The history of minting has traditionally been associated with governments creating and stamping official currency.
Enter the blockchain, and the essence of minting has found a new life, helping create and permanently record the genesis of “something new” (not money) on a given distributed ledger. Initially, we minted fungible cryptocurrency tokens, the first of which was Bitcoin. Later, around 2018, artists and producers began minting millions of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), which they then sold to enthusiastic users.
With Web3 adoption now accelerating, minting is solidifying its place as a native action with an amazing array of versatile uses that will gradually challenge the widely used social media actions "Like," "Share," and "Subscribe."
While early Web3 adopters are taking minting like a duck to water, this concept has barely made a dent in the minds of Web2 users who represent a large target market.
The following table aims to demystify what minting is about, hopefully making the concept more comprehensible to a larger audience.
Intent | Benefit / Outcome | Examples |
Full Ownership | Full ownership of an NFT | That’s the most straightforward outcome of a mint action, and we got started. A given artist collection becomes available with a limited minting inventory, and they |
Partial Ownership | Supporting action | Supporting artists or creators by minting fractional ownership or right to their work either before the work is completed or after it is delivered. If done before availability, it’s like an advance, a micro-funding, or a Kickstarter-like support of sorts. |
Benevolent Donation | Patronage action | Users receive a certificate of support or a symbolic NFT as a proxy for having supported some work. You don’t receive anything of value in return, and there are no expectation of benefits, but you are supporting the creator by sending them some amount to support their work. |
Reward | Earn-to-receive | You’ve contributed toward something and therefore earned the right to mint (own) a given NFT, and sometimes you may receive a non-transferable token depicting that reward. |
Access Right | Token-gated content or services | If you own a given token or a certain quantity of it, you are granted automatic access to some gated content or work, after connecting your wallet to verify such credentials. It could be for a one-time access or ongoing membership access. |
Tipping | Good old tipping | Something impressed you, and you offered a tip in one click. There is no ownership of anything involved, but you are rewarding the creator with a symbolic token of your appreciation. |
Attestation | Permanent proof of something | Hey, I did this, and here’s proof of it that is permanently etched in the blockchain memory. For example, I’ve been using Receipts to track my fitness activity, and they let me mint (for free) the end-result of my running activity to-date (over a 6-week timeframe). Here’s an example of it below. |
The New Web3 Signal
Minting is destined to become a significant social signal in the emerging Web3 world. But it’s not just similar to a Like or a Share. Likes and Shares don’t cost you anything, and sometimes they are not even genuine. Minting signals have more “skin-in-the-game” or “sense of belonging”; and they will cost you something. Based on the above use case, one could argue they are more similar to a continuous Subscribe or “Support”.
We don’t stress over paying monthly fees for broadband Internet access, a premium ChatGPT service, or a given newspaper subscription. So why not acknowledge that being involved in blockchain will also entail a little monthly budget for minting this or that?
Eventually, the collection of our minting actions will form an interesting body of content, some of which will typify a permanent bookmark, a footprint, a journey, a memory, or a breadcrumb left behind.
It is now necessary for the rest of the world to comprehend minting.
As the cost of minting continues to drop to almost insignificant levels, the applications for minting are only beginning to be explored. The creativity of the avant-garde blockchain community—often referred to colloquially as the "Degens"—is boundless. As this community continues to experiment and innovate, we can expect to see minting applied in ever more creative and impactful ways, further cementing its role as a foundational action for Web3.
Without a doubt, minting will develop into a new social signal and an everyday pastime when browsing blockchain-oriented destinations. To see minting actions flow like a river, just visit Zora or Warpcast.
Soon enough, “what have you minted lately” will become a dinner table conversation.
