Where to Mint and Buy NFTs with Low Gas Fees?

What exactly is a non-fungible token (NFT)? Simply put, a non-fungible token is a record on a blockchain which is associated with a particular digital or physical asset. The mechanism of creating an NFT on the blockchain is called minting. Whether it’s a tweet, an artwork, a sound/music Masterfile, or art collections, all have proven to be amongst the most popular NFTs in 2021. 

NFTs are buzzing in the crypto ecosystem with some NFTs selling as high as $69.3 Million at Christie’s. These numbers can be tempting to dive into the NFT industry, but how do you get started without actually paying excessive network charges such as gas fees? Gas fees are an intrinsic cost that comes with the NFT ecosystem. Although there are specific methods to mitigate paying the premiums and higher gas fees, it’s important to know your ins and outs. Before minting and creating an NFT, you need a crypto NFT storage wallet like MetaMask and substantial ETH tokens to cover gas fees. This article will help you learn how to use multiple blockchains to mint and sell NFTs with minimal gas fees.

How To Mint NFTs With Low Gas Fees

Image Source

If you are familiar with Ethereum (ETH), you know that the gas fees are exorbitant when transferring tokens from one wallet to another. Moreover, exchanging tokens on a decentralized exchange or sending funds from your wallet to your centralized stock exchange account invites hefty charges. Since minting and trading NFTs on the Ethereum mainnet is so expensive, you can consider the top five Ethereum alternatives to mint NFTs.

Polygon

Polygon is the true Ethereum alternative in the face of escalating gas fees. In fact, it’s a Layer 2 protocol built on top of Ethereum, so it offers all the benefits of Ethereum, including the ability to run 65,000+ transactions per second on a single sidechain. 

It also offers far cheaper fees (by more than 1000 times) than the Ethereum network. Additionally, Polygon NFT Marketplace gives you access to at least one well-known NFT marketplace, namely AirNFTs. The native token MATIC powers the Polygon ecosystem.

Binance Smart Chain (BSC)

The Binance Smart Chain was developed as a sidechain to address the issue of smart contracts on Binance NFT, its primary marketplace. Even though it is based on the same Ethereum virtual machine design, it is significantly cheaper than Ethereum. BSC can process up to 160 transactions per second. This speed is neither excellent nor close to Polygon, but it is vastly superior to Ethereum. 

The average transaction costs at BSC are around 15 cents. This cost is still higher than the Polygon network fees but significantly lower than the Ethereum network. On BSC, you can use the AirNFTs platforms to produce, buy, sell or give away your minted NFTs. 

Solana

Solana is a good option if you’re looking for a blockchain that permits you to mint and trade NFTs. Solana uses a scalable blockchain technology that is easy for the developers of Decentralised Applications. Like SpaceSevens’ Concordium technology, Solana uses a Proof-of-Stake system to facilitate faster and cheaper gas fee transactions. Solana is capable of processing more TPS than most Ethereum-based networks. 

In addition, the Solana blockchain includes 1000+ validators around the world that confirm transactions when users make requests. Magic Eden is a popular NFT platform powered by Solana with cheaper gas fees up to $0.00020-$0.00030. AirNFTs also intends to integrate its platform through Solana, as the project goal is to create a marketplace with multichain support.

Avalanche

Image Source

Avalanche, often referred to as AVAX, is the crypto industry’s fastest blockchain network in time-to-execution aspects. Avalanche has introduced AVAX subnets that can potentially increase average transaction speeds by 10x. Because the network is ultra-fast, its systems facilitate easy minting of NFTs within seconds, leaving a negligible carbon footprint and helping users enjoy relatively low fees. 

Avalanche is not very well known within the NFT ecosystem due to it mainly catering to play-to-earn (P2E) games and decentralized exchanges (DEXs). NFTrade, a promising NFT platform on the Avalanche network, helps users mint all forms of NFTs. 

Rarible

Rarible is also among the popular marketplace for all types of NFTs. The platform allows you to buy, sell, and mint any artwork- including trending videos, memes, and tweets. Unlike OpenSea, however, the marketplace requires trading in the platform-native coin $RARI. Built on the Ethereum blockchain, Rarible has the largest audience and investors and is the platform of choice for many NFT developers and buyers due to its comparatively low NFT mining costs. 

Rarible is now much more user-friendly and accessible. With their updated user interface, you can now create NFTs for free. You don’t need Ethereum to get started. They’re excited to lower the entry barriers for NFT producers worldwide by allowing anyone to market and sell their work for free. 

At the same time, the new interface is a step toward Rarible’s long-term viability as it reduces the number of unnecessary Ethereum transactions related to unpurchased NFTs. Minting NFTs on any of the above platforms is a convenient experience. All of the platforms streamline the NFT trading experience. 

The Sad State of Affairs

Before proceeding with NFT minting, users must verify the authenticity of the marketplace. As digital assets bring immense fortunes, they are equally prone to scams and frauds. Unfortunately, the NFT industry is not impervious to fraud and scams. A report by bitsCrunch platform suggests:

Image: Depiction of most wash traded NFT collection on LooksRare

• In 2021, nearly 34% of the total transactions were washtraded in the Ethereum blockchain.
• The Terraforms collection in the LooksRare marketplace has the highest washtrade volume of 89% of any other collection. 
• Token ID 3083 from the Terraforms collection was involved in washtrade 128 times, and the revenue involved was 181M USD.
• In January 2021, the total volume of the LooksRare marketplace was 11.6B USD, out of which 10.6B USD was washtraded volume.
• Cryptopunks collection saw inflation of 24.22% overall due to washtrade.

To secure their investments, users must undertake due diligence before investing in expensive artworks. These stats suggest that most trending platforms, at times, aren’t secure. So, how can retail investors be safe and sure about their investment? 

bitsCrunch: Your Gateway to a Safe and Secure NFT Investment

bitsCrunch, a premium NFT analytics platform, facilitates the NFT journey of users by providing the most accurate information on NFT marketplaces and collections. Its cutting edge NFT analytics dashboard and AI-powered fraud investigation tools detect wash trading, plagiarised NFTs, and fair price of NFTs, in turn, allowing users to make better informed decisions. 

bitsCrunch keeps its users away from NFTs, which are manipulated or overpriced, thus ensuring you continually invest in the most genuine NFT that can prove profitable.  If you want to know more about the bitsCrunch platform,  check out other blogs and stay tuned to social media handles for important updates.