Preparing our first NFT collection

[This is a translation of the original episode form the podcast in Spanish: Hacia el Internet del Valor]

This past weeks I have been preparing my first collection of NFTs for launch, and I thought that the best way to get back to my podcast, in this new year, could be sharing my experience. So here is the translation... finally.

As I have been explaining in previous episodes and articles, at this moment, NFTs are opening a brand new market. There are many new things being tested, and there are many opportunities for those pioneers who want to take some risks and learn on the go.

It’s not about making business with our most valuable pieces, unless we do it via intermediaries who are tech savvy… But wait, wasn’t all this journey about recovering the control of our artworks? Precisely. And we are in our way to achieve this. But, the technology needs a little more maturity. So far, professionals artists who want to test it can get started with a less valuable piece, with some drafts… If it’s well structured an NFTs campaign can be another source of incomes, that can help us develop other projects. For me, right now, it’s all about making our dApp, Smartists, a reality, and this may require funds that can be raised this way. This is also the way the Internet of a value is being built.

This is why, despite the present limitations, it is worth getting involved. Because minting NFTs can be the most interesting way to get informed and acquainted with that future better world for authors. And this is how I approached this adventure and decided that I had to launch my collection.

And I going to tell you here how I am doing it.

A collection of 365 Mirlos for Artists

First of all, I took a favorite character of mine, Mirlo, which has been an inspiration for me since I stated my career as an author. From that drawing, recently vectorized, I designed a series of simple images that could combine different layers. I started deciding on some backgrounds in different colors, the character of Mirlo, and some attributes, a beret, some headphones… This requires some ‘photoshop skills’ but not much more. Anyway, I only intended to make a series of digital collectibles, not to make Art masterpieces as such. Therefore, for my Mirlos (as I decided to call my NFTs) I thought a few more things that I have just started telling in our web mirlomusic.net.

Minting our NFTs on Stacks, secured by Bitcoin

We already have 365 Mirlos minted, and for that I used the marketplace stxnft. This platform makes it very easy to mint NFTs in Bitcoin, the most secure of blockchains, and for me this is very important. There are still some technical matters related to Intellectual Property and the decentralized storage of the underlying files that I think need to be improved. But this is something we will address in our app Smartists. Anyway, for now, I am ceasing the moment and embrace the adventure with the platform that look best for me in terms of trust and security. Here is the link: https://stxnft.com/

Planning how to communicate our NFTs campaing to our all time community

Once the NFTs have been minted, we will launch a contest to invite our community to discover this new world, and start using this new way of exchanging value on the web. We are going to do it in the easiest and playful way possible. To participate you will need to have a Stacks wallet, something that quite easy to get, but that requires some responsibility. About that I will bring more information in next episode.

Next step: a dedicated website and Discord server

We need to grow a community for Mirlo Music on the web3 as we realize that most long time followers of our story may not follow us into the Internet of Value.

So far, you can see how we are designing these MIRLOS on MirloMusic.net. And in our next article I will tell you about our dedicated website and also about how to get started with your wallet… This way, I will go on sharing this process with more news about our MIRLOs.

This year will bring new experiences, that we can share and enjoy to look at the future positively. As Mirlo says “We need to find new ways to keep cultivating our inner garden”, and this can just be another one.

You don’t want to miss that!

Georgina & Mirlo, Mirlo Music