‘Mint’ or ‘minting’ is an important concept in the NFT space. It’s time to break down exactly what it means.
The Definition
To mint an NFT simply means to establish it on the blockchain. This is achieved via a blockchain transaction.
The Creator’s Perspective
As an NFT creator, you can either mint your own NFTs and sell them on to collectors, or you can set up your NFTs in a way that means that they are minted by the first buyer; this second method is know as lazy minting. Minting requires paying gas fees, so the lazy minting can save creators money, especially if they are releasing large collections. Creators can develop a minting dApp (decentralised application) and give buyers access via a website to mint their NFTs. Alternatively, creators can simply go to a website like Opensea, list their NFTs and sell them using the platform’s lazy minting functionality.
The Buyer’s Perspective
As a buyer, you can either mint an NFT as you buy it (i.e. the other side of the lazy minting outlined above) or you can buy an NFT that has previously been minted on a secondary marketplace.
Other Mint Meanings
When a new collection is released via a website dApp , you might hear this event described as the NFT drop or mint day. The time period within which users can mint the NFT is sometimes described as the mint window. In some cases users can pre-acquire an NFT that gives them early access to a collection, this is known as a mint pass. And that early minting access period for mint pass holders, or in some cases people who have applied to a waitlist, is known as a pre-mint.
