Exploring Hedera’s Growing NFT Ecosystem
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have changed the way people create and own digital media, assets, and more on the internet. By leveraging public distributed ledger technologies (DLTs), digital assets can have similar qualities as physical assets such as provable ownership, scarcity, and uniqueness.
NFTs first grew in popularity on the Ethereum blockchain, but high transaction fees and network congestion have become hurdles for both NFT collectors and creators. Mint and transaction fees could be as high as hundreds of dollars for a single NFT. Additionally, proof-of-work Ethereum wasn’t as energy-efficient.
With the rise of alternative public blockchains and distributed ledgers, such as Hedera, NFTs can be minted and traded without having to worry about volatile transaction fees, slow transaction speeds, and carbon-negative operations.
In this guide, we’ll learn about the NFT ecosystem on Hedera as we guide you through minting and trading NFTs on the Hedera network.
NFTs on Hedera: The Network for Collectors and Creators
NFTs on Hedera are minted natively to the network using the Hedera Token Service (HTS) and are mapped to ERC-721 standards. They’re formatted the same way as NFTs on Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, and other networks that support NFTs. By using HTS, NFT creators, collectors, and developers can configure, mint, and manage NFTs without having to create and deploy smart contracts. HTS also includes royalties and fallback fees denominated in any type of cryptocurrency.
For NFT projects, creating an NFT collection on Hedera and minting NFTs to that collection is quite affordable. It costs less than $1 USD (fixed, paid in $HBAR) to create a collection and only $75.80 to mint 10,000 NFTs to that collection.
Transaction fees also remain incredibly low for creators, collectors, and marketplaces — it always costs $0.01 USD (fixed, paid in $HBAR) to transfer an NFT from one account to the other; this is due to the efficiencies of hashgraph consensus. Check out the fee schedule and cost comparisons below to get an idea of how inexpensive it is to use Hedera for NFTs.
In addition to performance efficiencies, low fees, and sustainable practices, Hedera offers a few unique and game-changing functionalities that make it the perfect choice for NFT users and applications.
Token / NFT Associations
In order to receive any fungible token or NFT you must first “associate” the token with your Hedera account. This ensures that you cannot be sent unsolicited NFTs, scams, or anything else without first giving your consent. It also prevents any unexpected tax burdens of receiving tokens of value without your permission.
“Secure Trade” NFT transfers
Hedera users can securely trade peer-to-peer (P2P) without the need for a third party beyond their HashPack wallet. You can learn more about secure trades here.
Native Royalties
NFT royalties and “fallback fees” are native to NFTs minted on Hedera. They can be configured incredibly easily and securely, without requiring a smart contract. Royalty configurations are supported at the network level and incorporated into every NFT minting tool on the Hedera network. This ensures that any NFT trade through a marketplace or P2P transfer gives royalties back to the original artist.
Getting Started with NFTs on Hedera
Before you start collecting, creating collections, or minting NFTs on Hedera, you’ll need a Chromium-based browser (such as Google Chrome or Brave), a Hedera-compatible wallet (such as HashPack), and Hedera’s native token, $HBAR.
Read our guide to learn how to get set up with your HashPack wallet and buy $HBAR to start going.
NFT marketplaces on Hedera
Hedera has a number of popular NFT marketplaces and launchpads, such as Zuse Market, HashAxis, HashGuild, and Turtle Moon. These marketplaces are leading the explosive growth of NFTs in the Hedera ecosystem.
Each NFT marketplace has different features, marketplace fees, and NFT collections.
On Zuse Market, there are more than 80 verified NFT collections for collectors to choose from. NFT creators need to go through an application process to be able to verify and sell their collections on Zuse Market.
Zuse Market offers a number of features such as configurable auctions, Dutch auctions, and the ability to view detailed analytics for each NFT collection. As of August 2022, over 30,000,000+ HBAR volume has been transacted.
HashAxis is another global NFT marketplace where anyone can buy, sell, and mint NFTs. You can view trending NFTs and explore different categories such as Profile Picture NFTs (PFPs), pixel art, abstract art, and much more.
As of February 2022, there have been more than 10,000 NFTs minted on HashAxis, 5,000+ NFTs sold, and 1,000,000+ HBAR transactions. These numbers are expected to grow as NFT marketplaces improve and as more people learn about the NFT ecosystem on Hedera.
When exploring the NFT ecosystem on Hedera, some NFT marketplaces you might encounter are still in beta. If you run into any issues with an NFT marketplace, reach out to their support teams only through official links. By following NFT marketplaces on Twitter and Discord, you can stay tuned for new updates and features released to improve the experience for NFT collectors and creators.
Always remember that there is no reason for you to provide your seed phrase to any person or website when seeking technical support.
How to Mint an NFT on Hedera
The minting process is similar for whichever NFT marketplace you choose — all Hedera NFT marketplaces require a HashPack or Blade wallet to create an account.
In this guide, we’ll be using HashAxis to create our first NFT collection and mint an NFT.
1. Visit HashAxis and sign up for an account by providing your email address and entering a username and password.
2. You can browse through a number of featured NFTs, trending NFT collections, and recently listed NFTs.
3. Once you’ve found an NFT you want to purchase, click the NFT and connect your wallet.
4. Before you can purchase the NFT, you will need to associate the token with your account. Token association is done to prevent token-spamming and is required to be able to receive the NFT in exchange for HBAR. Confirm the token association transaction from your HashPack wallet.
5. Complete your NFT purchase by initiating the payment. Once complete, you should be able to see your newly minted NFT in your HashPack wallet within a few seconds. When you refresh the page, you should also be able to see your username as the owner of the NFT.
What Do I Do With My NFT on Hedera?
After collecting your first NFT on Hedera, you can grow your collection, display it online, or bridge your NFT to another network such as Ethereum or Polygon.
With portals such as hashport bridge, you can easily transfer assets (fungible and non-fungible tokens) from one network to another. The bridging process is quick and seamless. To learn about bridging and how to bridge assets from the Hedera network to the Ethereum blockchain, read our guide on hashport.
You can use your NFT on Hedera or Ethereum, or you can change your Twitter profile picture to a Hedera NFT.
Depending on the utlity your NFT holds, you can also access a variety of services, communities, or be eligible for further airdrops.
Shaping the Future of NFTs
Since launching in 2021, Hedera’s NFT ecosystem has grown into a thriving community in just a few months. During last month’s fourth annual NFT NYC conference, thousands of people new and familiar with crypto came together to learn more about Web3.
Hedera had a strong community presence at NFT NYC, where they hosted a number of speaker and community events. The rise of blockchain alternatives that enable sustainable and affordable NFTs has enticed new artists, creators, and collectors to participate in the crypto economy.
For most people, NFTs are their first interaction with crypto. As the technology behind NFTs improves, more use cases will emerge and impact a number of industries that could benefit from this technology.
Stay tuned for updates and announcements about the Hedera ecosystem by following Hedera on Twitter.
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