bomonike

nft.png Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) use unalterable blockchains, crypto currency wallets, and smart contracts (all web3 tech) to prove provenance and thus make it safer to buy & sell digital media in a distributed ecosystem not centrally controlled by billionaires.

Overview

Glossary of Terms

Blockchains

Blockchain is the revolutionary force behind transactional technologies like Bitcoin. Devised in 1990 by Haber and Sotrnetta. Merkle trees was added (with Bayer) in 1992. First implemented in 2008 as a “chain of blocks” linked by a crypographic hash of contents in each node. The cryptography used is “SHA-256” and RIPEMD”. The hash also contains a timestamp. All that makes blocks unique. Contain the hash of the previous block in each hash creates an immutable linkage among nodes in the block of nodes, called a ledger. Duplicates of the decentralized blockchain by each user are checked using a consensus algorithm, which makes the contents of a blockchain very difficult to alter.

That makes blockchains useful to provide a chain of transaction and asset custody and proof of ownership (provenance) in NFTs. Thus, blockchains mitigate fraud.

Starting from Bitcoin

Cryptocurrencies make use of blockchains to store digital assets.

Hundreds of cryptocurrencies have been created, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Tether, Chainlink, Binance, Tether, Primecoin, Peercoin, Litecoin, EOS.IO, Zcash, etc. “Meme coins” have also been created.

The first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (traded using symbol “BTC”) was described in a technical paper by “Satoshi Nakamoto” who remains unknown. The first version of Bitcoin was implemented in 2009. In 2017, Bitcoin grew to 100GB.

Use of blockchains provides privacy. Ownership is proven by possession of the private key used to generate a Bitcoin address. However, the owner of a blockchain asset is not recorded within the blockchain, which makes Bitcoin ownership seem anonymous. However, use of Bitcoin for ransomware forced the FBI to figure out how to reverse engineer the private keys that allow a person to control a Bitcoin address.

Unlike real minerals, “mining” Bitcoins does not remove bitcoins but create them. To mine (create) each BTC transaction costs $0.20 (20 cents) and takes 10 minutes (at the rate of 7 per second). In 20218, the cost of mining a whole block was around 4-5 BTF ($531 - $26,170).

The advantage of blockchain ecommerce is where traditional payment infrastructure falls short:

There are private blockchains where only authorized users have access. They include:

Smart contracts are programs written in a programming language that allow users to execute transactions on a blockchain.

Tutorials

HackerNoon: Learn Blockchains by Building One references https://GitHub.com/dvf/blockchain

Tutorials FREE on Infosys Springboard Digital Academy:

Blockchains by Jamie Campbell of CodeCademy

1h20m Cloud Blockchains: An Introduction to Blockchain on the Cloud by Kishan Iyer

Bitcoin ETFs

Bitcoin’s (BTC) price has experienced significant fluctuations since its “Day 1” inception on January 3, 2009. Each price movement is influenced by a complex interplay of technological advancements, regulatory changes, market sentiment (speculation), and macroeconomic factors. Bitcoin faced regulatory pressure, collapse of major crypto firms, which further rattled investor confidence, and rising interest rates (2021-2023). Bitcoin ETFs debut (2024) led to renewed interest and price rise.

When 51% of all nodes agree that a new transaction should be added, needed “consensus” is declared to allow the blockchain to be updated with the new node. However, it’s been postulated that a blockchain network could be attacked by bots holding a 51% majority, which allow the blockchain to be taken over by bad actors.

After the election of Trump, on January 10, 2024, Gary Gensler, the Chair of the United States Securities and Exchange Comission (SEC) of the previous Biden administration, issued a Statement on the Approval of Spot Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Products. After rejecting more than 20 applications between 2018 and 2024, the SEC approved trading for a spot Bitcoin ETF in the United States. Lawsuits against Robinhood, Opensea, and other crypto firms were dropped.

Globally, the three types of Bitcoin ETF available are:

Bitcoin ETF Providers, data from FactSet:

These funds benchmark and strike the Net Asset Value (NAV) of the ETFs to the Bitcoin Reference Rate - New York Variant (BRRNY) provided by CF Benchmarks - a Kraken company.

https://www.moontechnolabs.com/portfolio/smart-iot-farming-app

The NFT (Non-Fungible Token) ecosystem was created because copies of digital media can be easily duplicated.

“Digital media” file formats include music audio (mp3), video (mp4), or images (GIF/PNG/JPEG). NFTs can be artwork, collectibles, virtual real estate, or any media file. Courtyard.io sells paper trading cards.

However, NFTs enable a person to assert ownership that can be verified by others. Each NFT is a unique digital identifier enshrined in a chain of cryptographic hashes within a blockchain. So an NFT can be owned only by one party at a time. NFTs enable an image to be verified as the authentic creation of an artist.

NFTs provides a way of establishing the provenance of a digital piece of art – providing documentation which indelibly authenticates the creator, ownership history, and appraisal value of a specific piece of art.

The first NFT trades ever

quantum-kevin-mcoy-500x347.png This piece of digital art, named “Quantum”, is the first NFT to be minted, in 2014.

The digital artists who created it, Jennifer and NYU professor Kevin McCoy (of mycoyspace.com), teamed up with Anil Dash to create the tech to sell a digital image (for $4) through the Namecoin blockchain. In a recording of the demo. After McCoy promoted his work on media outlets like Axios, in June of 2021 he put the “Quantum” NFT up for auction among Sotheby’s art collectors who bought it for more than one million dollars.

Music blockchains

Clarian North was the first musician to ever mint a music album as NFT, on OpenSea March 3rd, 2022. His “Whale Shark LP” album beat Kings of Leon to it. North also built NFT marketplace MagicEden.us/Polygon tokens (MATIC), a cheaper and faster alternative to Ethereum mainnet. In 2023 he published (via Packt) a 3-hour video course (on OReilly.com) about the Solidity Smart Contract language.

Smart Contracts associated with a NFT is what enable its owner to receive royalties from those who play music from the Tamago.info Decentralized Music Streaming Platform.

Smart Contracts also enable creators to receive commissions on each future sale of the NFT.

https://builtin.com/blockchain/blockchain-music-innovation-examples

https://docs.openzeppelin.com/contracts/4.4.1/

Tamago player

The Tamago platform uses the NEAR Layer-1 blockchain (NEAR protocol with JavaScript and Rust WASM coding).

Blockchains enable Trust Without intermediaries, replacing the need for central authorities, enabling “trustless” transactions.

NEAR Protocol

VIDEO: NEAR.ai was created in 2017 by one of the Generative AI pioneers who authored the seminal “Attention is all you need” article at Google.

near-tech-1299x605.png

“User-Owned AI” front-end combines “AI Assistants” with AI Agents finds the best for you.

NEAR is able to achieve high scalability and fast transaction processing because of its sharding technology (called Nightshade) with its utilization of a “Proof of Stake (PoS)” consensus mechanism (instead of the Beacon Chain used by others). The Heartbeat of Blockchain: Rules in Consensus Mechanisms ensure all participants in a blockchain network agree on the same version of the ledger to achieve synchronization across distributed nodes.

The “NEAR Protocol” VIDEO was formed in 2018 by Google engineers who designed Google’s AI Transformers.

“the foundation for an AI-driven Web3 future.” which means shifting from selling views:

near-tech-1299x605.png

Spot rate history candlestick chart back to 1 week from 3/10/24, dipped to all-time low of 3.08 since until recovery to 7.3 on 12/1/24, then dropping since.

Other Layer-1 blockchains:

All written in WASM language.

“Chain Abstraction” - VIDEO

At the time of writing, it costs 1 $NEAR for every 100kb of data stored in a way that’s resistant to storage attacks.

“Intents” A new type of transaction to allow information, assets, goods, and services exchange between AI agents, users, and real world services. The attestation dispute resolutions. Abstracts chains, tokens, agents & contracts.

In 2023 it’s home to 3 of the top 10 apps on Web3:

Metamask

Among Ethereum Wallets

  1. Install Metamask for iOS, Android, Chrome, Firefox (by danfinlay) (Safari not supported)

    https://metamask.io/download/

    PROTIP: VIDEO: Fees are difficult to compare. Beware of fees to withdraw to USD and other fiat currencies.

  2. Select your location. Crypto.com is not allowed in New York.

  3. Crypto.com’s own CRO currency, which can be more volatile than other cryptocurrencies.

    PROTIP: Purchasers pay the Taker Fee when an order is placed and the Maker Fee when an order is matched and filled. Higher “bps” (basis points) are paid for low volume trades. 0.40% is 40 bps. 60 bps is the upper end of the range for small trades.

  4. Consider deals by affiliates such as

    • $200 to signup on Coinbase through https://coinbase.mattscrypto.com/ But they charge 1% on the first $1000
    • MoonPay to buy crypto using Venmo through http://moonpay.mattscrypto.com/
    • $10 of free Bitcoin on Kraken through http://kraken.mattscrypto.com/
  5. Fund with credit card.

  6. Scroll down to compare rates from providers:

    CoinMarketCap, CoinGecko, Blockchain,

    PROTIP: Ramp and Coinbase are among the lowest rates.

    Strike: Offers an average 0.93% spread on Bitcoin purchases, making it one of the cheapest options8. Kraken Pro: Charges some of the lowest fees in the crypto asset exchange industry, with trading fees ranging from 0.16% to 5%24. Crypto.com: Offers trading fees between 0% and 2.99%, depending on the type of transaction2. Gemini: Provides fees starting at 0.5%, with a maximum of 1.49% for crypto-to-crypto trades and up to 3.99% for fiat-to-crypto purchases12. Coinbase: Fees range from 0% to 4%, varying by transaction type2. Among these options, Strike and Kraken Pro appear to offer the lowest fees for buying crypto from USD. However, it’s important to consider other factors such as security, available cryptocurrencies, and user experience when choosing an exchange3.

Blockchain Development platforms

https://www.ripple.com/ripple-foundation/ripple-foundation-website.html

Hyperledger Fabric

Solidity

Java

JavaScript

MultiChain

  1. This is described 2:40 into video: Infosys “Developing with Blockchain 35m 24s”
  2. Download an app for macOS, Windows, Linux. NO brew install multichain

  3. To create the genesis block of a blochain:

    multichaind

  4. multichain-cli
  5. multichain-util

NEAR Agents

At https://app.near.ai/agents All Ethereum Wallets, Including MetaMask, Now Usable on NEAR Mainnet MyNearWallet

NFT keys in a secure hardware wallet such as BLOG: Ledger Nano S or X It supports both Ethereum and Solana NFTs.

>”NEAR Tasks” provides a way for individuals (after waitlist) to earn NEAR Tokens (money) on gigs (like on Amazon Mechanical Turk, scale.ai, and https://www.masa.ai). Tasks include image labeling, writing, etc.

To mint NFT: VIDEO: https://docs.near.org/docs/tutorials/contracts/nfts/introduction https://github.com/near-examples/nft-tutorial.git uses JavaScript using the wallet.testnet.near.org and front-end https://github.com/near-examples/nft-tutorial-frontend.git

NFT marketplaces on blockchains

VIDEO: There are several NFT marketplaces: OpenSea, MagicEden.us, Rarible, Superrare, etc.

cryptopunks-900x399.webp
The above is CryptoPunks’s gallery from https://lavalabs.com/cryptopunks, launched as a fixed set of 10,000 unique 24x24 pixel characters in mid-2017. Although it doesn’t comply with standards ERC-20, ERC-721, etc., it is now one of the most popular at Opensea.com. It inspired the modern CryptoArt movement. On Feb 2022, the #5822 fetched $23 million dollars (8,000 ETH).

ERC-20

The Ethereum community has established some standards regarding the functionality of smart contracts, including tokens. <ul<>https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/blob/master/EIPS/eip-20.md </ul>

Cyptocurrency tokens based on the ERC-20 Token Standard

ERC-721

10,000 ERC-271 tokens (Apes) from the Bored Ape Yacht Club provides NFT holders with members-only benefits such as access to a private digital board, offline parties hosted by Yuga Labs, etc. with celebrities such as Steph Curry, Madonna, Eminen, etc. Yuga Labs released ERC-20 “AppCoin” tokens Otherdeed.

The Axie Infinity Play-to-Earn (P2E) game was developed by Sky Mavis in 2018. Axies are the name of digital pets in the ERC-721 game, which involves collecting, breeding for battle with others using Axies. It started on Etherium and moved to the Ronin Etherium sidechain for faster and less expensive transactions.

Opensea was used in Martha Stewart’s 2021 collaboration with the Tokns UK NFT agency to create Shopify marthafreshmint.com to sell NFTs of photographs. It’s now defunct.

On Auguest 2024, SEC issues Wells Notice to OpenSea.

NFT games like Axie Infinity, virtual worlds like Decentraland.

Roofstock.com is revolutionizing real estate by using web3 blockchain.

One gimmick is that the NFTs are randomly assigned to purchasers. Buyers can only uncover an NFT’s content and rarity.tools once it is opened. Purchasers looking to resell the NFT for a profit will have to decide whether it is more valuable to sell it opened or unopened.

The Bored Ape Yaught Club created buzz through exclusivity by allowing only those who have bought the opportunity to join a private chat room.

CERTIFICATION BLOG: Newsletter: NEAR’s “Rainbow Bridge” facilitates transfers of various token types between different blockchains.

Rewards for validators.

Media

The Art Newspaper, a new 176-page magazine dedicated solely to AI-generated art

https://www.nftculture.com/nft-news/tiga-x-tamago-nft-auction/

Crypto wallets

Payment through the marketplace can be in fiat money (issued as cash by governments) such as a normal credit card.

The web3 cryptowallet allows for accepting royalties as well.

Several other blockchains support NFTs, each with its own community and decentralized apps (dApps) for creators and NFT owners.

Metamask.com is currently the most popular crypto wallet (even though it doesn’t run on Apple’s Safari browser). It can be used as a mobile app or added as an extension to many browsers (not Safari). It supports Ethereum and Solana blockchains plus a wide variety of cryptocurrencies. more.

BLOG: Coinbase Wallet: Coinbase offers a digital wallet that supports ERC-721 NFT tokens and Solana NFT collections. It can be downloaded as a mobile app or added as a browser extension.

ERC-721, ERC-721A, or ERC-1155 compliant. Metaplex

NFT API libraries

NFTs can be created, bought, sold, and transferred within various blockchain networks using several libraries:

The API fetches ERC721 tokens and ERC1155 token metadata.

The ERC-721 standard was developed to specify the minting of unique tokens.

Use RPC request batching, EIP-6963 for wallet discovery to connect to MetaMask without conflict, and wallet security enhancements.

Like vehicle VINs

A unique Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) is generated by auto manufacturers for each vehicle created. It’s displayed on each vehicle for tracking during transport and services performed. The VIN is reference by the DMV to track vehicle ownership and licensing. VIN numbers are posted on ads for each auto to ensure that the specific vehicle being advertised is the one being actually sold.

One can even create virtual real estate on a piece of digital land in virtual reality Metaverse of networked 3D worlds.

NFTs provide a way to ensure that each creation can be owned by only one person at a time.

https://nftnow.com/art/quantum-the-first-piece-of-nft-art-ever-created/

When you sell an NFT, you typically transfer over the rights of ownership, but keep your intellectual property rights. When you make NFT art, it gains a unique certificate of authenticity that can be held by only one person at a time. You can always create a new piece with the same style.

Most NFT marketplaces let you choose whether to transfer the copyright upon sale. Copyright laws vary by country as far as what ideas are copyrightable.

se NFT-specific programs like Bueno or NFT-inator,

Use of NFTs requires an understanding of minting, blockchain, smart contracts, cryptocurrency wallets, marketplaces, and gas fees.

Hashes

Those who provide a digital file for download usually provide a string which recipients can compare after recalculating the string from the file downloaded. Generating the same string (cryptopgraphic hash) on both ends proves that nothing was alterned during transmission. The string is called “SHA256” for the mathematical algorithm used to generate the string on both ends. Such functions generate a different hash value when even a single bit is different.

Minting into a blockchain

NFTs extend the use of cryptographic hashes to provide a guarantee of true uniqueness in time and space by enshrining the hash within a blockchain, which is a chain of strong digital certificates that are very difficult to alter. Because each NFT is unalterably unique within a blockchain, ownership can be confirmed. And changes in ownership can be recorded safely as well.

NFTs also include metadata describing the asset it represents, plus a link (IPFS URL) to where the asset content is listed and stored.

??? Each block contains transaction data, a timestamp, and a link to the previous block, forming a chain.

??? information is recorded on the blockchain, it cannot be altered retroactively without altering all subsequent blocks. This makes blockchain ideal for ensuring trust in data integrity and authenticity.

Filecoin

Filecoin (FIL) is a decentralized storage network designed to store and retrieve data securely and efficiently. It operates on a peer-to-peer network, allowing users to store files on the internet using blockchain technology.

IPFS

The IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) https://ipfs.tech is a decentralized, peer-to-peer file storage protocol that enable users to store and access content without a central server. It’s used by:

Notice that files take longer to load than HTTP servers.

CAUTION: IPFS is not an anonymous system because it needs each user’s IP address is visible when sharing files.

Unlike HTTP which retrieve data based on a specific location defined by an IP address, IPFS, uses “content-based addressing” which enables a peer-to-peer exchanges:

ipfs-vs-http-383x222.png from eraser.io

This distribution of content by IPFS is immutable. Once added, files can’t be deleted from it (by government censors).

* <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qarW5KhIWXE">How to use the Pinata IPFS API</a>

Alternatives for NFT storage are IPFS, Filecoin (which ensures files are backed up), Arweave.

  1. To create a temporary link to a file’s content only on your local machine, use this web page:

    https://share.ipfs.io/#/

    VIDEO Notice at the upper-right corner is the “PeerID” - a long random number created for your computer.

    It’s referenced by the Kademlia Distributed Hash Table (DHT), the catalog of all addresses in IPFS. IPNS uses both DHT and libp2p PubSub for publishing and resolving records, offering different trade-offs in terms of global consistency and speed.

  2. Drag and drop a file to create a IPFS CID (Content IDentifiers) such as:

    https://share.ipfs.io/#/bafybeigiepgawww4qsdmwwv5m4zzsaaexwwnnsrfsi4xojfybri3qragju

    That URL link is made up of a SHA256 hash created based on the file’s content.

    CIDv0 is 46 characters long and always starts with “Qm”. It uses a base 58-encoded multihash to create the content identifier.

    CIDv1 adds to v0 multi-base prefix, CID version identifier, and multi-codec identifier.

    Like git, IPFS also constructs a DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) in an interlocking chain of hashes. So the content associated with a CID is very difficult to change. Each change adds another CID to the chain. Thus, IPFS is also called the “permanent web”.

  3. Share the QR code so people can load the URL using a mobile phone.

  4. However, IPFS does not have a “human friendly” way to discover CIDs and search through their content.

    web3-xmit-table.png

    So get a private IPFS Gateway & hubs such as from Pinata.com:

    ipfs-gateway-pinata.png 1m10s

  5. To make permanent address within the IPFS, “Set pinning” to a local node, which makes it available to be found and imported by others (peer nodes). Each download distributes the file in an additional node. Thus, the more that a file is shared, the faster it becomes.

    Publish to IPNS (InterPlanetary Name System), add your files or directory to IPFS using these CLI command:

    MY_CONTENT_HASH=$( ipfs add -r "$MY_CONTENT_DIRECTORY" )
ipfs key gen "$MY_KEY_NAME"
ipfs name publish --key="$MY_KEY_NAME" /ipfs/"$MY_CONTENT_HASH"

  1. To setup human-readable URLs to frequently shared files, use (set up) a dedicated IPFS gateway.

  2. NOTE: IPFS apps can communicate using the IPFS project’s IPFS protocol:

    ipns://k2k4r8nismm5mmgrox2fci816xvj4l4cudnuc55gkfoealjuiaexbsup#IPFS-Toolkit

  3. More advanced features like IPNS record management and IPFS PubSub functionality. When using IPNS over PubSub, the system calculates a topic name from the IPNS name and joins it by querying the DHT for the topic’s provider records2.

Among IPFS Awesome Tools https://awesome.ipfs.io/tools/

Since file content is public by default, encrypt the file’s content and share its key the usual secure way.

Download as CAR

Official media:

Pinata with Crossmint

@pinatacloud

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTFRD-eEc5Y”>How to Mint an NFT With APIs Using Crossmint and Pinata</a>

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/W5cuba0A6Bs?feature=share

  1. Get Login Key from https://app.pinata.cloud/
  2. Create a free account. Confirm email.

  3. Menu API keys, New Key,

    nft-pinanta-admin-1088x393.png

  4. in your secrets vault (Keychain Access.app on macOS, etc.) save:
  5. Save “apikey”
  6. Save “apisecret”

  7. Save “jwt”

  8. Go to the Dev Console at https://www.crossmint.com/console/overview (Not to https://www.crossmint.com/signin?callbackUrl=/user/collection)
  9. Sign in with your email.
  10. Get login code from email and paste.
  11. Integrate menu. “API keys”.

  12. Server-side keys: There are 3 secrets:

  13. Copy “Access token” and “Refresh token” values
  14. Save “accesstoken”
  15. Save “refreshtoken”

From Ashish aif-c01-cheatsheet

Gas fees

The cost of creating NFT is recovered with “gas fees” charged when NFTs are transferred on the Ethereum blockchain.

Each blockchain charges a one-time $50 - $300. That can be steep.

Royalties up to 10% ???

Blockchain networks (Ethereum, Solana, Flow)

The most popular NFT blockchain is Ethereum, which hosts thousands of NFT collections. Ethereum NFTs are created utilizing the ERC-721 and ERC-1155 standards, which store the metadata of the NFT on the Ethereum blockchain. The ERC-721 standard was developed by the same teams that developed the ERC-20 smart contract and defines the minimum interface—ownership details, security details, and metadata—required for exchanging and distributing tokens.

Different blockchains validate transactions in different ways (Proof-of-Work, Proof-of-History, and Proof-of-Stake), which affect gas fees, processing speeds, security, and even the environment differently — minting NFTs is energy intensive. Ethereum uses Proof-of-Stake to confirm transactions, which is the most secure. The main drawback of Ethereum is the high gas fees for each transaction.

Blockchains currently operates using the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus, making it much more eco-friendly than it used to be. Most NFT marketplaces support the creation of Ethereum NFTs, though transferring NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain may come with high gas fees.

Ethereum is used by other projects (called sidechains) for creating NFTs and cryptocurrencies. polygonscan.com is one of the more popular sidechains for NFTs, used by some businesses and fans.

Blockchain miners solve complex mathematical puzzles to validate transactions and add new blocks to the chain.

Ethereum and Bitcoin began by using Pow (Proof of Work), which is energy-intensive, slow, and struggles with scalability.

So in 2023 Etherium merged to use PoS (Proof of Stake), which offers scalability and efficiency while maintaining a degree of decentralization. Cardano also uses PoS. Validators are chosen to create new blocks based on the amount of cryptocurrency they stake. Custodial MPC Wallets alsp include Aptos and Sui.

Ethereum has been the default for a long time, so almost every wallet and NFT app supports it because users perceive it to be high-status and secure. However, Etherium is also expensive and slow (costing above $10 just to mint a single NFT taking minutes to be finalized).

Cardano and Solana utilize both PoS and Proof-of-History (PoH) consensus mechanisms to boast faster transaction speeds than Ethereum. Solana transaction fees are less than $0.01 along with a growing list of supported apps for NFTs. PoH timestamps transactions to improve speed and scalability.

Solana is not compatible with Ethereum and thus not universally supported like Ethereum. But its transactions are very fast (sub-second) and almost too cheap to meter. That has led Solana to recently exceeded Ethereum in NFT activity.

flow.com is a PoS blockchain designed for NFTs and decentralized gaming apps. Many other sports franchises have created marketplaces on the Flow blockchain, making it popular for sports-focused NFT creation. It enables use of Apple Pay for fans to buy popular “NBA Top Shot” NFT collection of officially licensed NFT trading card line with embedded video of a player’s best moments.

Hybrid mechanisms are emerging as innovative solutions to strike a balance between the trilemma of security, scalability, and decentralization.

Polygon is a layer-2 chain that brings costs down to a few cents per minted NFT and works fast as well. It is directly compatible with Ethereum, so it is easy for apps to integrate (and many have). The largest marketplaces (like OpenSea) support Polygon.

NFTport supports both Etherium and Polygon.

Smart Contracts

Blockchain technology also enables the addition of rules (code) in “smart contracts” that are automatically invoked (enforced) when predefined conditions are met. Such self-executing contracts operate without the need for intermediaries.

Smart contracts are like rules (covenants) added to real estate property deeds processed by escrow agents.

Smart contracts can limit resell such as the amount of commission returned to the orginal artist each time the artwork is transferred.

The Solidity curly-bracketed programming language (to define classes and functions) is commonly used for this purpose, using the https://remix.ethereum.org online IDE. See https://remix-ide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/security.html

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.0;
contract Wallet {
   constructor() public {
   }
   function getResult() public view returns (uint) {
      uint a = 2;
      uint b = 3;
      return a + b;
   }
   uint256 public balance;
   function deposit(uint256 amount) public {
      balance += amount;
   }
   function withdraw(uint256 amount) public {
      balance -= amount;
   }
}

Smart contracts are coded in “.sol” (Solidity) files run in the decentralized virtual environment EVM (Etherium Virtual Machine).

EVMs use “gas” to measure the computational effort required for operations, ensuring efficient resource allocation and network security.

CAUTION: Development of smart contracts requires absolute correctness. So testing by professionals is crucial. Thus, pro testers are needed.

References:

Cryptocurrency Wallets

To create an NFT and sell it online, you first need a crypto wallet linked to a compatible blockchain. Then you can pick a suitable marketplace, upload your file to “mint” your NFT, and list it for sale.

associated with a token stored on a NFT marketplace.

Metamask’s SDK support for libraries Wagmi or Web3-Onboard.

Marketplaces charge royalty fees to reward the NFT creator if their NFT is resold. The percentage of the royalty changes depending on the marketplace. Royalties can be from 5% to as high as 50%.

A non-fungible token (NFT) is a digital asset with markers that make it unique through the use of blockchain technology.

Human beings naturally find rare objects valuable, and NFTs guarantee authenticity and ownership, making them rare, useful as status symbols, and convertible to cash via cryptocurrency. After NFTs are put on a blockchain, which acts as a digital ledger, they can’t be copied.

XRP Ledger https://xrpl.org/docs/tutorials/python/nfts/mint-and-burn-nfts

A token is the item’s information hashed into an alphanumeric string. This token is stored on the blockchain and establishes ownership of a digital item.

??? ownable by only one person at a time.

he token itself is hashed information stored on the blockchain. The digital item, tagged with metadata, is stored somewhere else, like Amazon Web Services or another hosting service. This is why you can right-click on the picture on an NFT auction site and save it—it is only the image. But your copy does not have the data associated with the NFT, so you’re not the owner. In a sense, you have a forged copy.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ether-metamask/

https://nftnow.com/features/the-creators-of-the-worlds-first-nft-talk-new-collection-web3-future/

“The fraud in [the NFT space in] 2022 was pretty intense,” Kevin said. Rolling Stones reports that many hyped NFT crypto assets are worthless.

https://medium.com/@analyticsemergingindia/creating-non-fungible-tokens-nfts-with-python-and-blockchain-technology-6f172be6e1aa

https://www.udemy.com/course/how-to-mint-nfts-for-free-in-2022-step-by-step-nft-course/ How to mint NFTs for Free - Step by Step NFT Course

NFT API hosts

“making the blockchain invisible to end users.”

https://docs.crossmint.com/minting/quickstart Crossmint.com enables flat and cross-chain payments “vetted by Fortune 500 companies” for SOC2 compliance designed specifically for AI agents to hold and transfer funds, purchase tokenized assets, execute smart contract transactions, and manage digital credentials - all through simple API calls.

A. Create API Key

  1. Sign up, confirm email, create account, Log in to the Crossmint console.

    https://www.crossmint.com/signin?callbackUrl=/console

  2. On left menu, click “Integrate” & “API Keys”.
  3. Click the “Create new key” button in the “Server-side keys” for a pop-up menu of 13 scopes:

  4. Open the Minting API to select all

  5. Click “Create server key” to generate your API key.
  6. Copy and paste the key to your secrets vault (Keychain Access.app on macOS, etc.)

B. Create NFT Collection

REMEMBER: In NFT world, a collection has a fixed number of items when created.

  1. Create an NFT collection and navigate to it in the console.

See https://docs.crossmint.com/minting/guides/sell-nfts

  1. Upload NFT “templates” for all the NFTs you wish to list for sale. You can do so from the “NFTs” tab in the console, or by using the API.

  2. Navigate to the NFT Checkout entry on the left navbar in the collections page. Follow the wizard to enable payments.

  3. (Production only) Verify your account and collection. Not required in staging.

  4. Share the url or QR code with your users.

  5. You can set a price in crypto (ETH, MATIC, SOL or USDC).
  6. For imported and secondary collections, payouts arrive instantly. For managed collections, payouts arrive after a 24-hour withholding period.
  7. Your customers can pay with crypto or credit card.
  8. You pay credits for NFT gas, user pays only for the item. ​

    References

https://www.alchemy.com/best/nft-minting-tools

https://docs.moralis.com/ Build with ease across 30+ chains with our API references, guides, and tutorials.

VIDEO: $2,497/year Quantum Wave by Mark Moss: To block crypto, SEC threatened audits Elizabeth Warren was against. Law was vetoed by Binden’s administration

Trump fired anti-crypto SEC chair Gensler replaced him with “crypto mom” Hester Peirce led SEC Crypto Task Force to work with Congress EO sidelined Fed & FDIC colluding on “Operation Chokepoint 2.0” appointed David Sachs as “Crypto Czar” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Kc5QdNmtds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vYBZ8Y2HdM

Cryptocurrency and Applications

https://www.coursera.org/learn/crypto101/home/module/4 by James Won-Ki HONG in South Korea

  1. Introduction to Cryptocurrencies 52 minutes
  2. Cryptocurrency Wallets and Exchanges 53 minutes
  3. Stablecoins 43 minutes
  4. Non-Fungible Tokens(NFT) 1 hour
  5. Fractional NFTs 59 minutes
  6. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) 51 minutes

Google Develop an NFT with Google Cloud Web3

GSP1243: “Develop an NFT with Google Cloud Web3 (1h 30m, 7 credits) You will receive the starting code to build a base for your NFT contract, then you’ll customize the contract, and then launch it to the Ethereum Sepolia testnet.

You’ll also be modifying an ERC-721 NFT contract, using Google’s Blockchain Node Engine to deploy your code, and then using BigQuery to monitor it. ERC-721 is a popular standard for NFTs, where each token belonging to the smart contract can be unique.

A. Write an NFT smart contract (see https://ethereum.org/en/nft/.) B. Receive testnet ETH from the Cloud Web3 Spolia Faucet C. Deploy to the Ethereum Sepolia testnet with Blockchain Node Engine https://cloud.google.com/blockchain-node-engine/ D. Monitor your contract using BigQuery and extract relevant insights

E. https://www.perplexity.ai/search/which-offers-the-best-rate-for-gZTQuIcRS6OqCkZ8jLForg

ENS, or Ethereum Name Service, is a decentralized naming protocol built on the Ethereum blockchain24. It translates long, complex cryptocurrency addresses into human-readable names, making it easier for users to interact with blockchain-based services23.

  1. Right-click on the “Open Cloud Console” to get the URL.
  2. Open an Chrome incognito or Firefox Private window.
  3. Paste the URL. Click “Next” to accept the Project ID embedded in the URL.
  4. Copy the Password and switch to paste in the “Enter the Password”.
  5. “I understand”.
  6. “I agree” and CONTINUE.
  7. Activate the Cloud Shell icon at the top of the Google Cloud console.
  8. Continue.

  9. “Got it!”

  10. gcloud auth list
  11. CLick Authorize
  12. gcloud config list project

  13. To install node.js https://nodejs.org/en/download/package-manager

  14. Menu “Compute Engine”.
  15. Click Connect “SSH” for popup “SSH-in-browser”. Authorize.
  16. Within the SSH-in-browser copy the SSH command and paste it into the terminal: 
    # installs NVM (Node Version Manager)
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.7/install.sh | bash

source ~/.profile

# download and install Node.js
nvm install stable

# verifies the right Node.js version is in the environment
node -v

# verifies the right NPM version is in the environment
npm -v

  17. Docs https://nodejs.org/en/download/package-manager

    Sepolia Faucet

    You need a small amount of Sepolia ETH to deploy your contract. Sepolia ETH is free, but it must be obtained from a public faucet.

  18. Switch to a browser to use the Cloud Web3 Sepolia Faucet

    https://cloud.google.com/application/web3/faucet

    to load testnet ETH on your Ethereum account for the Sepolia network.

    You need a small amount of Sepolia ETH to deploy your contract. Sepolia ETH is free, but it must be obtained from a public faucet.

  19. Select network “Ethereum Sepolia”.
  20. Switch to Metamask to copy the Wallet Address

  21. Switch to Google to paste it into its “Wallet address or ENS name” input field.

  22. Sign in using your Student Username such as student-00-da52787eb902@qwiklabs.net
  23. Next.
  24. Password.

  25. Click “Receive 0.05 Sepolia ETH” for “Drip in queue”, then “Drip complete”

  26. ADDED: In the SSH at the student folder: 
    npm --version   # 10.9.2
node --version  # v23.8.0

    v23.x is the “Current” at https://github.com/nodejs/Release QUESTION: So should “22.x” LTS be specified for use instead? Where?

  27. In the SSH at the student folder: 
    mkdir nft_codelab && cd nft_codelab
npm init
  28. Press Enter to accept “package name: (nft_codelab)”
  29. Press Enter to accept “Version: (1.0.0)”
  30. Press Enter to accept “description:
  31. Press Enter to accept “entry point: (index.js)”
  32. Type “npm run test” then press Enter to accept “test command:”
  33. Press Enter to accept “git repository:”
  34. Press Enter to accept “keywords:”
  35. Press Enter to accept “author:”
  36. Press Enter to accept “license: (ISC)”

  37. Press Enter to accept “Is this OK? (yes)”

  38. In the SSH at the student “nft_codelab” folder: 
    npm install hardhat
npx hardhat init
  39. Press Enter to “Create a JavaScript project”.
  40. ? Hardhat project root: ‣ /home/student-00-da52787eb902/nft_codelab
  41. ? Do you want to add a .gitignore? (Y/n) ‣ y
  42. ? Do you want to install this sample project’s dependencies with npm (@nomicfoundation/hardhat-toolbox)? (Y/n) ‣ y 
    npm install --save-dev "@nomicfoundation/hardhat-toolbox@^5.0.0"

  43. Give Hardhat a star on Github if you’re enjoying it! https://github.com/NomicFoundation/hardhat

  44. Install OpenZeppelin: 
    npm install @openzeppelin/contracts

  45. Click “Check my progress” for the green check icon.

  46. Create a Solidity (.sol) file in the contracts directory: 
    touch contracts/MyNFT.sol
vim contracts/MyNFT.sol
  47. The file below was customized:
    • {Collection-Name} to Collection-Name
    • {Collection-Symbol} to Collection-Symbol
    • {Max-Number} toHow many items in the collection would you like: Max-Number
    • {Max-Mint} Determine the max mint per user: Max-Mint
  48. Paste the following code into the MyNFT.sol file: ``` // SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT pragma solidity ^0.8.9;

import “@openzeppelin/contracts/token/ERC721/ERC721.sol”; import “@openzeppelin/contracts/access/Ownable.sol”;

contract Collection-Name is ERC721, Ownable { uint256 private _tokenIdCounter; uint256 public MAX_SUPPLY = Max-Number; // set max total supply uint256 public maxMintsPerUser = Max-Mint; // max mints per user

string public baseTokenURI;
mapping(address => uint256) private _mintsPerUser;

constructor() ERC721("Collection-Name", "Collection-Symbol") Ownable(msg.sender) {}

function mintTo(address to) public payable returns (uint256) {
    require(_tokenIdCounter < MAX_SUPPLY, "max NFTs already minted");
    require(_mintsPerUser[to] < maxMintsPerUser, "exceeded max");

    _tokenIdCounter++;
    _safeMint(to, _tokenIdCounter);
    _mintsPerUser[to]++;

    return _tokenIdCounter;
}

function setMaxMintsPerUser(uint256 maxMints) external onlyOwner {
    maxMintsPerUser = maxMints;
}    ``` 1. Save the file by pressing ":", then "wd" to confirm. 1. Click "Check my progress" for the green check icon.
  1. Compile your contract: 
    cd ..  # to nft_codelab folder.
npx hardhat compile

    FIXME: ``` WARNING: You are currently using Node.js v23.8.0, which is not supported by Hardhat. This can lead to unexpected behavior. See https://hardhat.org/nodejs-versions https://github.com/nodejs/Release

ParserError: Expected ‘{‘ but got ‘-‘ –> contracts/MyNFT.sol:7:20: | 7 | contract Collection-Name is ERC721, Ownable { | ^

Error HH600: Compilation failed

HardhatError: HH600: Compilation failed at SimpleTaskDefinition.action (/home/student-00-da52787eb902/nft_codelab/node_modules/hardhat/src/builtin-tasks/compile.ts:499:15) at Environment._runTaskDefinition (/home/student-00-da52787eb902/nft_codelab/node_modules/hardhat/src/internal/core/runtime-environment.ts:351:14) at OverriddenTaskDefinition._action (/home/student-00-da52787eb902/nft_codelab/node_modules/@typechain/hardhat/src/index.ts:28:30) at Environment._runTaskDefinition (/home/student-00-da52787eb902/nft_codelab/node_modules/hardhat/src/internal/core/runtime-environment.ts:351:14) at Environment.run (/home/student-00-da52787eb902/nft_codelab/node_modules/hardhat/src/internal/core/runtime-environment.ts:184:14) at SimpleTaskDefinition.action (/home/student-00-da52787eb902/nft_codelab/node_modules/hardhat/src/builtin-tasks/compile.ts:1428:63) at Environment._runTaskDefinition (/home/student-00-da52787eb902/nft_codelab/node_modules/hardhat/src/internal/core/runtime-environment.ts:351:14) at Environment.run (/home/student-00-da52787eb902/nft_codelab/node_modules/hardhat/src/internal/core/runtime-environment.ts:184:14) at SimpleTaskDefinition.action (/home/student-00-da52787eb902/nft_codelab/node_modules/hardhat/src/builtin-tasks/compile.ts:1508:7) at Environment._runTaskDefinition (/home/student-00-da52787eb902/nft_codelab/node_modules/hardhat/src/internal/core/runtime-environment.ts:351:14) ```

Enter the address of your ethereum account Click Receive tokens

  1. Run hardhat to compile, test, deploy, and interact with your NFT smart contract.

  2. Faucet

    The Google Cloud faucet provides web3 developers with free tokens for deploying, testing, and optimizing smart contracts on popular testnets like Holesky and Sepolia. A faucet is an app that dispenses free tokens on a testnet for experimentation, such as deploying smart contracts or debugging transactions. Testnet tokens have no real-world value and cannot be sold or used on the main blockchain network (like Ethereum mainnet).

    If you’re curious, you can track the transaction’s status using a blockchain explorer or an RPC endpoint for that specific testnet.

    https://discord.com/invite/gcp-web3-startup-program

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bensyn/overlay/experience/2155655858/multiple-media-viewer/?profileId=ACoAACt0uJQBoBjUlzj29imjXOox6fgV3S0R3Ac&treasuryMediaId=1721925671972

Bitcoin speculation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QpdU9LS540 [1:47:35] “RUIN: Money, Ego and Deception at FTX” by Bloomberg Originals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20BEJouWBgY [29:39] “The FTX Disaster is Deeper Than you Think” by ColdFusion

Promptmate.io

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wItCZX7Byp0 We Built A FREE Generative AI Full Course For Beginners - It Has Something No One Else Has

Blockchain developers

Etherium tools

https://remix.ethereum.org/

Non-Python Web3 Dev Platform

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3BKsliftXs Mint NFT’s in python using thirdweb.com supports APIs in Typecript, React, React Native, .NET, and Unity

Heymint

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz2_klXRDos&list=TLGGjMAIJilPzvMyMzAyMjAyNQ&t=1s https://www.loom.com/share/f2ea32dedb7d4e81b55821dfd33f760a HeyMint Launchpad ERC-721 Walkthrough https://heymint.xyz/blog/join-the-crew-our-nft-founders-community-awaits-you Curious Addys NFT project creators

https://nft-launchpad.heymint.xyz/?gad_source=5 https://www.youtube.com/@heymintxyz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0wdVjBY70Q “How To Create An Entire NFT Collection (10,000+) In Under 5 minutes Without Coding” by Autominter, a website for minting NFTs using a smart contract and a web3 wallet. generates png layers: background, body, hair, eyes, nose, mouth, and accessories. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k72aCI1VyKM

https://nft-launchpad.heymint.xyz/nft-art-generator?ph_id=019534d5-f15c-77e2-af0e-2b2b4cb9b64a