One of the most common concepts that are being dispersed online today are NFTs. From games to the cryptocurrency market, NFTs break into more and more industries, developing them profoundly. While individuals from different backgrounds are making millions minting NFTs, you are probably tired of feeling like you’re missing out. But how can you get into this space and mint NFTs without paying high gas fees?

What is NFT Minting?

Non-fungible tokens are the newest and coolest thing in the crypto art digital world. Not so long ago there was no way to ensure the originality of digital works, but blockchain technology and NFTs have changed that. In essence, NFT is a form of one-of-a-kind token that proves the ownership of a specific asset, by recording it on the block of chains. It can be almost anything – art, music, game items, sports cards, videos, tweets, or even real estate, and more.

NFT minting (or tokenizing) refers to a process when those tokens are created on the blockchain via the NFT marketplace. A digital file is thus transformed into a digital asset that has a unique signature recorded on the blockchain. This metadata of the token helps to protect that asset from modification, tampering, duplicating, deleting, and so on. In the end, once the minting is complete people can move, sell, trade, and store NFTs. In other words, non-fungible tokens obtain full value and identity once they are minted with cryptography.

The drawback, that probably intimidates people the most in the NFT minting process, is the gas fees. Because the minting procedure begins once you pay those fees. Usually, only after you complete the payment you may sell your NFT on the marketplace.

What is a Gas Fee?

A gas fee is simply referred to a cost that is charged to execute any transactions on the blockchain.

Whether it is an NFT purchased, minted, or traded it needs to be validated by miners, and that takes a lot of computational energy. So to put it simply, you ought to pay rewards for that energy through the so-called gas mechanism.

Transaction fees vary by network. In other words, if you are using a network like Ethereum, your fees will be different from those of the Binance Smart Chain. The term gas fees is frequently going in conjunction with the Ethereum blockchain. At the moment, the Ethereum blockchain has the highest fees in comparison with other blockchains. This is due to the fact that it is the most popular blockchain, and its congestion is enormous. Sometimes it can take hours or even a day to wait for any transaction to get through.

In addition, the gas fee can fluctuate based on:

• the blockchain used;
• the traffic on the blockchain – network congestion;
• the price of the cryptocurrency;
• the time of minting;
• the type or the level of complexity of the transaction;
• the wanted speed of transaction.

Gas fees are measured in Gwei, which is just 0.000000001 ETH. Once in a while, the transaction costs are even bigger than the NFT itself, due to a load of traffic. Generally, they can range from $20 to $200 or more. Hence, the gas fee is not stable – it can constantly fluctuate like energy surcharge or oil prices.

Ways To Mint Without Paying a High Gas

Fortunately, there are several methods that you can adopt to save your money.  You may use these practices and as a result – evade from paying high gas fees:

#1. Explore and compare different marketplaces

Each NFT marketplace varies from one another on many levels, but their charged gas fees may be extremely different. As a result, it is valuable to take time and do a comprehensive analysis of them. For the matter of our article, we put up a list of the most popular NFT marketplaces and the cost they charge for transactions:

• Opensea – 2.5%;
• Rarible – 2.5%;
• Super Rare – 3%;
• Foundation – 15%;
• Nifty Gateway – 5% (+$0.20);
• NBA Top Shot – 5%;

It is relevant to comprehend the difference between the marketplaces and the fees that will be charged. Thus, you can choose to mint with lower costs for transactions or no gas fees at all.

#2. Try layer-two blockchains

Not so long ago, in 2017, three Indian developers aspired to create a scaling solution to the low throughput and high gas fees of the Ethereum blockchain. Polygon-Matic blockchain thus was created to offer a lot of flexibility for creators, while maintaining quick and cheaper services. To this day, it is one of the best “layer-two” blockchains. Without paying anything to the blockchain, you may sell, transfer, and distribute NFTs online.

Nevertheless, Polygon is still a quite young platform, so the number of active users is not that prevalent. In fact, people still continue to lean towards ETH-based NFTs. Consequently, you need to keep in mind that it might be a little difficult to sell your art to a smaller public. However, it is only a matter of time before this layer-two blockchain will extensively expand in the market.

Besides, there are a few other blockchains that introduce minting with fewer fees:

• Cardano – $0.23;
• Solana –$0.00025;
• WAX – $0.

#3. Check up the prices of gas

There are several platforms where you can analyze the prices of gas on different blockchains. For example, Ethereum gas prices are constantly updated on ETH Gas Price Chart, ETH Gas Station, or Block Native. While there also is Polygon PoS Chain Average Gas Price Chart. Therefore, check these average costs of transactions in your needed time frame. You may also examine forecasts for the upcoming months and weeks.

#4. Incorporate lazy minting

Lazy minting is the process when a person mints only after the buyer is found. Along with this practice, minting costs can be postponed and the buyer is the one that covers the gas prices. This means that NFT is available to the public to perceive, but only gets minted at the point of the purchase.

Furthermore, this type of minting actually stimulates liquidity. Lazy minting turns the process of creating an NFT more sustainable because it reduces the amount of unnecessary transactions. As a result, the creators and artists preserve their budget, as they are not left with a number of created, yet unsold NFTs. Moreover, it diminishes the overall traffic of the blockchains, as well as lowers the somewhat expensive entry barrier to be in the industry.

One of the cheapest marketplaces you can try out is Mintable. This web-based open software allows you to mint for zero fees. OpenSea and Rarible are other main marketplaces that provide this feature. Although the step-by-step to free minting is different for each marketplace, the general process of lazy minting can be done in just 5 steps:

• Step 1: Create an account on the chosen marketplace;
• Step 2: Connect or create a digital wallet;
• Step 3: Create an NFT or the entire collection of NFTs;
• Step 4: Select the “free minting” option and finalize your decision by clicking ”create”;
• Step 5: By using your crypto wallet, sign the “minting authorizations”;
• Step 6: Actively promote your NFT or collection of them;
• Step 7: Voilà! Now you only need to wait. When someone purchases your NFT, he pays for both the minting fees and the buying price. The NFT will be automatically minted in your wallet and transferred to the buyer.

For this method to work out, you as the creator really need to make sure that the price of NFT is higher than the actual minting cost.

#5. Merge transactions

You can steer clear of high gas fees by grouping transactions together. This method, called bulk (or batch) minting, is the ability to mint several NFTs instead of just one. By applying this you can not only save time but also evade some expenses too. However, you do need some coding in order to employ batch minting.

#6. Mint at a certain time or be patient

This practice focuses on making transactions later when the blockchain is less busy. Since Tuesdays and Thursdays are the most common days when minting takes place you should plan your listing based on that. In addition, numerous surveys state that the price of Ethereum tends to be lower on the weekends. Also, early morning and late night hours often do not have that much transaction demand on the blockchain. In fact, you may schedule NFT submission for days or times of the day when the traffic is low on the marketplace.

#7. Set gas limits

It is a good thing that there are gas limits that can be set, in order to not go over the top of the chosen maximum cost. This signifies that you may set a limit on how much gas you wish to spend and then wait till it extends that limit. Even if the blockchain exceeds the limit, it will promptly repay any additional value that was not included in your chosen cost for the transaction.

As a result, users can have some control over their expenses, and be more comfortable with their selected price. However, the fee depends on the type of transaction and the level of demand on the blockchain at the time of minting.

Outro

To conclude, NFT minting is the act of generating and recording any asset on the blockchain. Non-fungible tokens, like any other investment, may be truly successful in terms of profit, if your minting is optimized. We have introduced seven practices to apply while minting so that you would avoid high gas payments. Whether you utilize lazy or bulk minting, set maximum fee limits, or exploit different marketplaces – you can really save your budget exceptionally.

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