How do you create an NFT for free?

I am assuming you already have a piece of art or a pic that you took to turn into and NFT.  

Here are some basic terms: 

• NFT: Non- Fungible Token.  This means that the item that you own as an NFT is the only one because it has the unique identity of the blockchain code connected with it.  It may be a collectible because it was the “first piece of art that artist ever minted on the blockchain” or it may be a collectible because “Famous person X used to own this” and so just like any other thing that people enjoy collecting or consider valuable, the item is valuable to the degree that people want it and believe it is good/rare/etc…  People may be able to save the jpeg and do whatever they want with it, but the wallet that owns the item on the blockchain is the rightful owner and this can be verified in a ledger.  This gets rid of the ability for counterfeit art to be sold, as the ledger would be checked and the original owner verified, which is interesting.   
• Minting: To take a digital file like a jpeg or gif and convert it into a digital item that lives on the blockchain.  The person who created the item (their wallet, and it’s unique identifying code) will be tagged on the blockchain as the creator of the item. 
• Ethereum:  “Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether ( ETH) is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. It is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, after Bitcoin. Ethereum is the most actively used blockchain.” – From Wikipedia “Ethereum”.  
• Polygon: This is essentially a side chain added to Ethereum to make it work faster and be more efficient while still keeping the functionality of the ethereum network.  It gives a better user experience (fast) while also being more efficient.  

It was pretty frustrating to try to figure out how to mint my first NFT.  I tried from my phone and could not mint NFTs from my phone directly.  

So here is what I found that worked. 

Use the chrome browser.  

Go to MetaMask.io and create an account or login to your existing account.  Install the browser plugin for this. 

Then go to OpenSea.io and use MetaMask to log in.  

If you want to Mint NFTs for free, you need to use the polygon network.  In order to add polygon to your wallet, follow the instructions at this article.  

https://docs.polygon.technology/docs/develop/metamask/config-polygon-on-metamask/

If you are like me, and the instructions seem daunting, I agree with you.  Just follow step by step.  It took me about 2 minutes to set up my MetaMask for the polygon network once I decided to do it.  If you have no money in your wallet, then there is 0 risk for trying this out.  There is no connection to any bank account, so you can mess around with it before minting any NFTs and if it messes up and somehow cannot be fixed, you can always just open a new wallet.  

If you want to mint NFTs for free, and while using much less energy (for environmental concerns) then you can use polygon. When you are creating your item, make sure that polygon is the selected blockchain that you want to use in order to mint for free.  

Note:  I am not a computer scientist or blockchain expert.  If I said something incorrectly, please leave me a comment with the edit.  

When you mint using polygon, you cannot do auctions of your NFTs.  However you also don’t need to buy any Eth in order to mint NFTs on polygon.  

If you want to set up your polygon NFTs to give you a royalty after purchase, then you need to first create a collection.  For the collection you will set the blockchain to polygon, and then put in your royalty (the percentage you want to make from secondary purchases of your NFT).  The higher the royalty, the less incentive someone will have to sell the NFT in the future.  I set mine at 10% for my first collection.  

Then when you create an individual NFT, there will be a drop down menu where you can choose the collection you want to use, and make sure it is in the collection you just created.

Once you are logged into your MetaMask (or wallet of your choice) on OpenSea, click on “create” and then fill out the information for your item.  This includes the title, collection, blockchain network you want to use, etc…   Once you have created the item, then you also have to set it to “sell” so that it is listed for a price on the marketplace and not just sitting in your wallet without any price listed. 

Voila.  It took me a couple hours to figure this all out and get this all set up for myself. 

Then it took me another couple hours to mint my current digital art on the platform. 

Now I am doing a challenge where I mint 100 NFTs for 100 days.  

Have you minted an NFT yet?