First contact with NFTs and Crypto? We got you!

This is an introduction for all those that do not understand the Blockchain movement yet and why it would make sense to use.

Hello there,

My name is Maria and this article has a different format than you are used to. Pretend we know each other for a long time and I am just showing why Blockchain would make sense for your existing project / business / collective.

Let’s start at the beginning: what is Blockchain?

Personally, I understand it as network of computers that all hold the same information: the sequence of blocks that constitute a blockchain. Every transaction done on the blockchain will be recorded on it and will be verified by the nodes. Every computer that has the information about the transactions on it is a node. And the nodes validate the transactions, so it is impossible to create a transaction on the blockchain which is false — many other nodes are checking constantly.

Computers that validate = nodes

Blockchain = sequence of Blocks

Blocks = transactions made on the chain, each has a sequenced number so you can’t just make one up 🙂

To hack/destroy a Blockchain you have to hack 51% of all nodes which make up the Blockchain network.

This is why Blockchain is able to affirm its safety. The transaction on the Blockchain happen peer to peer. That means if I send you money, I do not need to go to a centralized institution — aka Bank — to send my money to them for them to send it to you.
Blockchain removes the middlemen.

When talking about Blockchain there is one key-word that 80% of people seem to recognise: Bitcoin. Bitcoin is — attention — a coin. Wow, right? Fun to the side, this is important: Bitcoin, Ethereum & Near are tokens that can be sent around on the blockchain, and you can pay with these coins for transactions that happen on the blockchain. If I have 1 Near, and you have 1 Near, both of our tokens will have exactly the same value. Same thing with Euros — you feel me? The euro in my wallet is worth exactly the same as yours. These are fungible tokens, FTs, Coins, interchangeable identical copies that all have the same value. Bitcoin, Near, Ethereum, Solana, are all different crypto currencies — the same way euro, dollar and brazilian real are different fiat currencies.

Mintbase is not operating on Bitcoin (Bitcoin is really just a coin and you can’t really build apps, marketplaces, on it). The second biggest Blockchain is Ethereum. Ethereum was the first blockchain ever on which you could build DAOs, Applications, Etc.

Mintbase was originally built on Ethereum, but we re-wrote the code for our protocol on NEAR, because Ethereum transaction prices were (and still are) far to high to make it usable. You can check out Mintbases history here.

NFTs

Why am I explaining this? I want to get to the next big chapter in the crypto universe: NFTs! If you are researching Mintbase you probably have seen this word floating around everywhere. But what are NFTs? Non — Fungible — Tokens. Remember the FTs (coins) above? Non fungible means that each token can have a different value. And NFTs can be anything, pictures, videos, tickets, contracts, certificates, whatever. This is a relatively new concept and you have most probably heard about people getting insanely rich minting (creating) their NFTs — or buying NFTs at a low price and re-selling them for much higher value afterwards.

There is an immense hype taking place, people like Paris Hilton, Snoop Dog & Taylor swift getting into crypto & NFTs. As they already have big fanbases their NFTs sell very well.

Why is the artist community so drawn to NFTs?

As mentioned when talking about what Blockchain is, through the technology middlemen are removed. The fact that transactions take place between two wallets and nothing in between gives fans a new — transparent & decentralized — way to support their favorite artist. Then there are the royalties that can be implemented into the NFTs.

What are royalties?

Imagine you produce a music video, you are the camera person, then there are 2 singers, 10 dancers, the person that produced the beat, the person that mastered it into a high quality music file and the person who wrote the lyrics for the music. We have 16 people involved into the production of the musicvideo, right? What happens in the non crypto world is that everybody gets paid once the work is done, and then the artist gets paid for the clicks on youtube or if it streams on TV. All the other people involved do not get anything anymore, even if that video turns into an iconic viral sensation, all the involved people are not getting splits of the future sales, are they?

How does the splitting of profit happen on Mintbase?

Well, with NFTs and their royalties, each time that NFT is re-sold for any given value, the wallets inserted into the royalties get their percentage. On Mintbase we have 10 % of the total value dedicated to royalties, and you can add up to 25 different wallets in there.

Mintbase allows you to split the revenue & the royalties of your NFT:

100% = Total Value (TV)

10% of that 100%TV are royalties. You can add up to 25 wallets in the royalties.

87,5% of that 100%TV are the revenue. The one time sale value. You can also add 25 wallets in there.

2,5% of the TV is the share that Mintbase takes.

In a phantasy world we are a musical duo, you and me, and we created a song. We wrote it together and recorded it ourselves in our own studio. So just you and I created the song in its entirety. Instead of selling it to a movie, or making a deal with a record label, we minted it as a NFT on mintbase and set it up in the following way.

50% of the Royalties go to you, and 50% of the royalties go to me. Same for the revenue.

After minting (creating) our NFT, we need to list it for sale.

How do we do that on Mintbase? You need to go to your owned NFTs, select the one you want to put for sale, decide a price (in NEAR) and then choose if you want to sell it as a simple sale or in an auction.

Want to get started? Deploy your own smart contract through mintbase.io or ask to be added to an open store, and lets GET MINTING!

Do you have more questions? Comment below or join our telegram channels Mintbase & MintbaseDAO. MintbaseDAO will support you with some NEAR to get started if you have a project involving a collective or just a project which could bring more users to Mintbase!