Diving into the Tezos NFT wave

And minting my first clean NFT on Objkt.com: “Tsara Awakens”.

As I’m new into the NFT space, I spent some time researching the various platforms and processes available out there. When it comes to minting a token on the Ethereum blockchain, I felt for Foundation and Sloika ❤. I find their community and curation incredibly powerful and truly valuable for artists like me who focus on NFT Photography.

However, as one does when familiarising themselves with a new space, I keep researching and iterating. And today, I’m very pleased to have minted “Tsara Awakens”, my first Clean NFT on the Tezos blockchain which I listed on Objkt.com.

The auction will be live for 7 days and has a reserve price of 700 ꜩ.

Why Tezos?

Tezos (XTZ) is a decentralised open source blockchain protocol that addresses key challenges standing in the way of blockchain adoption as we know it with Ethereum (ETH). It gained in popularity amongst the NFT community for 3 core reasons:

1. It’s (much) more energy efficient 💚

Minting an NFT on Tezos requires a drastically lower energy consumption compared to Ethereum. The energy used by the validators (also called “bakers”) of the Tezos network are in the range of c. 60MWh per year versus c. 100KWh for the Ethereum network. These numbers differ by a factor of several millions, which is staggering.

Ethereum Energy Consumption Worldwide from May ‘17 to Jan ’22. Source: Statista

TQ Tezos argues in this article that the energy cost of minting an NFT on Ethereum is estimated at 332kWh, and the similar cost on Tezos is estimated at 200mWh, or a factor of about 1.5 million.

2. It’s (really) affordable 👛

A huge advantage of minting an NFT on the Tezos blockchain are the cheap gas fees, which refer to the cost necessary to perform a transaction on the Tezos network and are worth a fraction of a Tezos. The economic distinction is astonishing when compared to Ethereum, for which the gas fees vary from $100 to $1000.

I paid a gas fee of $0.01 for minting “Tsara Awakens”. My wallet is in awe!

This makes Tezos an economically accessible blockchain for young and emerging artists that are thinking about digitalising their artwork.

But then, what really makes Tezos greener and cheaper?

The fact that it’s proof-of-stake. The consensus algorithm used to validate the cryptocurrency transactions vary from one blockchain to the other. On Tezos, this consensus is based on the proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism. On Ethereum, this consensus is based on the proof-of-work (PoW) mechanism. PoS blockchains don’t require miners to use heavy computational power in parallel processes (as they compete to solve the same puzzle, eventhough only one of them will win), and therefore allows networks to operate with substantially lower energy consumption. You can find a thorough explanation of those mechanisms in this article or that one.

The Motley Fool’s summary slide

3. It’s artist-friendly 👩‍🎨

Whilst my favorite Ethereum-based NFT marketplaces (Sloika & Foundation) take a 15% commission, Objkt has a 2.5% take rate on a successful transaction, which further reinforces the economic attractiveness of trying out Tezos-based NFTs.

Why Objkt?

First, let’s put together a view of what Tezos NFT marketplaces are out there in the wild:

Have I missed any?

If you’d like to get a more granular view, this articles compares the main features of most of these marketplaces. It is worth noting that although Rarible remains primarily an Ethereum-dominated platform, they integrated Tezos two months ago and thereby have exposed more creators and collectors to the benefits of clean NFTs.

Two names stand out from that landscape though: (i) **Hicetnunc and (ii) Objkt.**

(i) Hicetnunc actually has an interesting story. Early on, they emerged as the most popular Tezos-based NFT marketplace. In November 2021, in the midst of its peak and in an unsuspected move, its founder Rafal Lima decided to step back and pull the plug on the front end of his creation. But the smart contracts remained and Hicetnunc transitioned into a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO). From hicetnunc2000 to hDAO. More on this here.

(ii) I personally decided to list my clean NFT on Objkt for the following reasons:

• Firstly, I prefer the UX.
• Secondly, I like the various pricing strategies available. As a creator, you get the choice to list your NFT at a fixed price, a Highest Bid Auction or a Price Drop Auction.
• Last but not least, I like the broad spectrum that Objkt offers. They aggregate tokens from existing marketplaces like hicetnunc and Kalamint, but also support tokens minted on custom smart contracts (like “Tsara Awakens”, which I minted in a first collection named “The Chameleon Dreams”). This specific point feels relevant at this point in time. Whilst I had the opposite thought process when reviewing Ethereum-based marketplace, for which curation was a key criteria for me, I feel market maturity is different here. The Tezos movement is at an earlier stage: Objkt is a leading Tezos NFT platform and has 20k monthly users and $310k monthly transactions. Ethereum is way past that point with OpenSea having 470k monthly users and $4bn in monthly transaction volume. Optimising for more exposure right now feels appropriate.

If you’re also curious to take a sneak peak into Objkt’s upcoming features, here is their product roadmap.

I tried to keep it as concise as possible, but obviously this is a broad and complex topic which calls for spilling a lot of ink. Feel free to let me know if you’d like to read a more granular analysis of a particular topic from this space. I’m including further below a couple of resources which I found particularly insightful when educating myself on Tezos NFT.

If you feel like supporting the early days of my artistic journey, you can check out my various projects (both digital and IRL!) on **Linktr.ee/maguitte**. And if a specific photo inspires you, do share it!

✌️ 💚

Maguitte

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Helpful resources (non exhaustive list):

• Clean NFTs on Tezos, by TQ Tezos
• Cryptoart.wtf
• Tezos.art
• Tezos Foundation
• Tezos Basics, Economics and Rewards, by Opentezos
• Ethereum NFT activity, on Github
• How Much Energy Does An NFT Use? by NFT Explained
• Objkt FAQs, by objkt.com
• The Ultimate Guide to Tezos NFT Marketplaces, by Coin News24
• Beyond Hic et Hunc pt 1., Beyond Hic et Hunc pt 2., by NFTS Wtf
• The Problem of CryptoArt, by Joanie Lemercier
• Tezos NFT, by Tezos.com