As of June 30, 2020, there's a new player in the NFT arena...and it seems to be fierce.
AtomicAssets went live yesterday (announcement). It's a new protocol to replace the "Simple Assets" EOSIO protocol...the one that powers the Topps / Garbage Pail Kids on the WAX blockchain.
AtomicAssets aims to be better. At first glance, it sure does look to be just that.
Waiting to launch
I've been waiting around to attempt to mint some NFTs on WAX. I researched the Simple Assets how-to. It seemed doable, maybe. The how-to create instructions consisted of four web pages, including videos, adding "docker", and using the WAX-CDT toolkit. I knew that Atomic Assets were set to come out June 30, so I waited.
In short, I was able to create a new NFT in about ten minutes on AtomicHub.io, the Atomic Assets site. There was no code, it was just filling in simple forms.
I've made a few NFTs on Ethereum and, by comparison, the AtomicHub.io experience was much, much better.
A quick comparison chart
| Ethereum | AtomicHub | |
|---|---|---|
| difficulty: | High/Medium. Minting from command line is very intimidating. Mintable.app makes the process workable, but there's still a "codey" look to it. (The folks there are very nice and helpful though.) | Low. I think you could make an NFT without any instructions. |
| time: | Lots, and it depends. It takes a bit to learn to get things right. But, mainly, the Ethereum network gets log-jammed which forces prices up. I tried to mint cheaply recently, and waited for 3 weeks hoping it'd go through in the wee hours. It didn't. Finally, I gave in and upped the fee to about $1.50 for my single NFT just to get things finalized. | Fast. It took me about 10 minutes to mint my first NFT. |
| cost: | Pricey. There is an initial set-up fee on Mintable.app and ETH gas fees hurt. | Free (to start). I minted my first couple of NFTs for free. I put the first one on the market. I did not have enough RAM (storage) to put the second on the market, so, I will have to purchase more RAM if I want to do that. |
| misc.: | Ethereum-based NFTs are likely the more common now. However, something tells me the tide is turning and that it will turn quickly. | Perks exist. You can back the NFTs with WAX...if the owner "burns" the NFT, they keep the WAX (like if you melted a gold coin, the coin is gone but the gold still has value). You can trade NFTs with others like good ol' hold-in-your-hand cards. |
An NFT minting tutorial using AtomicAssets
Quick disclaimer: I did this on-the-fly last night while minting in about 10 minutes. Although I think things are correct, there are no guarantees.
Step one: get a WAX Cloud Wallet account
You'll need a WAX Cloud Wallet if you don't have one. It's easy and free. Since that's not what this write-up is about, I'll move along.
Step two: AtomicHub.io
Go to AtomicHub.io and login with your WAX Cloud Wallet. The AtomicHub site is very intuitive. You can futz around in the "Explorer" or "Market", but to mint, choose "NFT Creator".
I simply followed the Medium article that the "pink.network" put out. I think most people could mint an NFT without instructions AtomicHub--it's that intuitive--but the vocab in the Medium article is helpful. Here's the vocab takeaways that I got:
- collections: This is the name of your "shoebox" of cards.
- schemas: This is like "series1" which, naturally, sets you up to later make "series2" in the same collection.
- attributes: These are the characteristics of the NFT, like its name, the image, its ID number, maybe a note (you can customize).
So, I'll give a baseball card example. The collection might be "Big League Baseball Cards". The schema might be "2020cards" (next year's schema would be "2021cards", etc.). The attributes might be "Bill Smith" for name, Bill's photo for the image, 10008637 for its ID number, and a fun-fact as a note.
Collection
In my case, I made a collection called "stickypeople". The idea was to just test and learn the system, and drawing stick people is easy.
A couple of notes on the image above. First, you see that my "RAM" was 61%. In the WAX world "RAM" means storage on the blockchain. When you start with the WAX Cloud Wallet, you get some free RAM...you start out using about 55% or so. Anyway, the point here is that I had enough free RAM to mint my first couple of NFTs. Secondly, you can "Add a collection photo" here...this will be the "logo" or "brand" for your collection. Third, the "Market fee" is a percentage that will come back to you if and when your NFT sells...even after you no longer own it. It's like royalties.
Schema and Attribute
For the schema, I chose "series1", but you should customize with whatever fits your situation. The same can be said for Attributes. I made a mistake and included both "ID" and "Mint Number". Looking at it now, they are the same thing in my case...it's the number of the NFT. Since I'm doing only 1-of-1 minting, I plan to just add incrementally. There is an option for using "Templates", but I did not use it because my understanding was that that was more for minting, say, 10 copies of the came NFT. I do like the ability in Templates to prove only a certain number of NFTs have been minted (in my case, 1). That's really what I wanted by making only 1-of-1 NFT...I'll have to investigate that option.
Step three: mint asset (and back it?)
Once set up, minting is just a few clicks away. Essentially, you just fill in the form...name and image are the only two attributes required, I believe.
AtomicAssets can be backed by fungible tokens. So, you're given the option to back your NFT with WAX. This means the NFT is guaranteed to have some value...if the owner "burns" or cashes in the NFT, the owner gets the WAX. Essentially, this is a "redeem ticket for cash" coupon. I did not back the "Tip 'o the Cap" asset when I minted it (I have zero WAX). However, it seems that I can still back that NFT if I want to, even after it's already been minted (see below).
And, there it is!
Once minted, boom! Your NFT exists!
My gentleman showed up politely tipping his hat to a few "ladies" who were also "Newly Created".
And my "stickypeople" collection appeared between a dog and a G.
Step four: put it on the market?
Of course, it's fun to hold (or hodl) collectibles, but a big part of the fun anything collectible is to sell or trade them.
Sell
Adding my Tip 'o the Cap NFT to the built-in market was stupid-simple. Click...add a price...click. And there's my gentleman, up for sale, again alongside his ladyfriends who were also pawning their assets.
And here's how it looks when "Details" is clicked:
Trade
A very nice perk of AtomicAssets is the ability to just trade, to straight-up swap. I have not done it, but, I think the idea is that you or I can just propose a trade and the other person can accept or decline it. If accepted, boom, it happens.
I really like this. It just reminds me of the old days of two kids sitting on a front porch stoop, thumbing through old baseball cards, and one kid says, "Hey, I'll give you a 1999 Fred McGriff for that 2002 Chipper Jones, okay?"
The animated gif below illustrates how such a proposal might go. (In this case it's between me-and-me in the gif, but you get the point)...I want that Tip 'o the Cap NFT, so I'm asking the owner to trade off that yellow hexagon atom that I own to get the coveted cap tipper NFT that I want.
Summary
AtomicAssets on AtomicHub.io are easy to make and seems to be very promising. It looks fun.
You can see the NFTs I minted here.
