How to create an NFT on Solana? A complete step-by-step guide
From pixelated art selling for millions to NBA video highlights selling for thousands of dollars, NFTs have created a lot of buzz in 2021. Are you a beginner who wants to create some NFT projects? In today’s guide, we will discuss everything about creating an NFT on the Solana blockchain.
So, Why Choose Solana to Begin with?
Well, if you know about Ethereum crypto, Solana is almost a similar one. Both ETH and Solana allow people to build on top of their blockchain platform by using smart contracts. So, why should you choose Solana over Ethereum? Because it is much more scalable with faster block times and low transaction fees.
Before we get into the details of the mining process, let’s discuss what is NFT crypto in the first place.
NFT: A Gist
A non-fungible token is basically a group of data saved on a blockchain that certifies any digital asset to be one-of-a-kind and interchangeable. To create an NFT, you must build a token that represents a file, photo, video, or whatever you want. So, how does an NFT expert use the Solana blockchain to develop tokens? Let’s get into the step-by-step details.
Learn how to work with Solana
Before we start talking about the list, make sure that you have all the required tools installed on your system. To help a first-timer like you get a grasp on Solana, here are the three easy steps to follow:
1.Setting Up a Solana Wallet : A wallet is where you will store all your tokens and NFTs. There are many different ways to create a wallet but we will talk about the command lines in today’s blog.
First of all, install the Solana Tool Suite you need to create your wallet. Once installed, open the terminal (on Linux/Mac) or Command Prompt (on Windows).
Now in the terminal/Command Prompt, move to the desktop and create a folder to store your NFT crypto data by giving the below-mentioned command:
cd Desktop
mkdir SolanaWallet
solana-keygen new — outfile SolanaWallet/my-keypair.json
Finally, create the wallet and secure it with a password. Voila! Your new Solana wallet is ready. At this point, you will receive a public address that will be a long string of numbers and letters. Save this PUB KEY as later you have to use it several times.
Now that, you have a wallet, you will need some SOL, the currency of Solana blockchain (just like Ethereum’s ETH). You can get some free SOL on the devnet, the playground version of Solana. When you are going live on the real deal, you will be using the mainnet.
To get one free SOL on the devnet, you have to give the command like:
solana airdrop 1 YOUR_ADDRESS — url https://api.devnet.solana.com
Boom! Now you have 1 SOL in your wallet on the devnet. If you want a better way to use your wallet, you can also use Solana Explorer. Visit the website, go to the top right corner change the button to devnet from mainnet, paste in YOUR_ADDRESS and your account will get 1 SOL!
You can also use the Phantom Wallet, a Chrome/Brave extension that makes it quite easy to interact with Solana Dapps. However, once you are ready with your wallet, let’s move on to the next step of your NFT crypto creation.
2.Creating Your Own Token : Now the process of creating your own token might sound a bit complex but relax, you can do it! At first, you need to set your configuration to use the devnet:
solana config set — url https://devnet.solana.com
Next, you need to point to the location of your keypair.json file on your desktop:
solana config set — keypair SolanaWallet/my-keypair.json
The final step is creating your token with just this one command:
spl-token create-token
Boom! You have created your token successfully. Your token is a string of numbers and letters just like your public address.
So, how to store your new token in your wallet? Well, you need to create an account:
spl-token create-account YOUR_TOKEN
Once you have an account in your wallet to accept all the tokens, it’s time for you to mind some tokens!
spl-token mint YOUR_TOKEN 420
That’s how you can add 420 new tokens and sell or send them to whoever you want. Do you want to add more tokens? Run all the above-mentioned commands again and create as many tokens as you want!
The Final Thoughts
Hope you found this NFT learn session quite helpful to understand how the Solana blockchain works. You can easily create multiple tokens, import wallets, and transfer all your tokens between the wallets.
If you want to learn more about minting NFT on the Solana blockchain, you can always opt for a crypto trading certification before getting started with your projects.
