Now that you have experience staking tokens, providing liquidity pools, and even farming tokens. We should look at purchasing your first NFT.
For those not sure what an NFT is - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-fungible_token
It comes down to the fact it shows the wallet holder truly owns the art.
Now, I know in Step 5 - I wrote how to get a BoomBox, which is an NFT. But buying an NFT is different.
Before I go through the steps of writing on how to acquire NFTs, I will explain the uses of NFTs I have seen thus far. There are probably many more, but this is my summary.
Use Cases:
PFP - pictures for proof - or in other words, a profile picture. PFP is the most popular NFTs. These are strictly pieces of art used for profile pictures/avatars as “clout.” Think of why people buy Lambos instead of Corolla’s when theoretically they can both be capable of traveling the speed limit and getting you to the same place at the same time.
“Country Club” or “tickets”- holding a specific NFT gets access to projects the rest of the public cannot enter. Or getting into spaces, others are not allowed to enter. I have seen this regarding other NFT projects but would not be surprised if it is happening for seed-round investments.
Metaverse Property - different plots of land in a “metaverse” environment that will allow the user to modify it over time
Trust/Deeds/Titles - Companies are now
trying to make NFTs prove ownership of physical land, college degrees, and other forms of ownership/certification.
NFT Websites:
For now, most of the NFTs I have and have dealt with are just PFP. Typically a “collection” will release various amounts of NFTs related to a collection. I have seen a range of 25 NFTs in a collection to 10,000. There are probably ones with even more.
For STX, these are the top sites to go and buy your NFT. *Note* - multiple projects can be on different websites, so be sure to check out these sites whenever making a purchase.
https://www.stacksart.com/
https://stxnft.com/
https://byzantion.xyz/
The pricing can vary for each website, but the main difference in my understanding is the contracts each website offers the artists and owners of NFT (how much cut the website gets in selling. So if you are selling, check that out to make sure you get a good deal).
For this exercise, I will use stacksart.com
Go to website
Connect Wallet (upper right corner)
Find a collection you are interested in - for this example we will use STACK POPs
https://www.stacksart.com/explore?collection=stacks-pops
They are 7 $STX floor and very cheap at this writing, so easy to buy (you will often hear “floor price” regarding NFTs. Floor price means the lowest price of the NFT for sale in a collection. I am not endorsing it, just know it is a pretty cheap collection and thus perfect for educational purposes
Select one of the NFTs. Selecting will give more details about the NFT, including “rank” - the higher the rank, the more “rare” the NFT is considered in the collections “traits,” meaning how many other NFTs in the collection share the same trait and transaction history - how many times it was sold or listed. Rarity is essential for price. And transaction volume can show where the energy of the market is.
Hit the Buy button - and then a confirmation window pops up - hit “confirm,” and there you go. Make sure you pick an NFT that you can afford and make sure you have enough gas ~0.75 STX to purchase. If not, the transaction will fail.
Step 7: Buying STX NFTs
Just had to use Stack Pops as the example ... LOL