It is now possible to create NTFs for free on Rarible.com, via a new mining feature. The platform claims to seek to reduce Ethereum gas fees (ETH), real barriers to entry for many investors in the emerging market of non-fungible tokens (NFT).
A revolution in the NFT market?
Rarible has introduced a new feature called “lazy minting” that promises users the ability to create NFTs for free, while improving the environmental sustainability of the platform.
“Rarible.com just got even more accessible and easy to use. Our latest feature allows you to create NFTs for free. That’s right. You don’t need ETH to get started.”
Rarible announcement
Instead of the traditional method, in which data is stored on the blockchain immediately after minting, Rarible announced Monday that under its new program, NFTs are not minted at the time of creation, but at the time of purchase. This means the buyer pays the gas fee when the item is purchased. In this case, the data will be stored on a decentralized peer-to-peer storage system, called “IPFS”.
While the influx of new participants into the NFT space has been growing steadily since the beginning of the year, a barrier to entry is holding back its adoption. Many beginners are indeed disturbed by the ever-increasing gas fees on the Ethereum network. Many investors are therefore turning to alternatives, such as FTX US, which has just launched a marketplace dedicated to NFT Solana.
According to data from Rarible Analytics, the current average gas price on Rarible for minting a single ERC-721 token is 0.022 ETH, which is equivalent to $82.26. And again, this is actually a rather favorable time to mine on the platform, relative to the frequent peaks of high network activity where gas charges can reach several hundred dollars.
This is why the Rarible update will most certainly be welcomed as a positive initiative by the community, although its actual impact on the market is not yet known.
All about Rarible’s “lazy minting” feature
By the very terms of its communication, the Rarible platform seeks to lower the barrier to entry for NFT creators around the world, allowing anyone to showcase and monetize their creativity without upfront costs.
At the same time, the new feature embodies the next step towards greater sustainability according to Rarible.com, as it is supposed to reduce the number of unnecessary transactions on Ethereum related to NFTs that are not purchased.
“(…) When creating the NFT, you will only need to sign the ‘mint permissions’ with your wallet. It’s free, and it ensures that you always have control over your creations.”
The step-by-step guide
- Go to Rarible.com, and connect your wallet
- Click “Create” and fill out all the information about your future NFT as usual.
- Choose the “Free Mint” option.
- Click on “Create Item” and sign free permissions with your wallet.
- That’s it! You are ready to go.
- Once the purchase is made, the NFT will be saved to your wallet and then automatically transferred to the new owner.
Notes
- If you want to mint the NFT directly, you will have to pay the gas fee as for regular NFTs.
- The free mint feature is currently only available for the default Rarible collection. It will soon be applied to owned collections.
- If you have any questions, please visit the Rarible Discord account!
An option that is not unanimously accepted in the cryptosphere
Some actors of the community have however expressed their reservations on Twitter about the relevance and the possible drifts of the option proposed by Rarible.
The debate is still open about “lazy minting”. On the one hand, we avoid cluttering up the Ethereum blockchain (ETH) unnecessarily, by mining only the NFTs that are of interest to buyers. On the other hand, we add an additional cost on the buyer’s side, while taking the risk of seeing NFTs from projects with questionable qualities multiply.
Recently, exchanges Coinbase, FTX and Binance were among the latest crypto companies to express their intention to create products around NFTs. Coinbase garnered a huge amount of attention for the upcoming launch of its NFT marketplace, registering 1.1 million email sign-ups in the first 24 hours. A week later, that number has now surpassed 2.35 million.
But more importantly, the NFT marketplace leader, OpenSea, has logged just over 263,000 unique users in the last 30 days, in addition to over $3 billion in total volume.
The idea implemented by Rarible revolutionizes the way you approach NFTs. This is because when you create (mine) your NFT in the “traditional” way, you immediately transmit it to the blockchain. This means that you have to pay the gas fees for the transaction to happen on Ethereum, which can be quite expensive these days.
Rarible’s initiative offers a new and interesting solution for artists to share their creations on chain, without having to spend a fortune at the start of their venture. On its side, with a very different approach, ShapeShift is about to create the rarest NFT in the world.
