are willing to buy it. The highest bidder wins.
On most projects, there is no way to promote your work. This means that if a user just puts up an NFT for sale, there is no guarantee that anyone will buy it. Beginning sellers have to take care of the advertising themselves. You, as a potential creator of a new project, can take note of this, and offer your users a brand-new opportunity to promote their content on the platform.
All platforms roughly differ in the audience, blockchain, and additional options. Let’s look at the differences in more detail so you can begin to have an idea of which direction to take.
Audience
There are sites that focus on gamers – they go there for game items and avatars with game characters. Others are designed for sports fans – for example, you can become the owner of a video clip from a match. There are projects for artists and collectors, where digital works of art are created and offered for sale, or something unique is sought for a collection. There are also universal sites where you can find digital paintings by famous artists, videos with singing schoolgirls, or gifs with unicorns.
Commission
Sellers, buyers, or both can pay it, depending on the terms of the site. This amount is fixed in the rules and does not change often.
Additional options
These can be a low commission, free NFT creation, and promotion, the ability to upload multiple NFT objects to the platform at once and pay commission for one object, or receiving bonuses for activity on the site.
Experts rank NFT marketplaces not only by the number of users but also by the volume of transactions, the number of famous artists exhibiting their works, the convenience of the interface, and the type of content exhibited – photographs, digital art, computer games items.
The most interesting projects and their features
OpenSea
Audience. Universal NFT marketplace, designed for a wide audience. Here you can sell and buy digital art, photos, music tracks, game items, and even domain names. It accounted for 84% of all NFT transactions.
Magic Eden
Audience. Gamers and authors of works based on computer games. Here you can buy a painting drawn with artificial intelligence or game art – an NFT object based on computer games. The auction lasts only 24 hours: if it is not extended, it automatically closes. Anyone can register.
SuperRare
One of the few sites where there is an opportunity to promote, as in social networks – that is, to increase their position in the extradition through the “likes” from other users. The most popular paintings are displayed on the main page in the gallery “Best Artists,” “Best Collectors” and “Largest Collections. Works from such selections are easier to raise interest in the auction.
Foundation
The creator of the NFT marketplace is Kayvon Tegranian and the company is registered in 2020 in San Francisco. There are over 90,000 works on display at Foundation today. It’s worth going here for those who understand digital art. Every newly registered artist gets to tell their story on the NFT marketplace home page – a good “advance” for an aspiring author. Artists can sell any format of NFT here – static picture, video, 3D, VR, and even physical works.
What direction should a novice project take?
From the point of view of sales and promotion, there is no difference for the user which NFT marketplace to buy or exhibit the work. Therefore, if you are looking to make money with your own NFT marketplace, your main goal is to get millions of visits. Next, to be successful, you need to add value to your product.
There are several hundred NFT marketplaces, and new ones pop up every week. Many of them rise quickly to the top. To become successful in this marketplace, it’s important to highlight key benefits right away.
For users, there may be several dangers that they meet newcomers to the NFT marketplace. They are associated with technical and human factors. It is important to try to avoid them. Take care to minimize the potential damage to your user. This will help you to distinguish yourself from other projects.
- Risk for the vendor: the cost of “gas” is too high. During peak hours, the cost of creating a token can simply outweigh the price you can get for NFT.
- Risk for the buyer: deception by the seller. If you want to get the original on physical media along with the token, you’re taking a big risk. There are no legal regulations that oblige the owner of, for example, a painting to hand over the original to you after you purchase the token. Most modern platforms have no liability for this.
James is the head of marketing at Tamoco
