Minting Unlimited NFTs On-Chain with DFINITY's Internet Computer Protocol
ICP can facilitate minting Unlimited NFTs On-Chain leveraging the protocol's indefinite scaling on-demand.
Internet Computer can mint unlimited NFTs entirely on-chain, making them super composable and secure. Ironically, it is heavily underrated because no one understands how it works, except the hardcore enthusiasts and developers.
So What is an NFT?
NFT is a unique immutable data stored on-chain, that can be programmed through the world computer.
This definition sounds erratic and simple, but it barely encapsulates what NFTs are capable of. Right now the NFT scene on Ethereum is dominated by Monkey JPEGs and other brands.
All .ETH names on ENS are ERC721-compliant NFTs - brantley.eth
Therefore, ENS has to be one of the earliest and most used NFTs of the Ethereum blockchain, Right...?
So let’s just pretend that Ethereum doesnt exist for 5 minutes and dive right into minting unlimited NFTs on ICP.
Canisters are the Next Generation of Smart Contracts that Serve Web
In Internet Computer Protocol, the smart contracts are called Canisters - they are a box of awesome codes [WASM Bytecode] & memory pages, that can be interactive while serving the web browser of users directly.
Canisters can be charged with cycles by devs, which is basically computation gas and is a stablecoin pegged to XDR (a currency by IMF derived from a basket of currencies/fiat). At the time of writing, 1 XDR = $1.33.
Burn ICP to get Cycles equal to $ burned. 1 Trillion Cycles are always equal to 1 XDR. These are stable coins backed by computation.
So think of ICP as coal, the cycles can be compared to electricity, and canisters can be compared to electronic devices. Then the wallet that holds the cycles becomes a battery device?
You burn coal to generate heat → you get electricity → this electricity is used to power our everyday devices and electronics.
We don’t pay the electricity bill or the coal bill every time we open and use our devices. That’s kinda how ICP’s reverse gas model works. Users won’t need tokens upfront to interact or use a smart contract.
Storing data and smart contract computations consume and burn the cycles. So you can host 1 GB of data on the Internet Computer Blockchain for just 5$/year. This cost is almost comparable to cloud hosting such as AWS.
You can create anything as an NFT on ICP, for example - documents, files, images, videos, full games, game items, characters, etc.
You could equip the NFT helmet to your NFT Character of the game on-chain, i.e. wearing one token on another - the magic of on-chain hosting.
True Metaverse is only possible on the Internet Computer and building takes time. Once more decentralized tools are available, I think we will see a lot of participants creating NFTs.
Each Marketplace has its own token standard, & there will be more later, now they are less interoperable
To create an NFT collection - say a collection of 5000 PFP collection, you have to
Create art, get layers, generate 5k or generate on-chain {some token standards do that}.
Utility: Literally anything, the Metaverse is limited by our imagination. You can create a game, a social club, breedable dogs, etc.
Build a Community.
Community, because Metaverse is the people intertwined on-chain leveraging immutable tokens for fun? or work meetings? hahaha, what's a calendly lol.
Building tons of protocols leveraging tech in a fun way is a bonus tho because everything on-chain = is super composable & secure. Creating unique digital experiences for people will further add value to the tokens.
To get started, you need to deploy/upload 2 "Canisters" - the box where you put magic stuff on IC
The Canister that keeps track of ownership/transfer.
Another Canister for Metadata/Assets - The Artwork.
Then get whatever Canister for whatever feature you want, deploy and go global instantly, the power of permissionless innovation.
Canisters can be written in any language that compiles into webassembly. “Internet Computer Blockchain embraces Web Assembly”
Important to note that dapps on ICP are distributed applications until they are decentralized, either by making them immutable or assigning them to an on-chain governance DAO.
This is due to the flexible mutability of the Canisters. Storing and reading data from IC blockchain means storing and reading data from the canisters.
Now, these PFP collections just barely scratch the surface of ICP NFTs, because - Unlimited NFTs - remember? One can build Enterprise solutions and services leveraging only Internet Computer Protocol and NFTs.
Origyn Protocol is already doing this by building protocols to track the provenance of physical goods using NFT fingerprinting with AI and High-resolution scanning.
Gas free to end-users, always. Users don’t need tokens to use Internet Computer Blockchain. Smart Contracts pay for their computation themselves.
You can use NFTs to authenticate/verify literally anything like tickets to a concert - enable geo-staking for extra rewards?? A digital fingerprint of luxury goods {see Origyn}? Authenticate shipping containers? Bye Excel and traditional databases?
Music NFTs? yes, on-chain! - Check this out - P2J Music NFT streaming directly from the Internet Computer Protocol.
In the end, the dapps and the projects that enable maximum interoperability and value creation will create the most extensive and the largest network effects. That’s what ENS did, I guess.
Right now, there are only two decentralized NFT protocols building on the Internet Computer.
They are pretty dope, if you have time check them out. That’s the end of the article. Let me know what you think in the comments or on my Twitter.
I also set up my ICNS.id - ENS variant of ICP.
Check my link page on-chain - https://catpirate.icp.page.