Best Ways to Get Free NFTs
NFT isn't just a concept surrounded by cryptocurrency. Being a hyped-up buzzword at the moment, the term itself brings to the table visions of wealth and new revenue streams for all sorts of artists. After all, Beeple and Crypto Punks tokens have been sold for a few million dollars each. The desire to buy or mint NFTs is high at the moment. Even though there is a lot of demand for NFTs, their high prices often indicate that they are not accessible to most people.
The worldwide popularity of NFTs started during the last few years. The trading volume of non-fungible tokens expanded in the third quarter of 2021 to Ş10.67 billion which represented an astonishing 704 percent increase from the previous quarter, according to 2021 research by the DappRadar platform.
Mostly associated with the art and gaming industry, the NFT market has expanded tremendously. If you are a newbie in the crypto world, understanding the whole concept may be confusing at first. This blog post is for people who are interested in obtaining NFTs for free and would like to know more about the concept itself. We'll cover:
- what is an NFT;
- the NFT market overview;
- best ways to obtain free NFTs; and
- what to watch out for.
What is an NFT?
If you are a frequent reader, you probably remember that we discussed NFTs several times in the past. Before getting down to explaining how to get free NFTs, we are going to refresh your memory about the meaning, purpose, and different types of NFTs.
The term NFT stands for non-fungible token. The main characteristics of NFTs are non-fungibility and proof of ownership. Fungibility means that one thing can be replaceable by another identical thing.
For example, fiat money and cryptocurrency are fungible because they are interchangeable, either physically or digitally. You can easily interchange US dollars with other genuine dollars, but that is not the case with NFTs. As the name suggests, NFTs are not fungible, meaning that they cannot be exchanged for an identical thing. They are unique in that way.
The second feature, namely the proof of ownership, determines the main purpose of NFTs. NFTs present a record of ownership over a certain, often digital asset. It can be illustrated as a digital receipt that shows when the item was bought, how much it cost, and where the item exists.
For example, a particular item can be stored within a block of data on a blockchain, a website URL or in the physical world. Therefore, NFTs are one of a kind with unique identifying codes.
It is important that you understand what an NFT is in the general sense. We have covered different types of NFTs in our guide to buying NFTs. According to most common uses, we may differentiate collectible art, sports collectibles, music NFTs, gaming NFTs, and as a proof of ownership over property.
NFT Market Overview
NFTs have been around ever since they have been introduced to the world and gained a lot of popularity throughout recent years. The NFT market is a competitive and innovative sphere. Since there are low barriers to entry, small players are enabled to create niche prospects and compete with one another and key players. However, similar to any other market, the market’s direction is dictated by established players.
Key drivers of the market are associated with the increased application and demand for non-fungible tokens. The demand for NFTs is continually growing in the digital artwork, music, gaming, and film industries as it provides a unique opportunity to remove intermediaries, simplify transactions and attract new consumers globally.
Even though we mostly associate NFTs with gaming and digital art, they promise a wide range of applications for divergent companies and sectors. For example, the NBA introduced its own token system for fans to immortalise their favourite moments in the form of cards.
The popularity of the NFT market was backed up by an increasing influence of celebrities aimed at NFT adoption, advancements in the gaming industry, and efforts of tech companies towards developing metaverses.
NFTs have played a crucial role in changing the market for digital assets. In the past, there was no way to separate the owner of a digital asset, for example, a piece of digital art, from someone who just saved a copy of the item to their computer.
Since markets cannot operate without precise property rights, NFTs solved the problem of digital assets. NFTs made it possible to build markets around novel types of transactions, namely for digital assets.
How to get free NFTs?
There are several ways to obtain free NFTs. The best and most common ways to get free NFTs are airdrops, community giveaways, playing games, breeding, and minting NFTs. We will now guide you through the process by explaining each way to get free NFTs separately.
Free NFT airdrops
The easiest way to obtain free tokens is to participate in NFT airdrops. Airdrops are when crypto projects distribute free NFTs directly into users’ wallets. The purpose of airdrops is, for example, to promote a particular project, expand the community, reward loyalty, and incentivise early adopters. NFT airdrops are a great tool for marketing or development efforts.
Companies tend to airdrop free NFTs periodically to users’ digital wallets over a specific period by predetermining a set number of native tokens. They are typically given to users who are involved in a particular crypto project in some manner such as being holders of specific tokens or participating in social media campaigns.
You can get free NFT airdrops just for being a holder of the right collection. For instance, BAYC did that to everyone that held a Bored Ape. The Bored Ape Yacht Club frequently uses the NFT airdrop tool for the purpose of hype-building. The Bored Ape Yacht Club is currently considered to be the world's most valuable NFT collection.
To participate in airdrops, you may sign up for airdrop alert newsletters or frequently look at social media accounts that promote them. There are community chats on Discord and Telegram about airdrops where you can get a lot of useful information. Follow Discord and Twitter profiles of major NFT creators and watch out for any announcements related to presales. They might often use terms like 'pregame' or 'star list' that are simply whitelist spots for presales.
What you need to know about airdrops
When you find out about an airdrop through, for example, social media channels, you have a short time to register. Check out the requirements and provide your wallet address to receive free tokens. Make sure that your digital wallet is NFT compatible before registering for the airdrop. Before taking part in NFT airdrops, you may be asked to take some extra steps such as following their social media.
NFT giveaways
Another way to get free NFTs is to keep an eye for free giveaways. When artists or platforms are promoting new NFT collections, they may announce via social media platforms such as Discord, Twitter, Reddit or Telegram that they are doing a free NFT giveaway.
Therefore, you should pay close attention to events announced on these social media channels. For example, search on Twitter for the #NFTGiveaway and you will find out how many Twitter accounts are open for free NFT giveaways. Signing up for mailing lists is also a good way to stay informed about upcoming giveaways or similar events.
Similar to airdrops, giveaways are a great marketing strategy for an NFT project. By giving them away, NFT projects and artists seek to promote themselves and establish a larger base of followers. Launching free NFT giveaways is a promotional tool for creators. For you it might be a great opportunity to acquire NFTs that might be valuable in the future for free.
You might be asked to take some extra steps to participate in a NFT giveaway as well. For example, you might be asked to tweet about a particular project, follow an account or create a YouTube video review.
Play-to-earn or NFT games
Another way to get free NFTs is to play games. Simple as that. A bunch of NFT-powered blockchain games allow you to receive free NFTs for completing tasks, winning battles against other players, or scoring a certain number of points.
For example, Axie infinity enables you to get free NFTs by winning battles while the Sandbox and Splinterlands allow gamers to do that via daily tournaments or quests.
Play-to-earn games (P2E) are an easy way for gamers to earn free NFTs. Such games encourage users to trade digital assets. In fact, they have been specifically designed to stimulate NFT trading and expand NFT adoption.
Watch out for upfront costs in P2E gaming
The only downside to getting free NFTs by playing games is the fact that some decentralised games generally require upfront purchases and NFTs to play. Spending some money upfront is usually for buying NFTs that will act as the game's characters. Even though upfront expenses make this way not accessible to everyone, the earning options can be worthwhile.
If you don't know where to start, you could follow top NFT gaming streamers on YouTube and Discord to find out which NFT games are currently popular in the market, and start playing these games to increase the odds of getting free NFT.
Breeding
Many games also offer another way to earn free NFTs through a process called breeding. In addition to obtaining NFTs in blockchain games by winning battles or completing quests, you may also engage in breeding. NFT breeding simply means that two tokens can be used to create more tokens. This way of acquiring free NFTs is used in popular games such as Axie Infinity or CryptoKitties.
Axie Infinity is a popular game where gamers can battle, collect and breed fantasy creatures known as Axies. Two Axies can produce another Axie that will have appearances and stats of its parents. When you find two Axies that are a good match, the game will generate an egg and after five days a new Axie will be born. Keep in mind that Axies can only breed up to seven times so you will have to keep track of how many offspring each of your Axies has produced.
CryptoKitties offers similar opportunities. Players use two of their kitties that represent two NFTs to make a third NFT. To breed two NFTs, you have to find compatible kitties. When you find two cats that are a good match, the game will generate another cat that contains the DNA of its parents.
Mint NFTs for free
To create a free NFT, you have to mint one on the blockchain and verify it as a non-fungible token. Minting generally means ‘to make’ something, in reference to creating a coin by stamping metal or producing something for the first time. Some crypto projects provide free NFT mints to get off their feet and attract users.
In relation to NFTs, minting basically refers to putting a token on the blockchain. It is also called tokenizing. For minting NFTs you need a unique digital file, an NFT marketplace, a digital wallet, and cryptocurrency to pay transaction fees.
The only downside to this way of getting free NFTs is that you need to pay a gas fee to mint an NFT. The fees are used to pay miners to hash the transaction and record it on the blockchain. Keep in mind that some blockchains may cost more than others.
The lure of earning and minting free NFTs is high. Even though it sounds like a pipedream, the growing NFT market with its low barriers to entry means that market players have to find interesting ways to attract users.
Keep in mind that the minted NFTs won't have any value. Its worth is subjective: it has a value if other people want to buy it. However, you can benefit from creating them in the long run.
Watch out for scams
You can earn free NFTs through a variety of means but you have to be cautious.
Unfortunately, there are many scams in the crypto world, especially in relation to airdrops and giveaways. As the NFT market expands, scammers are finding new and innovative ways. Most common scams include phishing, pump-and-dump scams, bidding scams, and counterfeit tokens.
Always do your own research and remain cautious. There are a few ways to protect yourself. For example, never give out your crypto wallet’s seed phrase or private key. Further, always check for the legitimacy of the crypto project by researching as much as you can about creators and the website so that you don’t connect your wallet to any suspicious site. If something is too good to be true, it probably isn’t true.