You Don’t Need Millions to Get Started in NFTs
When the Paper Cats project launches soon, it should be a continually affordable non-fungible token ( NFT) avatar. The goal is to attract first-time NFT buyers by keeping the price under $10 with an infinite number of cat drawings so anyone can buy in and learn about the technology in a non-intimidating way, complete with a comic book-style walkthrough.
Other successful NFT projects, like Cool Cats, may have an inviting and fun art style, but with the current buy-in price above $10,000, it’s inaccessible for those on a budget.
“For cryptocurrencies to have mass adoption I believe there needs to be an easier way for people to wrap their head around all the complexities,” said a Paper Cats and Cool Cats developer who goes by xtremetom. “NFTs have the power to present the flow of tokens in a visual way. In my experience, people find it easier to understand a new concept when there is some visual queue involved.
“Most NFTs also have a social aspect with communities on both Twitter and Discord,” xtremetom continued. “This is invaluable as it offers a place to ask questions, learn, and develop more crypto and NFT knowledge at a pace you are happy with. Sadly, I feel that buying your first NFT is a very scary process. Conquering that fear through education is one of the biggest challenges facing the crypto space.”
The Paper Cats project will address this by teaching people about rarity and different traits associated with NFT generative artwork. It will also help people set up digital wallets.
Training the Next Generation
While consumers will be a main focus of Paper Cats, it also wants to teach developers how to program their own NFT projects. It will be open-sourced so “someone following the tutorial should be able to fully understand the process and produce their own functioning NFT,” according to the project overview.
A low-priced NFT is one way for newcomers to buy into an art project comfortably. But just because an NFT project starts off with a low entry price, it doesn’t mean it will stay that way for long. If the demand, and exclusivity, is there for the artwork or artist, the value can skyrocket.
The creator of Ghxsts, who goes by GxngYxng, first started selling NFTs for 0.001ETH, equal to a few dollars at the time, before the entry price exploded.
“I’ve always wanted to keep my pieces accessible for everyone and reward the collectors who are able to pick up a piece,” said GxngYxng. “The secondary market is always on my mind, I want the collectors to have a lot of room to make a profit on my pieces. To do this I have always stuck to a structure of listing pieces for around 0.05 to 1 ETH, even though my work is being bought at 50–180 ETH. As the floor rises to 100 ETH many have been able to pay off debts, school loans, and provide their families with financial security, which is incredible.”
The most expensive Ghxsts art piece sold on Aug. 23 for 619.5ETH, or around $2 million.
Where Do You Start?
How do you find the right NFT to buy first? There’s no magic formula. Most people will recommend buying something you like, either the style or story behind it, rather than trying to find the next project that will turn you into a millionaire.
“When you first enter the NFT space, it’s very easy to get excited about new projects and jump into things due to FOMO,” said the founder of Packrip Media, who goes by PackripEwing. “The most important thing for people to do is set a budget and understand all the costs that go into buying an NFT. Do some research on Twitter/Discord before making a decision, but take everything with a grain of salt because not everyone you meet has your best interests in mind.”
“Technically my first NFTs I bought were the Weird Whales when I heard a 12-year-old boy coded and produced the project himself,” said Brandon McManus, placekicker for the Denver Broncos. “Having a nonprofit foundation myself…one of our activities we do is a coding class for underprivileged and disadvantaged kids, so when I saw that I was very intrigued by the Weird Whales NFTs and bought two.”
“Showing newcomers [NFT marketplace] Opensea is probably the easiest way to showcase what is available in the market,” McManus continued. “It is a new age, Gen Z version of eBay, really. Then, once you become part of a certain project’s community and interact with other members via Discord and Twitter, you can become educated more on both that project, as well as the NFT space as a whole.”
Last month, Paper Cats said it still had “a few more weeks worth of work to do” before launching. “It takes time to create simple tutorials for a complex topic.” Keep tabs on the project via Twitter and Discord. Until then, check out our primer for what you need to know about NFTs. Pablo Stanley, CEO and cofounder at Blush-who’s helping out with Paper Cats-also put together a guide on setting up a crypto wallet.
Originally published at https://uk.pcmag.com on September 13, 2021.
